The Real Candidates in 2016: Fear and Anger Take Over the Voting Booth

Some of the underlying causes are in the headlines everyday and others are more camouflaged or simply ignored. From double digit inner city and rural unemployment and one in five children in America living in poverty to an epidemic of suicides and drug overdoses and deaths, these are just a few of the deplorable and unacceptable situations that many of our neighbors are facing.
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In this election, the real candidate is the emotional juggernaut of fear and anger, and not the candidates with proper names that are listed on the ballots in the primaries and caucuses. There is a palatable deep-seated unhappiness and exasperation with the way things are and with the establishment that wants to keep it this way. Without these powerful and profound feelings, several of the candidates might have been mere sideshows in this political cycle. A few candidates have and continue to be conduits for this seething distress, distrust and near despair in many voters.

In 2010, I co-authored a piece, "The Perfect Storm of Fear," which was a harbinger of this cycle.

Six years later, today, that perfect storm of fear is now a tsunami of fear, trepidation, rage and exasperation. And to make matters worse--if in fact it could be-- the trust factor for American institutions has fallen dramatically. This dangerous decline in trust is fueling the near state of panic across America much like earthquakes are the fuel for tsunamis.

Today, 92% of Americans do NOT trust the government.

Today, 60% of Americans do NOT trust the media.

Today 77% of Americans do NOT trust the criminal justice system.

Today, 58% of Americans do NOT trust religious institutions.

Today the majority of Americans do NOT trust the basic institutions of America.

And the worst news of all is that the American dream is now believed to be on a disastrous decline by a majority of Americans. And for millions more, the American dream is on life support. A recent PEW Research Center finding revealed that the middle class in America has fallen below 50%, and worse, that they now make almost 34% less income share.

When a majority of Americans believe that tomorrow will not be better for their children than it was for them, the very foundation of America, much like its infrastructure, is deteriorating and near collapse. The most dangerous and disheartening fact is that 51% of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 believe the American dream is dead, according to a Harvard University Institute of Politics poll.

While many pundits, whose worldview is framed by the Washington DC horizon, try to diagnose or decipher, or, in some cases, dismiss what is causing this tumultuous upheaval in American politics, it is really quite simple--the feelings and attitudes of millions of Americans are based on their experiences. So it is clear that none of the candidates are the cause of this widespread and deep dissatisfaction; they are the beneficiaries of it. Yet some of the candidates are like funhouse mirrors, not only reflecting feelings, but also exaggerating them. These feelings pre-existed and have been simmering for years in the body politic. Remember the often violent and confrontational town hall meetings across America in the summer of 2009?

The fact is that emotions trump facts, and fear and anger are the aces in the deck, beating all other cards. These two emotions have always ruled the political realm.

But the difference today is that in the past it was often the emotions of hope and positiveness that brought people to the polls--and trust that their vote would matter. It is now the voters' abject and deep unhappiness with many aspects of America and their own lives that fuels their demand for change--not anything less than dramatic and drastic change will quell the fear and anger. Some people have suggested that the forces fueling change today are similar in many ways to the ones that led to the election of Andrew Jackson. Of course, unhappiness at whatever level with things as they are and particularly with the establishment is an old song--and a necessary one if change is to gain a foothold. But in Andrew Jackson's period, there was not the echo chamber of today that rattles, supports, amplifies and fuels peoples' fear and anger 24 hours everyday.

The challenge with fear and anger is that these emotions can be either stimulants for constructive change or destructive disruption. But if fear and anger are ignored and go untreated, they can become a smoldering cancer that can have dire consequences. So unless these emotions are recognized as real, as credible, as warranted in millions of individual cases, and therefore worthy of a response by all institutions and candidates, we put ourselves and our country at risk. If we do not come to understand the underlying causes of this anger, not only do we dismiss the plight of millions of Americans, but we do so at our own peril.

Some of the underlying causes are in the headlines everyday and others are more camouflaged or simply ignored. From double digit inner city and rural unemployment and one in five children in America living in poverty to an epidemic of suicides and drug overdoses and deaths, these are just a few of the deplorable and unacceptable situations that many of our neighbors are facing.

And equally important is condemning the language of bigotry, racism and class warfare because it is separating us from the rest of an interconnected and interdependent world. And worse, it further divides America; it separates us from our neighbors. And that puts us all at risk.

Peter Emerson is a writer and an entrepreneur in business, social investment and public policy. He is a founding partner of two firms that provide creative strategies across multiple platforms for a variety of clients. Peter has been involved in every democratic presidential campaign since 1972.

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