High gas prices, no baby formula: What do voters do when it seems everything is broken?
Republicans want the midterm elections to be about inflation, the border and what they see as the Biden administration’s across-the-board ineptitude.
Democrats hope to make it about abortion rights and other social issues, along with extremism on the right.
But with less than six months to Election Day, there’s a bigger narrative forming, one that neither can control: Nothing works anymore, and no one knows how to fix it.
The wealthiest country on earth can’t guarantee the food supply for its babies. The biggest energy-producing state (that’s us) can’t be sure the lights will stay on during record heat.
You need a mortgage to buy gas, but hey, it’s not like you could use it on a house in this overheated market anyway. Everyone has a beef with the schools, whether it’s teachings about race, poor academic achievement or how many cherries come in the fruit cup at lunch.
From the Supreme Court to the school board, there’s a sense that our institutions can’t keep up with society’s needs. And the idea that anyone in government can fix any of it? Yeah, right.
It all adds up to a desire for a significant change in direction. That usually means trouble for the party in power in Washington. Certainly, Democrats losing control of the House and perhaps the Senate is still the likeliest outcome.
In Texas, that probably means more of the same, though a new poll finds voters here unhappy with the direction the state is headed. If the AC goes off in the next three months, all bets are off.
Even if they throw one set of bums out yet again, how many voters actually think the other bums can address our problems? Republicans are not exactly brimming with specific policy proposals. As their primaries play out across the country, the biggest talking point is whom Donald Trump likes the most, which means an unending focus on the 2020 election — in other words, not the troubles of the present or future but the grievances of the past.
If Republicans win, it’s not likely they or the White House will suddenly be swept with a spirit of compromise. In essence, the 2024 campaign will start before the 2022 results are counted.
And when was the last time anything significant got done while we were fighting over who should be president?
Editor’s note: A version of this originally appeared in our opinion newsletter, Worth Discussion. It’s delivered every Wednesday with a fresh take on the news and a roundup of our best editorials, columns and other opinion content. Sign up here.
