This is midterm week and all my regular routines are upset. I have a two hour break until a meeting so I’m taking advantage of that to write. This week we have short schedules, each class is 0nly 20 minutes, enough time to take attendance and maybe a problem or two. Then there’s a two hour midterm block. We don’t proctor our own midterm. Today I was proctoring ELA. Does anyone my age know what ELA is? That’s English Language Arts. This is bureaucratese, There’s a perfectly good word that everyone knows and that is self-explanatory, but they choose to create a term of art. It’s ironic that this example of bad communications rears its head in the topic where students learn to communicate. George Orwell and Edwin Newman are rolling over in their graves. I highly recommend reading Orwell’s Politics and the English Language and Newman’s On Language.
Enough about me. Today I want to talk about politics. This might come off as being a plea to vote Democratic this election but there’s a greater point that goes beyond it, and could be used as a rational type of argument to vote Republican. There is a term of art that means exactly what I mean, salience, the quality of being particularly noticeable or important; prominence. As a voter what should be salient to you.
History has shown that inflation, especially the price of gasoline, has a large effect on how people vote. That is one of the biggest reasons the Democrats are having problems now. A rational and well-informed voter would not consider the price of gas when deciding how to vote. It’s not that the price of gas is not important, it’s that the government has very little to no control of how high it is except for the amount paid in gas tax. That is not the element of the price that has gone up so much. The price of gas is set on an international market. It has gone up around the world for various reasons. People will hold the price against Biden and Democrats but they shouldn’t. It’s gone up around the world. Biden is not making the price go up in foreign countries, but they are.
The government’s actions do affect core inflation which leaves out the volatile gas and food prices, but controlling that is mainly the job of the Federal Reserve but even they have to fight huge externalities they have no control over. That’s why most of the world is suffering from high inflation now. The US economic stimulus is not why prices in Great Britain are going through the roof.
The reason inflation shouldn’t be salient goes beyond it not being the fault of the current administration. The Republicans are not suggesting anything that would ease inflation. As usual they want to raise taxes which is inflationary. They want to cut back on clean energy and leave us just as dependent on the chaotic cost of fuels as we are now.
So what should be salient, things that are in the government’s control. Back in June when the Dobb’s decision was announced, reversing Roe v. Wade the Republicans took a hit. That effect has faded as voters concerned returned to the pocketbook issue of inflation. That change in priorities is not wise. If the Republicans win it won’t affect inflation, as things regress to the mean the most likely thing is that inflation will fall. If it doesn’t the Fed will take action, which will be the same no matter who is in office, unless the GOP gets even Trumpier and interferes with the Fed doing their job.
What will be different is the lives of women across the country. The pro-life leaders are chomping at the bit to make even stronger anti-choice laws. McConnell has made it clear that he will block Biden’s judicial appointments if the GOP controls the Senate. The judiciary will become even more reactionary. Other rights we thought established will fall. These things make a huge difference and are totally dependent on the outcome of the elections,
We must make it clear that we understand how bad inflation is. Progressives are supposed to understand accepting other people’s pain. We must make it clear that we aren’t saying that inflation isn’t important, that we will do everything we can to help with it, but to understand there is no simple solution. There is a simple solution to ensuring the rights of women, gays, minorities, and disadvantaged voters. We focus on the problems we can do something about while not dismissing the ones we can’t.
If those rights are important to you, vote Democratic even if you have issues with the party. The choice is between getting some of what you want and getting nothing that you want. It’s the same idea, salience.
It’s the idea of the serenity prayer, accept the things we cannot change and change the things we can.
Wise Madness 