Personal Observations

One of the advantages of getting older is perspective.  You can see things evolve on a timeline.   You presumably get better at managing your business and personal relationships because you have seen it before.  You don’t get thrown as often.   And you see things grow and change over time—both good and bad.  

But some things are unprecedented.   I am old enough to remember some of the social turmoil of the 60’s—the race riots after Martin Luther King was assassinated, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War protests, the Kent State massacre and the 1968 Democratic convention.  The unrest felt scary at times, but I was a young boy.   The unrest today appears to have a decidedly different bend.  The protests of the 60’s were aimed largely at American policies.  The unrest today in many cases is aimed at America and American heritage itself.   Those on the right blame it on the left’s penchant for practicing identity politics. Those on the left blame it on various forces—class, gender, race, exclusion and all that.

But I believe the friction this time has a more fundamental basis.  Over a year ago, my old friend and economist Carl Tannenbaum asked me why I thought a person like Donald Trump had risen to contend for the Republican nomination at this particular time.  I responded with the Bill Clinton explanation, “It’s the economy, stupid.” (and no, I didn’t mean it to be a jab at him).  It is the underlying economic discomfort and despair of a slow growth economy coupled with technological displacement.  And it is being felt mostly in the heartland.  And while Mr. Tannenbaum undoubtedly has access to much more data than I can produce, and is more adept at interpreting it, I offer only my personal observations to suggest that this is true.  America is reputed to be the Land of Opportunity, of innovation and advancement, of continuous improvement and betterment, where each generation can move farther ahead than the preceding one.   And indeed, in the course of my lifetime, I have witnessed great achievements--- man’s landing on the moon in 1969 and the stunning defeat of the world’s third largest army in 100 days in 1991, for instance.  Technological achievements have lengthened life spans, sped up communications, and brought cheaper and a wider variety of food to the tables of Americans.  America is now nearly energy independent or nearly so.

But the places of my childhood present a sobering picture and, I think, are representative of what is going on in the wider heartland.   I had a somewhat bifurcated youth, going to school in an inner city ethnic community in Chicago, but spent my summers in rural Wisconsin.  While time can often distort memories, there are objective observations that tell us that both communities have worsened considerably over 50 years.

My neighborhood in the city was never very wealthy.  Nestled between Bridgeport and Marquette Park, Brighton Park was a blue collar enclave, comprised of mostly Polish, Lithuanian and, later, more Mexican immigrants.  Policemen, firemen, city workers, skilled labor and some unskilled labor made up the bulk of the population.  There were many small manufacturing companies and some larger employers like Nabisco and William J. Wrigley.  The crime rate was relatively low and parks were crowded in the summer with industrial 16 inch softball leagues, and kids jammed the pools on hot summer nights.  In the early 80’s, the Chicago Tribune ran a nice article about how well the Eastern European and Mexican populations got on together.  There was some poverty, but it was generally well-hidden.

Fast forward to today.   Many of the large industrial employers are gone.  A recent documentary film that featured the girls’ soccer team at my old high school (In the Game) spoke of an 80% poverty rate.  Burned out or abandoned houses are not uncommon.  The Catholic grade school associated with my old parish is long closed.  Brighton Park is now  a veritable shooting gallery.  Mothers are afraid to let their children go out and play. Gang killings are a weekly occurrence.   Most notoriously, 10 people were shot last spring at a vigil for others that had been shot.  The level of deterioration of the community is breathtaking.  It went from modest working class to Lord of the Flies in a generation.

But small town Wisconsin too, has slipped, although not as dramatically.   I recently visited and noticed that the little town and surrounding area had noticeably changed from the place I spent my summers.  The landscape, once dotted with old German and Swedish dairy farmers still has some farms but they are much less numerous.   I had a hard time even finding a produce stand.  Many of the homes seem overgrown and unkempt although there are some larger, newer homes that I suspect are inhabited by retirees from Milwaukee or Chicago.   The general store in the little town is now an animal shelter.   The gas station is now a used car lot, filled mostly with clunkers.  The local tavern doesn’t sell food or beer tap anymore, and is dark and musty.  The little decorative stone waterfall and pool in the middle of town doesn’t flow anymore and the pool is fetid and full of algae.  These are all signs of economic deterioration as the once sprightly farming and resort community lost many of farms, breweries, and cheese factories that supported these local businesses.  While not as dramatic as the decline of inner city Chicago, the ebbing is still palpable.

I can’t help but think there are many, many communities across the Midwest that are in visibly worse condition than they were 30, 40  or 50 years ago.   The signs of decline are everywhere.   And I posit that the social and racial discord that we are experiencing today are not rooted as much in animus as in the economic decline that people know and sense.  The photo above is what remains of what was a beautifully maintained red and white farmhouse that was landscaped with flower beds and inhabited by a German family 50 years ago.  The picture says it all.  And it is, I believe, why reverberations are being felt in our country.