Conscience versus Pocketbook

My blood pressure is a concern. I’m on blood pressure medication and I hope that helps to relieve my burgeoning anger over the blatant attacks on our democracy these past few weeks since the Mueller Report was released and Attorney General Barr put his thump on the scale. I sent emails every day this past week to lawmakers who were involved in shaping what happens next. By Thursday, I began calling for impeachment of both Barr and Trump. Then the jobs report came out. This week highlights a turning point for some Americans who must now choose between their conscience and their pocketbook.

I admit to being one of the Americans who is doing well in this economy. My undergraduate degree was in business and my early career choice was finance. I started saving and investing early on and never stopped. Even with a change of career to education, which pays considerably less, I still manage to save and invest. My husband and I are among the few lucky people who never faced budget-busting medical bills or a natural disaster that destroyed everything. We were never victims of a Bernie Madoff type Ponzi scheme. We were able to work the financial crisis to our advantage because we had stable-good paying jobs, great credit, and adequate savings. The Trump tax break allows us to contribute more to our savings accounts. But for people like us, I realize that we have the luxury of favoring our conscience over our pocketbook. We don’t worry about money the way many Americans do.

Amid the collective Trump administration giving the middle finger to Congressional oversight while also suing to remove Obamacare, the jobs report came out. Unemployment is at its lowest point since 1969 at 3.6%. However, wages are still too low. I heard that the current minimum wage would need to be around $18 an hour to keep in step with inflation over the years. In other words, the buying power of minimum wage pay has eroded over decades. It is daily news that many people are not sharing in the spoils of this “booming” economy. But I wonder if a promise from Trump that they will eventually experience it be enough for him to win again? In 2016 he promised to bring back the good of days of high paying coal and manufacturing jobs. He promised to punish the countries that stole our manufacturing industries with tariffs. Tariffs raise prices on consumers and coal destroys the environment along with the health of its workers, but all some people heard was the promise of high paying jobs.

In 2020, the democrats will need to offer solid economic ideas that boost wages, protects the environment, and provides affordable healthcare and educational opportunities for the middle class while also promising to restore the dignity and morality of the presidency. At the same time, they can’t punish the wealthy for being wealthy. That, too, is an attack on the American dream itself and on Americas longstanding love of capitalism. This is a tall order.

In my opinion, I think any of the 22 democratic candidates can restore the dignity and morality of the presidency. For me, this is just as important as the economic concerns. The question is, whose economic ideas are sellable to the American public and the Congress? Who can put forth responsible capitalism as the way to go? I’m thinking along the lines of someone less radical than Bernie and Elizabeth and more in line with Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, and Amy Klobuchar. I don’t know enough about the others to have an opinion yet. I just know that whomever the democrats put forward must satisfy both the conscience and the pocketbook of the American electorate. I fear having to choose between the two because our democracy and our environment might just lose.