Critical Sociology | 2021
Navigating a New Decade 1
Abstract
By the time you read these comments, Joseph Biden will have been inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States and a political coup based on President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ claim the election was “stolen” will have failed. This second scenario was not very likely to succeed, but there are real problems that this reflects: (1) the endless attack on the election process—while never the most representative and certainly, given Republican efforts at voter suppression, biased—is a serious assault on what passes for Democracy in the world’s biggest capitalist economy; and (2) it portends a very disruptive 4 years for the Biden presidency as once again Senator McConnell and the Senate Republicans will likely stonewall all legislative efforts at passing any meaningful (albeit limited) progressive programs dealing with the challenges facing this country. At this point we have already seen the pernicious nature of the Senate as they fuss over providing immunity for companies that force workers to come to work during the pandemic and refuses to consider aid to local governments at all levels. At best any program put forward proposes inadequate assistance to workers and their families and even suggest there be cuts to the meager benefits essential to survive. How did we get to the situation in the United States were so many people supported Trump during his term in office (though with historically low approval ratings), and then over 70 million people voted to give him a second term? That fact, and the constant drumbeat the next administration will face that they were not legitimately elected in spite of all evidence to the contrary (at present we need not go down the rabbit hole of what constitutes representative democracy in a capitalist society, or why there is a system like the Electoral College—itself a vestige of our slave owning past—that can overrule the popular vote), promises a very difficult time when the circumstances require a massive public spending agenda. One problem is that as a public we are sadly ignorant of how our society operates. While things improved over the past 4 years (in part, as the Annenberg Public Policy Center reports2, due to the assault on government by Trump), still 6 out of 10 people cannot name all three branches of government. It should come as no surprise, then, that there is so much confusion over how the system operates to make policies, and by an acceptance by many that as president someone like Trump should be able to have his way without Congressional or Judicial oversight. We should lay blame for this situation at the feet of a steady five decades assault on public education, on critical thinking, and on the devaluation of science and knowledge more generally and the emergence of a culture of “alternative” facts presented to support outlandish claims. The immediate consequence of this tendency is evident as we look at the impact of the COVID19 pandemic. Dismissed as a flu by Trump and his minion, efforts to promote safe practices to stem the spread regularly are scoffed at by both public officials and Trump supporters. Wearing a mask and keeping socially distant has become a political litmus test as well as a manifestation of toxic masculinity. What has been the result? The United States represents approximately 4% of the 987371 CRS0010.1177/0896920520987371Critical SociologyEditorial editorial2020