America Is Angry: What’s It Mean for Higher Ed and the Rest of Us?

It’s easy to misread election results. After all, all politics are local. The reasons for voting Republican in West Virginia are different from the reasons in Colorado. Yet the results are indisputable: Republicans now will be firmly in control of the Congress. And I think the primary reason is that America is angry.

Wall Street and economic pundits tell us that things are getting better. The unemployment rate has slowly crawled off the high ledge where it was perched immediately after the financial collapse of 2008-09. The economy is growing, albeit slowly. The stock market has been on a tear. Things are improving, or so we’re told. But last night’s vote tells a different story. It tells the story of a troubled nation.

Personally, I don’t think most politicians (of either party), Wall Street power brokers or academic economists have any idea how hard it is for many Americans to…