The Danger of “Wrong Track” Thinking

Pollsters frequently ask Americans if the country is on the “right track” or the “wrong track” – and just as frequently the numbers are disturbing.  In the last three months, the percentage saying we’re “on the wrong track” has hovered around 66 percent, give or take a few points. 

America certainly has lots of problems. Thousands of people continue to die from COVID, too many cannot find good paying jobs, politics has driven Americans into polarized, angry camps, inflation is rearing its ugly head – and the list goes on.  Republicans eager to regain control of Congress and the White House happily contribute to the “wrong track” story, but Democrats, of course, were good at this when they were out of power. 

Though “wrong track” talk may be an attractive political strategy, it’s an ugly approach for democracy. “Wrong track” thinking contributes to cynicism and distrust in our ability to govern ourselves. It fosters an emotional downward spiral that saps positive energy needed for progress.  Why vote, why work to make America better if nothing ever does?

“Wrong track” thinking equates problems with threats.  Poverty means crime; guns mean unsafe schools; global warming means dangerous weather.  Whatever truth there may be in this, when we feel threatened, the brain’s limbic system goes into fight or flight mode and rational thinking suffers.  We often then revert to attractive yet simplistic solutions untested by science or logic.  Perhaps the most dangerous of these is seeking a leader who by force of will can make things better.  We only need to look at Germany in 1933 to see where that leads.

“Wrong track” thinking pits Americans against each other.   It divides rather than unites when a polarized political camp has a stake in proving how bad things are.  This foments anger against those they blame for problems, making the resort to violence increasingly acceptable.  

“Wrong track” thinking assumes the absence of a problem is a solution.  Yet a decline in the unemployment rate don’t necessarily equate to more people in good-paying jobs.  An improved flood-mitigation system does not mean global warming has been curtailed.  Rather than dreaming of desirable futures and working toward them, the only future we can see is one without the problem we’re facing.  That’s like assuming that all kids testing at grade level means they’re highly educated for their future lives.

“Wrong track” thinking ignores what progress has been made.  We assume nothing is getting better when some things have – usually the result of good thinking and good governance:

·        December ends with 70 percent of all Americans 12 and older vaccinated against COVID as the result of the amazingly swift scientific achievement of designing three very effective vaccines and a public health system that delivered them to every American who wanted a shot, saving thousands of lives. 

·        By November 2021, the unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent from 6.7 percent a year earlier. The social safety net got its largest investment in decades through stimulus legislation that also included significant support for children, both leading to a projected reduction in the poverty rate by year’s end to less than 8 percent, the lowest level on record (50 years ago it was over 20 percent).

·        The nation’s reckoning with slavery and racial discrimination continued with the removal in recent years of more than 170 monuments to that era. The leaders of the “Unite the Right” neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville in 2017 were found guilty as were the three men who killed Ahmed Arbery and the police officer who killed George Floyd.  President Biden signed bipartisan legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday.

·        Communities all across America opened their hearts and wallets and took time to welcome and resettle tens of thousands of Afghan refugees rescued when the United States ended its 20-year war there. 

·        The COP26 climate conference produced a U.S. - China agreement to work together, an important achievement by the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters.  Renewable energy sources (e.g. solar, wind) now account for 12 percent of all energy consumption in the nation, a new record. 

When I was a teenager, an older, very dear friend offered a way to reduce “wrong track” thinking.  She had many setbacks in her life yet would comment that “Oh how it hurts when I think how it hurts.”  Americans, driven by media, pundits, politicians and algorithms that thrive on fear, anger, and failure forget that endlessly focusing on what’s wrong saps energy needed to focus on what can help.  Why not spend time instead looking at what we’ve done right – and there’s a lot of it – and use the lessons from that for “right track” thinking and acting?

President Reagan had a wonderful sense of humor which he often tied to optimism about America’s future.  He told the story of a boy sitting in a room filled with horse manure who instead of crying just keeps tossing it aside with a smile, saying “with all this horse manure, there must be a pony in here somewhere.”  That’s a viewpoint that would be helpful in the new year we are entering.

Photo Credit: Randy Laybourne @ unsplash