Focus on Feelings is Destroying America

Focus on Feelings is Destroying America
May 30, 2022 Comments Off on Focus on Feelings is Destroying America Economy, Op-Ed, RNHA News Articles Paul Lott

When I decided to run for Congress in Virginia’s 10th District, I was not prepared for much of what I have encountered. I left the race because I thought it more important to continue the fight for parent’s rights, but I took a major lesson from politics.  Feelings are destroying America. I said it. The problems we face come from the fact that feelings have overtaken facts and history in decision-making. Most of the problems we face were avoidable because the facts told us that the decisions of the Biden administration could never work.

Emotional Victories Hurt Americans

Just look at Biden’s Executive Order shutting down the Keystone Pipeline. The fact is that carbon emissions rose as a result of that action. Rather than having oil delivered through a nearly emissions free pipeline from just 1,100 miles away, our government chose to have oil delivered from 6,600 miles away. The oil has to be transported on diesel fueled boats and then trucked to refineries at a significant increase in cost and carbon emission from countries that consider us their enemy.

To those in the climate change fight, this was an emotional victory. Never mind that shutting down the pipeline resulted in the opposite of what climate activists felt it would do. Gas prices are up and Americans are driving anyway. Costs of just about everything are sky rocketing hurting the poor and middle class more than even our best experts could have predicted. It was not an actual victory. Facts were ignored for the sake of an emotional win. As I campaigned and presented policies based on facts, most of the people I encountered, on the left and right, cared more about their feelings with little regard for facts.

Most Voters Ignore Facts

How does a country survive on emotional policies? We see decision after decision being decided on emotions giving us outcomes that truly hurt Americans. When faced with facts, all we hear is silence from those on the left. The sad truth is that most people vote on feelings. They rarely try to understand the problem and instead jump on the bandwagon of what feels good. They look for the easy solution that feels compassionate like defund the police, open our borders, and open our election system to potential corruption. It’s not compassion. Its suicide.

It’s time for Americans to start holding the political class accountable for emotional decisions. Every major crisis of the last generation has been caused by emotional political decisions made into laws that have unintended negative effects. Our greatest economic crisis of the last decade, the Great Recession, was caused by bad government policies that allowed unqualified individuals to get mortgages that the free market said they could not afford. The free market was correct.  There were 3.7 million foreclosures during the Great Recession. By contrast, the Great Depression only saw an increase in the number of foreclosures from 134,900 in 1929 to 252,400 in 1933. An increase of 117,000. Its time to govern on facts and not feelings.

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About The Author
Paul Lott Paul Lott is the Founder of the National Society for the Advancement of Black Americans, an organization formed in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots as a needed counterbalance to the false racial narrative being pushed in American today. Mr. Lott is an alumnus of Harvard College, a U.S. Army veteran, father, author, and long-time education activist.