2018, The Year That Wasn’t 

By Hank Silverberg

The year is rapidly coming to an end and it’s time to look back on 2018 with reflection. Really? Do we have to? 

As years go, 2018 was not a good one. It was not as bad as a hundred years ago in 1918, when a million men died in the last horrible months of World War One. It was not as bad as 50 years ago in 1968 when Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. But 2018 was still not a good year.  

It was the year in which Donald Trump continued to dismantle much of the progress of the last four decades and ignored most of the growing problems of the 21^st century. The best example is climate change, which is getting worse. Mr. Trump withdrew in 2017 from the Climate Change Accord signed by 174 countries and the European Union. He still calls it a hoax and belittles the science. But as I wrote last month, he continues to ignore the evidence as the impact gets worse. 

    https://hanksilverberg.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-changingclimate-by-hanksilverberg-i.html 

The Trump Administration will spin the year differently, of course. They will tell you the economy is good, unemployment is low, and we are safer than we were just two years ago. 

True, the national unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent in November. Yes, more people are working. But millions of people (4.9 percent) are working two or three jobs to keep up with the bills and groceries. And that figure has NOT improved. 

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/4-point-9-percent-of-workers-held-more-than-one-job-at-the-same-time-in-2017.htm

 Wages have been relatively stagnant (up just .07 percent by October), BIG layoffs are not uncommon, and the stock market has been extremely volatile with the worst December in history.   

There were 307 mass shootings in 2018, and the only change in gun control has been the elimination of bump stocks, those appendages that turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon.  So, are we safer?

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-mass-shootings-in-america-this-year-2018-2?r=UK&IR=T   

 Congress has spent a great deal of time doing, well, nothing. They passed the President’s tax cut, in 2017 which gives the big tax breaks to corporations. That was supposed to help the economy and create jobs, but it has only increased the big bonuses for corporate executives, and has done little to prevent massive layoffs. In 2018 thousands of workers in 17 major companies were laid off despite the tax cut, including Citibank (10,000) AT&T (4,000), G-M (1,500 with more coming), Kimberly Clark (5,000), Hewlett-Packard (5,000) and others like Comcast, Harley Davidson, Microsoft, and even McDonald’s.

The tax cut was supposed to put more money in the hands of workers, but several reports say the average worker takes home only about two cents more per hour in 2018 because of the tax cut. https://www.vox.com/2018/12/18/18144509/tax-cut-bill-workers-bonus 

There was a hope of progress on other issues when congress passed, and the president signed, a prison reform bill this week. It will cut some long-term sentences for some non-violent criminals and provide more treatment for those with drug possession convictions. But before the ink was dry on that bill, the president negated a bipartisan agreement in Congress to continue funding the government and congress members went home.  

The government is now partially shut down, with 380 thousand federal workers on furlough (unpaid leave), and 420 thousand who are considered essential will work without a paycheck until congress acts.

(Sign at Washington Monument 2013,

 the last time the Government closed)

You’ve probably heard it’s all about five billion dollars the President wants for a border wall. That was, after all, one of his big campaign promises –to control illegal immigration and secure our southern border with a wall. He says he can’t break that promise. But wait, didn’t that campaign pledge say Mexico was going to pay for that wall? The promise is already broken. (I could do another column on the long history of failed border walls, including the Great Wall of China, but that would be like beating a dead horse.)  

The year will end with thousands of immigrants waiting on the border in limbo, or worse, in detention camps, waiting months to find out if the land of the free will let them in. 

The only significant change in 2018 from the dismal year of 2017 was the election of more democrats in the House which will put them in control in 2019. But it remains to be seen if that means anything with the GOP still in control of the Senate and Republicans still bent on rubber stamping Trump instead of working on practical, bipartisan solutions.     

And, since the increasing political and legal allegations against the President did not play out in 2018, there is the likelihood that much of 2019 will be taken up with investigations, legal battles and produce more gridlock.  

I have avoided discussing foreign policy disasters in 2018 in this column because the consequences there are downright scary and this week is supposed to be about good will and peace.   

Celebrating the New Year is a time of nostalgia for the good things that have passed, and hope for a new beginning in the future. In 1919 with the Great War over and the world finally at peace, there was much to hope for. In 1969, no one looked back, but they did look forward to a year when man would walk on the moon. 

Frankly, as 2018 ends, outside of their own family, most Americans have nothing to celebrate and little to look forward to.    

Despite all that readers, may your holiday season be one of happiness and good will. 

(Your comments and suggestions are welcome, in the section below) 

(My book, with my signature, can be purchased at a reduced cost of just $12.00 softcover, or $15.00 hard cover by emailing me at HankSilverberg@gmail.com for details.  It is also available at Amazon.com, BN.com and HankSilverbergbook.com)