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The extreme disconnect between the political class and the people they ostensibly serve is by now extremely clear. It was the primary factor behind Donald Trump’s ascendance to the presidency, as the left largely abandoned the working class in favor of woke ideologies and their special interests.

At a certain point, the lip service politicians pay to the working class’s needs and concerns was not enough, and they lost their votes. Naturally, it was at that point Democrats suddenly decided the working class was really racist all along.

That, it seems, is the defining characteristic of our politics today. Politicians do not actually legislate to resolve the things their constituents need them to address. Instead, they leave voters with placebos, a useless sugar pill designed to do nothing but give consumers the illusion that their problem has been addressed.

Democrats don’t have a monopoly on this dynamic, and neither do “establishment” Republicans. Everyone does it.

I am old enough to remember when Paul Ryan was a folk hero for embracing the third rail of politics. As a member of the House minority, he brought entitlement reform and the need to solve the debt crisis to the forefront of the national political conversation. In 2011 Ryan described the federal debt as “the most predictable economic crisis we’ve ever had in this country,” preaching to the need for people with the courage to address it.

Then he became speaker of the House. In that role, he presided over budget deficits that rose every year, from $439 billion the year before he became speaker to $782 billion his final year.

For as long as anyone can remember, the Republican establishment talked a good game about how much they cared about the social issues that animate much of their base. But their interest has been limited to using these issues as red-meat placebos. When the chips were down, they abandoned them, daring them to take their votes elsewhere while they sold them out so they could court the “moderates.”

read more:

https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/08/americans-are-sick-of-placebo-government/