Election Indignation

I would rather remain with my unavenged suffering and unsatisfied indignation, even if I were wrong.

Dostoevski (1821-1881), Brothers Karamazov

Even if I am wrong, I believe indignation will drive midterm election results. Voter indignation is strong displeasure at political and economic results deemed unworthy, unjust or base. The elections will reflect righteous indignation at what’s happening to the world and to themselves.

In the U.S. results will signify indignation of the middle class, who will express their displeasure at the collapse of their incomes, at the redistribution of their wealth and health benefits, at their inability to find good jobs, at the rising income inequality between the middle and upper classes, at the perceived favoring of the non-white minorities over the white majorities, and at governmental incompetence.

It will be indignation that accounts for white men and married women voting Republican. It is indignation that drives the Tea Party. It is indignation for the white middle class being called bigots for defending the police, for being offended for calling for voter ID, for being accused of conducting a war on women, for calling the IRS targeting of conservatives scandalous, for questioning the handling of Benghazi, the Iraq withdrawal, the ISIS victories, the lack of an Ebola travel ban.

In health care, it is indignation about health plan cancellations, broken promises about keeping your doctor and health plan, rising premiums, soaring deductibles, and omnipresent co-pays, the botched federal health exchange website, the negative affect of ObamaCare on full-time hiring, difficulties in finding doctors that will accept you or your health plans.

The list goes on. It is not fun being called prejudiced when you are down and out and concerned about providing for yourself and your family because of your social class or the color of your skin.

Right now the tunnel is dark. But there is light at the end of it. With the election and events beyond, illumination will come. Economic growth will resume, the Keystone Pipeline will flow, gas prices and heating costs will drop, tax reform will occur, Ebola will be contained, ISIS will be slowed, politicians are both sides of aisle will learn lessons, civil wrongs will be righted, and the magic of the American brand of capitalism will continue to attract the huddled masses and lighten their health and economic burdens.

I may be wrong , but as an optimist I see the doughnut, not the hole. I predict the bright lights of imagination and innovation will put indignation in the shade, where it belongs.