We Are Stressed! How much Of It Is Our Own Political Fault?
Are you feeling stressed by national and world events?
Millions of Americans including thousands of your Yakamanian neighbors are stressed out and burnt out.
The Stress Factor Are Many And Real
We talk about it every day on the radio. The usual suspects include the pandemic, the handling of the pandemic, the economy, inflation, gas prices, government lies & misinformation, political division, censorship & big tech, the "woke" state and so much more...like Russia invading Ukraine and the prospect of World War III !
Does all this come as a surprise or did we see it coming with the election of Joe Biden in 2020? The 538 blog ran some numbers of interest.
Who Saw The Potential For Misery And Stress
December 2020, Biden won so "happy days were here again", right Democrats? Or so they thought - only 19% polled were concerned about the coming year of 2021. Republicans saw it much differently with 58 percent concerned for what the Biden administration would bring to life in America.
How did that turn out in 2021? Exactly.
Republicans were correct in their concerns and Democrats were naive or complicit in all that led to the 538's discovery pre-2022:
Americans were even less optimistic and more nervous about this new year than they were heading into 2021
Seeing The Light
Heading into 2022, the 19% of concerned Democrats grew to 45% ... and the 58% of concerned Republicans became 69% expressing fear for what awaited the world in 2022.
A January Global Strategy Group/GBAO/Navigator Research survey found that a majority of Americans (52 percent) felt “frustrated” about politics since Biden’s election. The sentiment was particularly high among Republicans (78 percent), but independents (55 percent) and roughly one-quarter of Democrats (29 percent) felt the same.
Stress Is Abnormally Uniform and Widespread
So here we sit three months into 2022 and we are more stressed than before!
Financial woes, coupled with a barrage of horrifying scenes from Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion, have pushed a majority of Americans to unprecedented levels of stress, according to a new report from the American Psychological Association.
From Yonkers to Yakima, 87 percent of those surveyed say rising costs of everyday items, such as groceries and gasoline are a "significant source of stress." In a follow-up poll, the threats expanded from financial loss and inconvenience to fears of life and death.
Eighty percent of respondents said they were concerned about potential retaliation from Russia, either through cyberattacks or nuclear threats. And 69 percent said they feared they were witnessing the beginning stages of what could be World War III.
Three More Years...Now That's A Source of Stress
Some of the threats and challenges are out of our control but others are the result of decisions made that took us from energy independence to being told we have to sacrifice and suffer and it's all Putin's fault.
Let's run another poll and see how many Americans are buying into that!
My generation used to "Dream of Jeannie". Now we dream of two-dollar gas, supply chains, mask freedom, and true and honest leadership in America.
LOOK: Just some of the photos that capture the historic year that was 2020
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