American voters are angry. And they blame Washington.
Many Americans are frustrated with stagnant wages and disappearing jobs. They have some reason to be upset. It has been a tough eight years. Since 2007, economic growth has averaged 1.2 percent annually. By comparison, between 1980 and 2007, it averaged three percent per year.
In 2014, The New York Times reported that the share of “prime-age men – those 25 to 54 years old – who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent.”
Today, many of these angry voters are throwing their support behind Donald Trump, the prospective GOP presidential nominee. They believe he’s a billionaire who can’t be “bought,” and who will shake up Washington and jump-start the economy. His supporters include large numbers of union Democrats.
Meanwhile, some voters on the right who wouldn’t typically support Hillary Clinton are doing so in this election cycle simply because they find Trump unacceptable.
Never before in the history of polling have the two major parties’ likely presidential nominees been disliked by so many Americans. A Washington Post/ABC News pollreleased in June found Trump drew an incredible 70 percent disapproval rating, compared with just 29 percent approval. Clinton doesn’t fare much better: her disapproval/approval rating is 55-43 percent.
It’s difficult to explain the ascendancy of Trump – a candidate who has made headlines by bashing everyone from POWs to the Pope but praises Saddam Hussein, and who claims to be a billionaire but refuses to release his tax returns, even though he takes advantage of a New York City tax benefit available to those making less than $500,000 annually.
Whether the Republican Party can survive the divisiveness of a Trump candidacy remains to be seen. This week’s Republican National Convention – which will not include former presidential ticket members Mitt Romney and John McCain or any of the Bushes – will give us a better sense of how the party will fare.
Two recent polls reflect how Trump is repelling business leaders. A majority of Fortune 500 CEOs who responded to a survey by Fortune magazine said they would vote for Clinton. According to another poll, 65 percent of respondents supported the creation of a new political party. A follow-on poll found that a majority wanted that new party to be centrist in nature.
What would that new centrist political party look like?
It would promise and act on fiscal restraint, while refraining from government intrusion on social issues. It would end pharmaceutical companies charging Americans the most for prescription drugs.
It would decriminalize marijuana. It would recognize that most Americans don’t like abortion, but that they think it should be legal, albeit with restrictions.
It would attack health care costs by encouraging home care, urging end-of-life planning and ending incentives for doctors who use the most expensive options. It would cut litigation by patent trolls and discourage class-action lawsuits primarily enriching lawyers.
It would promote trade agreements, educate and train our young people for the jobs we need and discourage excessive college debt. It would simplify taxes and cut government programs. And it would recognize the value of our military, for both defense and training, and getting many of our most disadvantaged youth workplace-ready.
Voters should head to the polls this year in the spirit of hope, not anger. Let’s work together to build a party, and a nation, that works for voters, not against them, and supports the American Dream.
Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies, and author of the New York Times best-selling books, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses and The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream. His views are his own. Connect with him on Twitter: @GaryShapiro
