Democrats need to focus on the future | Unfinished Business

By Rogette Harris

Former President Bill Clinton once said, ‘elections are about the future.’ This is true. Voters want candidates to identify problems, and then propose solutions to fix them.

In 10 months, voters go to the polls. Current issues on voters’ minds include rising rent, gas, and other prices. COVID is still here, and many Americans are ready to move forward. Student loans continue to pile up and salaries are not increasing.

Yes, jobs are being created but what about the quality of those jobs? Many Americans continue to live paycheck to paycheck. Access to health care is still limited for some, and many Americans continue to be denied life-saving treatments. Every Republican S=senator (50) and two Democratic senators are holding up President Biden’s agenda, which would help alleviate some of the financial burden COVID has caused Americans.

Joe Biden won the presidency in 2020 because he assured a tired and scared nation a return to sanity, civility, experience, and competence. Americans needed someone to stop the chaos. Two months after his inauguration, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act, one of the largest domestic spending bills in American history. This bill included programs like expanding unemployment benefits, rental assistance, direct stimulus payments, and billions of dollars for public schools. Democrats also led successful efforts to expand the child tax credit and the earned-income-tax-credit programs. Unfortunately, a lot of these programs either ended or are about to expire.

So where do we go from here?

Even with improving unemployment numbers, a crisis persists that dominates the lives of many Americans, especially in the Black and Brown communities. Currently, statistics show that more than 55 percent of Black and Hispanic households have reported facing serious financial problems. Furthermore, 31 percent of Black households reported losing all their savings during the COVID pandemic. There has always been job opportunity and wage disparities due to rampant institutional racism in the U.S. COVID also highlighted the digital divide in education and health care disparities.

I do not think its ideology dividing Americans. Rather, its emotions, attitudes, paranoia, and misplaced loyalties. One issue that bridges all of us together regardless of any self-identity factor such as race, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc. is our desire for a strong economy; an economy that provides well-paying quality jobs where people can take care of themselves and their families without living paycheck to paycheck.

We want an economy where we all have equal access to opportunities and students do not spend half or all their lives paying off student loans for degrees they aren’t able to find a job to use.

We wan a health care system without racial or age disparities; a system where we all get quality health care and are not denied life-saving treatments.

As we move towards the midterm elections, what can the Democratic Party do to hold on to its 2020 coalition, buck history and avoid electoral loses this year?

Rogette Harris is political analyst and chairwoman of the Dauphin County Democrats.