In the last 5 to 10 years everything seems to suck: product’s and services quality plummeted, everything from homes to cars to food became really expensive, technology stopped to help us to be something designed to f@ck with us and our money, nobody seems to be able to hold a job anymore, everyone is broke. Life seems worse in general.
Why? Did COVID made this happen? How?
Because we elect people who promise things. Then incumbency bias takes over.
(This is not US centric. There were a lot of promises in the 1920s worldwide, too.)
Edit: The only solution I can see (and it’s regrettably too slow to tip back the suck gracefully) is routine, vigorous primaries. Do you see how bad those adjectives suck together, “routine and vigorous”? Plus primaries are a snooze-fest.
I dream to see 60% engagement in primaries. And I mean for Congress. Was your congressperson challenged at the primaries? Yes? Did you weigh the arguments or just hope those primary voters know what they are doing?
No? Were they perfect? Or did they know the primaries would not be engaging enough to unseat them?
The establishment will say “no one comes out of a primary smelling pretty”. But people that come out of a primary should have their plans defended. The promises made should be what the people of the party like best, not what they think will run best against people who can’t agree with the party about who gets human rights. (See how I snuck in a both sides phrasing.)
Sorry for being a bit of keyboard warrior.
It is totally OK to be a keyboard warrior. Where else would we be warriors?
I just hate the solution. It’s unfeasible. And just words. No actionables. But keyboard warrior is better than tongue biter.