A long walk, some Springsteen lyrics, and a gut punch of truth

My birthday was this past weekend. As is my want each year, I spent the day in solitude, ignoring the calls and texts from the many people who are a blessing in my life. They understand. I get very pensive around my birthday. What have I accomplished? What have I not? How much time do I have left and what should I do with it? When it’s all over will I hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” or will I instead hear, “How could you have wasted that head start?” Yea, all of that.

This weekend was no different, other than it happened against the backdrop of the continuing federal government shutdown and the scramble by local leaders to address the needs of their constituents affected by benefits running dry.

In my contemplative mood, and perhaps in an effort to lengthen that whole ‘how much time do I have left’ concern, I decided to go for a healthy lunch and a long walk. So I grabbed my earbuds and headed out.

At the lunch counter, I sat sipping some sort of kale juice while people watching. A woman entered the restaurant pushing a girl in a wheelchair who had both physical and intellectual disabilities. The girl wanted to sit in a certain section, but there were no tables available. She became very upset. Both the woman and the hostess tried to console her, explaining that the other section would be just as nice. I tapped the religious medals on my necklace, saying a silent prayer for her and her caregivers. I went on to pray in gratitude for the health of my family and finished with a rather frank exchange with the Lord calling myself some colorful things while apologizing for ever feeling I had a right to be melancholy.

After lunch, I took that walk. One of the songs that played in my earbuds was Bruce Springsteen’s “Long Walk Home.” Perhaps no lyric ever written so succinctly sums up my belief in the idea of America more than these words from that song:

“Son, we’re lucky in this town, It’s a beautiful place to be born. It just wraps its arms around you, Nobody crowds you, nobody goes it alone. You know that flag flying over the courthouse Means certain things are set in stone. Who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t.”

Those words cut through me harder than they normally do. We’re losing who we are. The list of things we’ll do is getting longer and the list of things we won’t, shorter.

This week, 42 million Americans are facing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits running dry because of the shutdown. Again, instead of money being spent on services, taxpayer dollars are being spent on lawsuits. And dangerous precedent appears to be occurring, with Courts instead of Congress directing how money should be spent. Regardless of any altruistic intent, bad precedent is bad precedent.

So let’s recap. Congress is on paid vacation. Courts are telling the Executive how to spend money. The Executive is telling the Legislature to get rid of the filibuster. And no one is checking the Executive. I think my copy of the Constitution just spontaneously combusted.

Fortunately, despite all this federal ineptitude, local Republican and Democratic officials all across the country are scrambling to be sure our neighbors get fed. They are working with state agencies, private organizations, and generous donors. In the best-case scenario, everyone’s nutritional needs will be met, leaving only their added stress and fear at the feet of Congress. In the best case.

It's easy, with the number of stats thrown at us daily, to become desensitized. So let’s try it this way, 42 million Americans is one in eight of us. Of us. At some point we may want to have a conversation about how in hell one in eight Americans are on food stamps. And that is to say nothing of the millions more Americans who do not qualify for the program that surely feel they too could use some help. The answer isn’t that 42 million people are gaming the system and it isn’t that billionaires are evil. I’m afraid we’re going to have to do heavier intellectual lifting than that. And the answer may not fit on a bumper sticker or in a seven-second TikTok. No, the answer will be multi-faceted and complex. So too, is the solution.

This week, I awoke to see that New York City residents elected Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, as their new mayor. It is hard for a self-described conservative capitalist like me to wrap my head around that. But that didn’t happen by accident. So what can we learn from it? What does that result tell us?

Certainly, the NYC economy can be an animal unto itself. The tax load and cost of housing there turn what would be an affluent salary in other parts of the country into one that struggles like heck to get by in NYC. And the mean income there has absolutely no chance. So, it isn’t surprising that in this environment where cost of living pressures are on steroids, that we got this result. But this won’t be the last such result.

A recent Cato Institute poll found that 62% of American voters under the age of 29 have a favorable view of socialism.

Should we be surprised by that? For starters, this is an age group that has grown up in more of a sharing economy – think Uber and apps that allow them to split bills. They have seen astronomical tuitions and emerge from school with more debt than their degrees are worth. Unless they work in AI, they can’t get a great job because, well, AI will start doing all the entry-level jobs. They are aging off Mom and Dad’s insurance and seeing double-digit premium increases for plans that still have deductibles so high that should they get sick, they will go bankrupt. There is no such thing as a starter home and rents are out of control. Marijuana is legal even where it isn’t and legal gambling is at their fingertips. Half their leaders think the stock market is a better gauge of economic health than is the health of the middle class. And the other half seem to think universal basic everything is appropriate because we have the greatest economy on earth, forgetting that the engine that drives that great economy is the innovation born from personal incentive.

My point is this. Millions of our neighbors are in need and we have a moral obligation to be sure "nobody goes it alone." But the answer is not short-sighted leadership that chips away at our Constitutional Republic. Nor is it embracing economic forms that have a long record of failure. Instead, it's time for serious people that see some truth in the other side’s experience. Because one thing is for certain. If we aren’t very careful about the direction we are heading, it is indeed going to be a very “Long Walk Home.”