What presidential candidates need to understand about income inequality

Second, in an era that has already given us the tea party and Occupy Wall Street, we should understand just why Americans are so angry at their political system. And we should face the reality that the longer this economic trend continues, the more unhinged our politics will likely become, as voters search for scapegoats and easy answers.

When we talked this week, Shapiro pointed to the bizarre situation in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott put his National Guard on alert over a routine U.S. military exercise in the state, allegedly to forestall the threat of a federal invasion.

“It sounds psychotic,” Shapiro said. “It is psychotic. So the question is, how can significant numbers of Americans come to believe this? How has their view of government turned so incredibly dark?”

Shapiro believes the answer is in his data sets, and I think he’s right.

You can expect the presidential candidates on both sides to talk a lot this year about bridging the sharp partisan divide in our politics, just as Bush promised to “change the tone” and Obama vowed to blend red and blue into “purple states.” But Shapiro’s study lays bare a stark and underlying truth.

No candidate should expect to change the tenor of American politics if he or she doesn’t have a genuine plan to stem the decline of the American household.

Article Appeared @https://www.yahoo.com/politics/what-presidential-candidates-need-to-understand-119490857141.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma

 

 

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