Noodling Around: A More Perfect Union (Part 1)

Steaming hot noodles

In what seems like a lifetime ago, back in January of 2014, I posted this quote from President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. 

We owe it to the American people to say what we're for, not just what we're against.

He was talking about Republicans and their then forty votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act; his point was that if they had ideas to make it better, to save money, or whatever, they should tell us what they'd do differently. But the truth is, he could have been talking about any bill, idea, plan, or pipe dream.

We see this all the time, the things everyone's against: the Dems are opposed to ABC if the Rs are for it, and the Rs are totally against XYZ if that's what the Dems support. And what makes thing worse? The American people probably have different priorities than the people we elect do - and we agree on them. 

It's true: polls have long shown there's agreement on what needs fixing, even if there are dozens of ideas on how to fix what ails us. And with people on both sides of the aisle unhappy with each other and with their own parties, with extraordinarily thin majorities in both chambers,  and with folks even arguing about what unity means, how on earth is anything going to get done?

I've been doing some noodling around on this for a while now. To me, the first step is to figure out what's important to us - to the majority of us, not just the loudest yellers. All we know for sure is, what matters most to the politicians (i.e., staying in office while amplifying the voices of the yellers) doesn't seem to jive with what most of us want for ourselves, our families, our neighbors, or even for perfect strangers.

The folks at Pew Research did a poll last summer, the results of which are shown here, to see what issues registered voters thought were "very important to their vote" in the 2020 election. 

Looking at the chart, I can't help thinking how most of the issues could have been identified by people from both parties, and from the officially unaffiliated middle, which is where you'll find me. And while we don't know why these issues are very important, we know that they are, and that there's a lot of common ground here; nine of the twelve garnered at least 50% mention.

There's another survey, from Gallup, asking us what's the "most important problem facing the country today." In February's poll, economic issues made up 16%, while non-economic stuff accounted for 84%. No single problem got even 30% mention.

The high scorers? Coronavirus/diseases (26%); the government/poor leadership (19%); race relations/racism (10%); the economy in general and unifying the country (8% each); and unemployment/jobs (5%).

The decline in ethics, morality, religion, and families (4%) scored higher than immigration and climate change, at 3% each. The deficit/debt, healthcare, crime/violence, the judicial system/courts/laws, and the media all scored at only 2%.

Thinking about these two surveys, about the 'great divide' between the political parties, and about the similar divide we're told we live in outside the beltway, I've got some questions:

• What are the things elected officials are focused on? 
• Do their areas of focus align with ours?
• If not, why not?

Let's talk - chime in.