Let’s focus on the real issues we face

How disappointing that the recent election “autopsy” coming out of the Democratic National Convention neglected to acknowledge the campaign’s failure to address the biggest challenges facing the electorate.

Chasing the outrage that spins out of the White House on a daily basis is not a winning strategy. Instead, focus on building our society by ensuring its citizens’ basic needs are met, foremost among those needs: health care, education and housing. Deficiencies in these areas cause many of the ills that we face today.

Health care: The United States spends significantly more per capita on medical care than any other high-income nation, yet routinely achieves worse health outcomes, routinely prioritizing corporate profit and complex administrative insurance barriers over accessible, preventive care.

Education: America’s education system is fundamentally broken because it relies on outdated funding models and standardized metrics, which trap students in a cycle of inequity while saddling graduates with crushing debt.

Housing: America’s broken housing system is the result of decades of exclusionary zoning policies, chronic underbuilding and financialization that have collectively created a massive housing shortage, driving home prices beyond the reach of everyday Americans.

To me, these are the issues that our nation should be chasing; working collectively as lawmakers and voting, engaged citizenry. Let’s stop chasing bad behavior-du jour and focus on what really matters. If done properly, all the outrage will start dissipating and our nation will start to heal.

Chris Cantele

Chicago