The American people are petrified

It must be nice for the politicians, billionaires, celebrities, academics and media elites who live in bubbles of privilege, luxury and protection floating aimlessly above working class, poor and continually disenfranchised Americans. Their condescending edicts of “Do as I say, not as I do” upend more order and more lives by the day.

But beneath those bubbles of luxury and privilege, the American people are petrified. Tens of millions no longer recognize the country they were raised in as they fear for their personal safety, their economic security and the future well-being of their children. Day by day, these Americans are becoming convinced that their nation and their world is on the verge of collapse.

This is not a partisan belief. This is not ideologically driven. This is not based on race, religion or sexual orientation. This is about tens of millions of poor, disenfranchised, working-class and middle-class Americans from every single demographic and community who feel lost, confused, alone and stressed about what the next day will bring.

They are scared. But more than anything else, they feel betrayed.

These are Americans who play by the rules, pay their taxes and respect authority. Every single day they keep their compact with our nation. And every single day they feel cast aside or ignored by the system they have supported their entire lives.

They now look out their windows at a nation that has been purposefully divided by political elites, activists and anarchists looking to consolidate power, increase their control over the masses, cash in or (usually) all three.

Tens of millions of Americans who are at the breaking point after being manipulated by the fear and threats directed at them by those either elected or appointed to serve them. But of course, those overlords don’t serve the American people. They don’t serve the working class, the poor and the disenfranchised. They serve only themselves, their parties, the billionaires, activists and organizations directing them.

These entrenched elites float high above the unwashed masses in bubbles of luxury, privilege, ignorance and even contempt. As they do, over 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. The same share doesn’t have even $1,000 in the bank for an emergency expense. Inflation is forcing them to choose between necessities; they use credit cards to purchase the bare necessities and are then hit with crippling interest rates.

For the elites in the bubbles, this is all a “Let them eat cake” moment. But for the working class of America, this is not only devastating, but unsustainable.

To be sure, millions of these petrified Americans believe the Democrats have gleefully allowed the “woke” left of their party to systematically destroy everything or every institution they depend upon for quality-of-life issues. Be those pertaining to energy independence, higher education, housing, the financial system, the supply chain, border security, the military, the medical and pharmaceutical industry, the media or entertainment. The woke left now dictates — with the blessing of Democratic politician enablers — that all must now be viewed and run through the distorted lens of identity politics.

But when these same millions of hurting Americans turn their eyes toward a Republican Party that promises to reverse all the damage being done by the left, they see only out-of-touch elitists doing the bidding of the corporate elites, while breaking every promise made.

For those truly paying attention, there is no mystery as to why the voice of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is resonating with more and more of these Americans. Every single day in his X feed, Kennedy takes on the politically- and activist-created threats that are overwhelming the American people and causing them to lose hope. Every day he is telling the voiceless that he hears them.

Instead of President Biden and his team directing the Democratic National Committee to smear Kennedy and take out his populist campaign, it seems the wiser choice would be to determine why Kennedy’s voice is now resonating with millions of petrified Americans. The same advice holds true for Trump and the Republican National Committee.

Because they exist in bubbles of guarded privilege, the elites may not realize it, but they have lost the locker room. More and more Americans have come to believe that our nation is broken and that those in power have abandoned them for reasons of self-interest. In a shocking new poll out by Scott Rasmussen, only 22 percent of voters trust the federal government to do the right thing most of the time. They are believing their “lying eyes” and realizing that no one in authority is there for them.

Politics, patronage and privilege as usual are destroying the hopes, dreams and futures of tens of millions of Americans. Petrified Americans.

Newsflash to the entrenched elites: If those Americans fall, your bubbles will eventually burst.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.