The 2022 midterms show us that our country is ailing
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, campaigns for New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin at a rally, Saturday in Hauppauge. Credit: AP/Julia Nikhinson
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared in Hauppauge Saturday to headline a rally for Lee Zeldin’s gubernatorial run, he highlighted a movement, and a moment, in a society where it’s increasingly clear something is badly fractured.
The movement has its roots in Barack Obama's presidency, its spurring of the tea party, and a GOP that too often hitches its wagon to charlatans pushing conspiracy.
DeSantis and Zeldin joined that wave at the outset, served in the House together, and have been strong supporters of Donald Trump.
Watching video of Zeldin’s rally, hearing the thousands-strong throng cheer, evoked the 2016 election, when I attended a packed, pumped Trump rally while Hillary Clinton struggled to gather a few hundred fans.
What are we to make of this moment? After 12 years of wonderment at the Republican Party’s attraction to ideas and behaviors that previously had no place in American politics, some lefties in New York are feeling an attraction to the GOP, or at least anger toward the Democratic Party.
That’s not surprising when you consider that the Democrats are approaching politics and policy with the verve and courage of beaten puppies, but it’s an inexplicable moment: The Republicans manage to run in opposition to everything Democrats stand for, and Democrats can't effectively explain or justify what that is.
Lee Zeldin could become governor of New York.
And regardless of whether he wins, the discontent of Americans who frequently despise one (or both) parties, revile Congress, and believe by a three-to-one margin that the country is headed in the wrong direction, must be addressed.
Something is badly wrong in the United States. The harebrained and uninspiring behavior of both parties is more symptom than cause.
American society is as prosperous and comfortable as humans have ever been, bolstered by full employment, free of war, past the worst of the pandemic, drowning in entertainments, indulged with unparalleled personal freedoms — and everything feels miserable and hopeless.
Deaths from suicide and drug overdoses have skyrocketed. The percentage of people suffering from depression, anxiety, anorexia and bulimia, and every imaginable mental illness is catastrophic.
And the problem hides behind the “issues.” It’s not bail reform confounding us, but waves of Americans contending with mental illness, addiction, homelessness, and yes, the urge to commit crimes. It’s not fentanyl polluting our drug supply that’s confounding us, it’s the need of so many Americans to live high. It’s not the monstrous driving, but the lack of care for how that endangers others. It’s not the increase in shoplifting, but that shoplifters believe they can steal and stores and cops don't believe they can stop them.
What ails us is not political, so momentum pinballs between parties devoid of answers.
What ails us is that we’ve become a country of "I" rather than “we,” a country isolating with smartphones rather than gathering around pianos, radios or televisions, a country that traded family meals in the dining room for Uber Eats in the bedroom.
What ails us is the diminishing of institutions and laws and customs that corralled us toward socially acceptable and responsible behavior.
What ails us is unlimited options, paired with minuscule self-control. It turns out we have little talent for being responsible sans guardrails.
Our nation is a bit lost. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have a plan to return us to the path. We have movements. And we have moments.
But no answers.
Columnist Lane Filler's opinions are his own.
Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
