Americans have historically led private lives, but the escalating problems of today’s hog-tied democracy require public conversations.
The Washington Post recently ran an article about John Stewart, an older man who works at the Philadelphia International Airport escorting passengers in wheelchairs. Stewart’s job pays $5.25 per hour, plus the occasional tip. “I’m glad I don’t have a family because if I had a family, man, we’d be hit,” Stewart said.
Stewart brings home about $600 most months after accounting for taxes and unpaid sick days. He pays a friend $400 per month to live in her basement and typically buys a candy bar for lunch. His skin flakes from psoriasis, a condition he cannot afford to treat. “I can’t save money to buy the things I need to live as a human being,” Stewart said.
Politicians have vocalized the belief that “anyone,” even people like Stewart, “can make it in America.” This is a sentiment that increasingly falls on the ears of a deaf public. It is a public deafened by the unkept promises of the past decade; a public that has patiently listened to the justifications of foreign wars and bailout packages while its poorest 40 percent of workers have seen their average household incomes fall by more than 10 percent since 2000.
As our welfare state becomes the source of worldwide ridicule, Republicans and Democrats continue to argue for gradualist policies that preserve an unfulfilling status quo. Paltry Congressional approval numbers punch line countless political jokes while books titled The Unwinding and Republic Lost line a New York Times Bestseller list that doubles as a democracy’s guide to citizen self-help.
I don’t expect all college students to participate in politics, but it saddens me when college students evade political discussions in an effort to avoid confrontation. Conducted with careful listening and genuine care, conflict is not inherently damaging to a healthy relationship. Disagreements enable the mutual development of compromises to overcome shared problems. The greatest danger to a relationship, as our University Housing Roommate Agreements succinctly describes, is to “wait until things build up inside of you and/or get out of hand.” With each successful escape from a difficult conversation, we procrastinate closer to our political system getting out of hand.
Our democratic republic’s authority is derived from its citizens. When citizens refuse to participate in conversations about the public good, they forfeit their constitutionally endowed powers to establishments that have proven themselves incapable of acting in the best interest of the American people.
At some point during our private lives, it’s necessary to ask what responsibility we owe to one another as Americans. To expect our politicians in Washington to resolve their differences while we carefully skirt around disagreements on our campus and in our families is not just hypocritical — it is an injustice to the integrity of our democracy.
Changing Washington D.C. starts with changing the expectations we set for ourselves.
