Last night, America decided to surrender. The two biggest issues facing us are inequality and climate change. America voted for a party that explicitly says they will do nothing about either. In fact, they seem to believe that it is against their principles to even acknowledge that these issues are problems. The whole idea of society working together to deal with problems or make use of opportunities has been abandoned. It's every person for themselves.
How else can we explain how a corrupt oligarch like Rick Scott or an extremist like Joni Ernst can be elected?
It is not just Republican voters that have surrendered. The majority of eligible voters did not even bother to show up. The people in charge of most Democratic campaign strategy were so timid that in many cases there was no Democratic message to vote for.
Why has our country surrendered? There are many reasons, I can only guess at some of them. Some people think in terms of a zero-sum society, and anything anyone else gets means less for them. So they act like people on an overcrowded lifeboat, ready to jettison some people so that they have more. Some people respond to a primitive feeling for tribalism, often defined by race or religion, and want their tribe to rule over the other tribe. Some people can't penetrate the fog of repeated messaging to cause fear, messaging funded by wealthy would be oligarchs. We end up with people thinking that a vote for a Democrat will result in hordes of Isis fighters invading their town and giving them Ebola. Some people can tolerate less security if they think that there are people still worse off that they can feel superior to, or that America can attack and frighten.
Maybe the ultimate reason is that in our ultra-complex society people feel bewildered and lost when things go wrong.
The biggest question in my mind is how much long term damage will be done before the situation improves. Progressive advances in American life have come during short bursts. After the Civil War slavery was ended and the Bill of Rights was extended to state governments. During the first Franklin Roosevelt administration labor unions were enabled and Social Security started. In the two years after John F. Kennedy was assassinated the civil rights bills and Medicare were passed. In the brief period after Obama took office with a Democratic Congress the Affordable Care Act was passed. When the next such interval will come is unknowable. But it will only happen if we stop surrendering as a society.