If you haven’t yet confronted headlines declaring 2019 a dumpster fire, a trash heap or some similarly overworked, refuse-related noun, keep your eyes peeled; they will find you sooner than later. And when they do, don’t buy into them.
Every year has its ups and downs, of course, and it’s not every day that tussles in Washington boil over into a solemn impeachment vote. The country was far from its best this year, but Washington headlines don’t spell out the whole story. One must look beyond the Beltway to perceive the average American’s experience.
It’s pretty good, as it turns out. While a scant 28% of U.S adults believe the country is on the right track, according to an Ipsos poll released earlier this month, at least 67% are satisfied with the direction of their communities, and a full 87% say their personal lives are on the right track.
Civil society could hardly receive a more full-throated endorsement. Washington’s actions and antics, necessary though they may be, don’t often resonate with the soul of the American people. The Capitol is not where neighbors and friends, brothers and sisters sit down to eat dinner, watch a high school football game or weed a widow’s yard. It’s where the government convenes to hash out ways to make American ideals work for the average citizen. Only, most Americans wish that work happened closer to home.
According to a Cato Institute survey earlier this year, nearly three-fourths of respondents say that “even if government were to ‘spend whatever is necessary’ to eliminate poverty … it doesn’t ‘know enough’ about how to actually accomplish that.”
Additionally, according to an Axios Harris poll, Americans believe the U.S. government is “the least respected and trustworthy company in America.”
Washington, in other words, isn’t a great role model. Why not let civil society ease the burden?
An armada of churches, clubs, rec centers, schools, PTA boards and private charities already do much of what many wish Washington could, except they do it more efficiently and with regard for individual circumstances.
But the more society looks to government, the less power civil institutions have. As the Washington bureaucracy has spread over the past century, neighbors have become less neighborly, membership rates have dropped among organizations ranging from fraternities to churches to sports, and trust in one another has plummeted. Proving causality here is impossible, but the trend is nevertheless telling.
Some signs, though, are positive. Charitable giving has been increasing, and innovative private-public collaborations are poised to reform aspects of the welfare system. Social impact investing, where government adopts a program only after it’s been proven effective, is growing in popularity. If the programs fail, it’s private investors, not taxpayers, who take the hit.
As the country rolls into the new year, it should capitalize on those positive movements and be a little more discerning as to how it perceives the state of the union. In areas that matter most — in families and communities — positives still outweigh the negatives.