For anyone following the national news that impacts the smallest of communities, it’s a bit harder to embrace the holiday spirit as the calamity of leadership creates ‘breaking news’. Masked ICE agents execute harsh tactics of seizing people; most of whom are not the “migrant criminals, Illegal monsters, killers, or gang members” Trump claims are “invading our country.” There are the lethal strikes by our military on alleged “narcoterrorist drug boats” in what a cross section of legal experts(BBC & NBCnews) claim violates international law, lack legal justification, and don’t align with laws governing armed conflict or peacetime conduct. I could go on citing tariff policy, rollbacks in environmental policies, pardoning convicted drug kingpins, or the increasing affordability crisis for most Americans, or a completely unhinged address to the nation; but I need to focus
Chaos is often ramped up to coincide with any indication of the Epstein files getting closer to the public domain. The latest disruption is the crisis millions of Americans will face in weeks as their coverage under the Affordable Care Act aka Obama Care will spike to unaffordable levels due to the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by Trump and a Republican Congress on July 4th.
Their actions and inability to follow through with over 10 years of promising an improved plan has either fallen short…just take a look at the recent Republican proposals; or the long trail of nonexistent claims…remember Trump promised he had a concept of a plan when he debated Kamala Harris in 2024. It was just one of many statements Trump has made regarding health Care from 2016 to today concerning his ability to fix an issue that is primarily rooted in his personal grievances with former presidents Obama and Biden. His most used talking point is some iteration of, “We’re going to have great health care. And it’s going to be much less expensive.” (Trump 2017).
I am reminded of two academics who for me capture this malaise we continue to experience and to a degree accept. How else can it be explained that over 77 million people voted against their self-interests? The first is Harry Frankfurt, the late Princeton professor, who published his book/essay, On Bullshit, in 2005. The second is Richard Elmore, the late Harvard professor with a large body of research in educational leadership.
In his essay, Frankfurt examines the notion of bulls***t, lies and their relationship to the truth. A question becomes who is more dangerous a liar or a bullsh**ter. A conclusion can be drawn that Bulls***ter poses more the threat because he/she doesn’t know or has no regard for the truth, while the liar at least knows the truth. Both are despicable and dangerous, because our choices are no longer centered by facts. The United States has moved further from established norms these past 10 years as many of our political leaders display less regard for the truth. According to Frankfurt, bull***t is a threat to democracy because it’s incompatible with the sort of knowledge a well-informed electorate needs to have.
A bit more discouraging is a conclusion from Richard Elmore’s book, School Reform from the Inside Out. Prior to his work at Harvard, he was a legislative liaison for the U.S. Congress, which aligns his following comment to efforts for a political solution(or not) to health care solutions:Leaders “know the problems that need to be fixed, but they don’t know how to go about fixing them. Instead they present an illusion of change that…doesn’t necessarily lead to the desired results.”
Taken together, Frankfurt and Elmore’s writings identify a toxicity creating a significant dissonance for solutions serving the greater good. Disregard for truth in political rhetoric allows for the creation of illusions to voters. The current group of republican lawmakers in Washington D.C. continue to produce illusions as solutions to solve a real human crisis. We are finding the President’s promises and “concept” of a healthcare plan as simply a continuation of rhetorical BS that has produced nothing but anxiety and pain. Until more voters see through the illusions and think critically; understand truthful pragmatic options for solutions; and vote for their self-interests, we are destined to more of the same.
I hear you.
It is almost impossible to remain sane, compassionate, and informed these days. But since those three adjectives play a large part in what makes us human, and there are forces whose primary goal appears to strip away our humanity, we must — as you say — focus.