Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Where I Stand:

Will America vote its pocketbook in 2020?

There are a few constants in American life that manage to survive from one generation to another.

For example, “if I knew then what I know now” has always been a popular refrain from the older generations as they try to explain some recurring phenomenon to a younger American.

I thought about this after witnessing the unrelenting attacks on former Mayor Mike Bloomberg for his “stop-and-frisk” policy when he was New York’s mayor almost 20 years ago, or other politicians who at one time voted for the Iraq War when all they heard was “weapons of mass destruction” with no argument to the contrary.

Of course, hindsight is a perfect lens through which to see our mistakes.

The appropriate response in both cases must be “if I knew then what I know now,” because that is what adults do. We learn.

What kind of world would we have if the adults in our society refused to learn from mistakes or were unable to grow or even attempt to learn through the acquisition of knowledge? What kind of world would we have if our leaders didn’t or couldn’t understand what our democracy was all about because they wouldn’t even read a book about such things? (Try to answer that without thinking about President Donald Trump!)

There is another truism in American politics that may come into play during the 2020 election: “Americans vote their pocketbooks (for men it would be their wallets).”

It struck me the other day when I was playing what-if games with some friends of mine — these friends were from the upper end of the economic scale and were concerned about their finances (yes, even I have a few friends like that). The question was who would we vote for if the choice were Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. My answer was simple and instantaneous.

Theirs, however, was a bit more nuanced. They invoked the all-American truism that people vote their pocketbooks no matter how much they might believe a president is a danger to our democracy and the American way of life. Sanders, they believed, would cause worse damage to their financial positions.

That’s when I tried to figure out what was so compelling about my wallet, or your wallet or all of our pocketbooks that the contents therein would drive our votes against common sense, common decency and a common belief in truth, justice and the American way.

For my research, all I had to do was take my wallet out of my back pocket. That simple act gave me the understanding I was lacking and, at the same time, the confidence I needed to believe that the voters will ultimately do the right thing in November 2020.

My wallet, as does most wallets, has a few compartments. One of them holds cash and credit cards and that is the part most people consider to be their “pocketbooks.” No argument there.

But keep looking and you will understand what I did about what it is that compels most Americans to vote as they do.

The other compartments in our wallets hold nonmonetary things. Things I would argue are what drive most of our conscious decisions.

How about the pictures of our families? Don’t tell me the lives of your spouse and, especially, your children and grandchildren aren’t a major, if not only, contributor to your voting decision.

How will they live in the future? What about the planet we leave them, the state of our democracy that they will be governed under and the social compact between and among our citizens? Each of those issues is an important consideration that doesn’t — at its heart— involve our money.

Looking further, I found a Social Security card. It was old, to be sure, but it represented an agreement I had with my country when I started working. More than that, it represents an obligation from my country to me and a safety net that allows me some comfort that I won’t be destitute at an older age. While that involves money, it really centers on a contract between government and the people that must be honored.

One more thing I found: my health insurance card. At my age — and with some good fortune everyone will at least reach this point and surpass it — having access to good health care is right near the top of most Americans’ priority list. While money certainly is a major component of health care, it is not the only one. The idea that my friends, neighbors, co-workers and fellow citizens can have access to adequate health care is an important American value.

There is more in my wallet, but I think I have made my point.

When our country votes its pocketbook, it is voting for far more than our money whether we realize it or not. While we hope it is full of value, we know it contains something more important — our American values.

That is the pocketbook we vote. This election must be about so much more than our money.

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun