Editorial Board of The Washington Post:
Another Thanksgiving, another case study in the complex relationship between gratitude and discontent in America. In many respects, a typical U.S. family’s cup runneth over, especially relative to the situations facing families in places such as Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Venezuela, Afghanistan — the list of poor, oppressed or war-torn nations is long. Macroeconomic data indicates that unemployment is hovering near all-time lows, that inflation is coming down, possibly without a recession, and that And yet people are not in a blessing-counting mood, if the polls are to be believed. Only 25 percent of the public believes the country is “on the right track,” according to a RealClearPolitics polling average, whereas 66 percent say the opposite. Voters seem to be giving President Biden little or no credit for the modicum of economic and geopolitical stability over which he has presided. Worse, the latest indications are that about half of voters are so unhappy with the way things are that they might vote next November for former president Donald Trump, a man so obsessed with his own grievances, and so skilled at manipulating the grievances of others, that he pushed this democracy into a violent crisis on Jan. 6, 2021.
More here.