The Anger Economy Is Breaking Our Politics

Politics no longer begins with a conversation. It begins with a label. 

The moment someone hears "Democrat" or "Republican," they stop listening. They assume they already know what the other person believes, and whether that person is worth taking seriously. Instead of asking what problem we're trying to solve, we ask whose side you're on. That's the anger economy at work.

The anger economy is the system that rewards outrage over solutions. It shows up in cable news segments, social media feeds, fundraising emails, and political ads designed more to make people furious than to inform them. Anger gets clicks. It raises money. But it also makes it harder for people to think clearly, listen to each other, and work together.

Most of the problems we face do not fit into one-party slogans. Housing costs, public safety, education, healthcare, immigration. All of these issues can only be solved through negotiation, hard facts, and a willingness to sit across from people who disagree with you.

Take healthcare, for example. Families across this district are choosing between groceries and prescriptions, while pharmaceutical companies pour billions into ads for the same medications those families must ration. Insurance denials wear people down until they give up. This doesn't get fixed by yelling louder than the other side. It gets fixed by working with Republicans, who hear the same complaints from their own constituents, to address the underlying profit incentive structure. In the U.S., the whole system is built to reward shareholders over delivery of care to patients.

In today's environment, compromise gets treated like weakness. Working across the aisle gets framed as betrayal. When every compromise is treated as surrender, voters are left with a divided and ineffective Congress that refuses to solve American problems. 

I am a Democrat because I believe in protecting rights, expanding opportunity, supporting working families, and making government work for the people it serves. None of that changes when I sit across from someone who disagrees with me.

As your representative, my most important job will be to listen to you, just like I have been doing for many months. I promise to advocate for policies that are best for you, rather than putting party loyalty before people. The point of public service is not to win the loudest argument—it is to improve people's lives, and that is exactly what I intend to do. 

CARIN'S STANCE | Let’s reject performative politics. Let’s agree to disagree honestly, and work across the aisle when it produces real results for families. Let’s give voters a Congress that actually works for them, because that is what they deserve.

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Vidushee Bala, Policy Research, Carin for Congress, edited by Carin Elam