This is the day we gather round the table — just before we gather round the big-screen TV that we’re hoping to replace with an even bigger one on Black Friday — to eat turkey and give thanks.
But it’s not exactly the best Thanksgiving we’ve had as a nation. Unemployment is still at 9 percent. The congressional supercommittee has failed in its attempt to find even a hint of comity in Washington. Public discourse seems to get more toxic by the day. Iran draws ever closer to going nuclear. Even as American troops are being drawn down, too many men and women remain at war and at risk.
If the topic at the table turns to politics — as it always does at ours — Aunt Phyllis will inevitably say that she can’t remember when things were as bad as they are today.
The truth is, we always think things are worse than they used to be. Aunt Phyllis was born during the Great Depression when 9 percent unemployment would have been a miracle. When Hoovervilles were the real Occupy. When FDR said all we had to fear was fear itself. When Hitler took over Germany and Stalin ruled the Soviet Union.
She came of age during World War II, the greatest time of death and destruction in history, the time of the Holocaust, the days when nuclear weapons also came of age.
In the ’50s, she had kids, moved to the suburbs, bought a Chevy. Her kids ducked and covered, Johnny couldn’t read, the Soviets launched a Sputnik, McCarthy saw a Commie under every bed, and Korea was the war time forgot.
In the ’60s, the world turned upside-down. Two Kennedys and Dr. King were killed. Cities burned in riots. Little children were blown up in churches. Vietnam raged.
In the ’70s, we had inflation, more inflation, malaise, gas lines, a hostage crisis, Watergate, the Nixon resignation, the fall of Saigon.
In the ’80s, bonfire of the vanities, Reagan shot, Marines killed in Lebanon, Iran-Contra, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
In the ’90s, two government shutdowns, the Starr Report, the Clinton impeachment, the first war with Iraq.
In the 2000s, the red-blue divide, the Supreme Court election, 9/11 and all that followed, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the financial collapse.
Here’s the truth: We’ve always had challenges. And yet the 20th century is called the American century. In between the challenges, things were pretty good. Wars were won. Economies boomed. We became the richest and most powerful country in the world. We still are.
The news cycle reinforces the bad news meme. Bad news may capture the public’s imagination, but it always has. What’s different today is that trust in nearly all institutions, including government, is at a record low.
Are things really worse today? Or is despair just easier to come by?
Barack Obama tried for JFK-style inspiration and failed. We wonder what the reaction would be today to an ask-not-what-your-country-can-do-for-you speech. Cynicism or embrace? Or both, depending on which TV news station you watch.
Maybe we should just embrace what Aunt Phyllis’ mother would reply whenever asked how she was doing. She’d say: “It could be worse.”
