The Era of Our Discontent

Was Katrina the straw that broke America’s back?

The first decade of our new millennium is becoming one of our country’s most turbulent – ever. We entered 2001 (the millenium’s real start) with a contested presidential election, where the Supreme Court needed to intervene and the candidate who received fewer votes ended up as the winner. Although the procedure adhered to the Constitution, many cried fraud and never recognized the president as our leader.

Then we entered into one of the steepest and deepest recessions in modern times, with millions losing their jobs. The stock market crashed and crashed again, wiping out billions in savings. Many had to defer retirement or come out of it altogether. College savings and 401Ks were decimated, and the market has yet to fully recover. Some industries like technology and marketing were utterly squashed, with once-successful companies folding overnight.

September 11 was one of the worst days in our country’s history, and ushered in terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism as the evil of our age, just as communism was for our parents and the Third Reich was for our grandparents. We had lived in relative peace without an enemy since the Berlin Wall fell. The attacks ushered in a new war for our times and fear re-entered the American psyche, where it continues to lurk. This was not a battle between soldiers on the battlefield – this was a battle with a culture of death that wants us utterly destroyed and could strike anywhere and at anytime.

Corporate malfeasance and fraud at Enron, Worldcom, HealthSouth, Adelphia, Tyco and scores of other companies brought down Fortune 100 giants. The public’s attitude toward big business changed as well – from respect to suspicion and mistrust. Corporate earnings and governance remain under a cloud and the public is almost inured to seeing corporate fines, layoffs and other mismanagement as the market remains flat.

Then we invaded Iraq. It’s your call whether this war was a necessary battle to oust the world’s worst dictator and bring democracy to the Middle East to flank our war on terror, or an oafish attempt by a misguided leader on a personal vendetta who was relying on faulty intelligence. But one thing is universally accepted: Iraq is a mess right now. Anarchy has engulfed the region and there are not enough troops to quell it. The military brass totally flubbed, if not outright ignored, how the country would be remade. There was never a Marshall Plan for Iraq and it shows. Most tragically, American troops and innocent Iraqis who want to help rebuild are dying there. The administration’s Iraq misdirection and the rising fatality list are rapidly undercutting support for the war at home.

And the last year has seen two horrific natural disasters – the tsunami in Asia that killed over 200,000 and Hurricane Katrina, which leveled and flooded the cities of New Orleans and Biloxi. Katrina once again displayed bureaucratic overlapses, as local, state and federal officials completely bungled repeated efforts to either repair levees in advance or administer aid afterward, both of which likely condemned the city and its residents. The damage to Louisiana’s refineries caused gas prices, already sky high to begin with, to record breaking heights at over $3 and $4 a gallon with no relief in sight.

When you look at the president’s paltry approval rating, consumer confidence index and the country’s overall psyche after riding through the last five years, it’s apparent we are entering a character crisis. Not an energy crisis or recession, but a crisis of confidence where American optimism is eclipsed by resentment and unease. The terrible performance by all levels of government in New Orleans could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back – a breakdown of faith in our infrastructure and overall direction of how America should be.

Unlike September 11, when our country united in strength and bipartisanship, the country now posts a sinking morale by the cumulative effects of the events described above. While some were unavoidable and some were not, how the government reacted to each one has led to a growing disgust that the government cannot protect its citizens or execute imperative needs – winning the war in Iraq, saving lives in New Orleans, getting gas prices under control and so on.

I believe we are now in the midst of one of the darker periods in our history, similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the so-called “National Malaise” of the 1970s. Like those decades, Americans are currently under a cloud of doubts about an uncertain future and the national optimism is tempered by an ugly reality and faith in the government to help or protect us. You can sense a simmering beneath a surface, like when a teakettle is about to boil and let a torrent of steam out.

I don’t think there will be mass riots and upheaval like the 1930s and 1970s, but public backlash from both eras did generate massive changes in the political system. The Great Depression brought a governmental revolution in Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, and the counterattack of the Seventies delivered Ronald Reagan and the resulting era of conservatism. Both men were dynamic leaders who made America stronger and restored faith in the government and confidence in the American people.

It’s far too early to predict the 2006 elections, let alone 2008. But whichever party produces a candidate that delivers a whole new message of self-reliance, optimism and independence from the status quo has got a head start.

More info:

Ether Zone: Katrina and the End of Illusions -http://www.etherzone.com/2005/raim090705.shtml

Jim Lehrer – Politics After Katrina (transcript) –
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/july-dec05/bop_9-2.html