Once upon a time, the world around us moved at a modest pace. There were no fancy smartphones, laptops, E-ZPass, car navigation systems or ATMs. People bought daily newspapers and magazines to keep up with the universe. But that was then, and this is now. The changes of the past 10 years will be nothing compared with the next 10.
Not only is our daily lifestyle changing; so too is our politics. We’ve lived with good government and bad, but most of us have been too busy to try to change it. We elect people and hope they’ll do the right thing. In some cases it works, and in other cases it’s a dismal failure. But now, like it or not, there are millions of people out there who have no desire to be spectators, and want their government to pay more attention to their needs.
One of our friends recently complained that America seemed to be turning to socialism. There’s no doubt that a few of the newly elected members of Congress lean heavily to the left, but the vast majority of them got elected last fall on a platform of making government work. The voting public is tired of empty promises, and is demanding that politicians start delivering on their pledges.
Let’s start with health care. The dream of every American is to have access to a high-quality, affordable health system. For six years, the national Republican Party used every trick in the book to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. They came dangerously close to making that vendetta a reality, but thanks to the late Sen. John McCain, they failed. The Republicans promised to protect pre-existing conditions, but they failed to pass one bill that would have given Americans the assurance of adequate coverage. It took a historic 2018 election to teach them that health care, like Social Security, is the third rail of American politics, and if you mess with it, you’ll soon be out of office.
The next new movement deals with our tax laws. The tax bill that President Trump signed into law in 2017 was promoted as a middle class tax cut, but that turned out to be a lie. There’s no doubt that the mega-donors to the Republican Party have benefited greatly from the changes, but the average citizen is stuck with the bill. The elimination of the deduction for state and local taxes is hurting millions of New Yorkers, and many other taxpayers around the country are paying more taxes instead of getting refunds.