the mellow tigger's musings

I've been saying at least since the Occupy movement that people "on the street" are distressed and need help. I've also said that Bernie Sanders (and Elizabeth Warren and Mike Gravel) was a populist answer to this need who appeared on the Democrat ticket for U.S. President. A new large-scale study appears to support my assertion that people want a populist leader during these trying times.

"Feelings of sadness, anger, and despair might hold the key to understanding the rise of populist leaders like Donald Trump in recent years. A large-scale study published in American Psychologist suggests that negative emotions among voters are not only linked to populist attitudes but are also significant predictors of populist voting behavior in major elections. This research, which spans over 150 countries and includes the analysis of more than 2 billion tweets, emphasizes the overlooked role of emotions like sadness and depression in driving the demand for populism."
- https://www.psypost.org/emotional-distress-among-voters-tied-to-trumps-populist-appeal-research-shows/

I also insist that similar reasons lead to the persistent trouble here in north Minneapolis. I woke early Sunday morning (and lost about 1.5 hours of sleep, being unable to return to sleep, even though I don't remember hearing the gunshots) around the time of some gunshots about 5 blocks southeast of my house. News broke later on Sunday that 5 kids received gunfire aimed at them at one of the blocks I travel through on my trips to/from the big Cub grocery store. They were found farther south, in a stolen Kia. They were shot by somebody with a fully automatic weapon. They're just kids, 11-14 years old, but one news report on tv said at least some of them had been arrested previously. I've seen multiple videos like this one of the brazenness of people in their stolen cars. I can't find it now, but I've seen video of actual children in these cars, driving through a red light at an intersection about 2 blocks southwest of me.

I don't know the answer here, but I still insist that the USA is not confronting its deep economic inequality. They say that USA inequality now is worse than during our historical age of robber barons, worse than during the Great Depression. I don't know what is keeping our systems together. I'll leave you with these 20 minutes of Bernie Sanders speaking on the Senate floor just 2 weeks ago.

I know nothing about the Institute For Quality Of Life, but they recently produced a Happy City Index for 2024. Their methodology included only cities with at least 300,000 people (which included 1,692 cities in the world in 2014 when that requirement changed) and have objective data available for 24 activities across 5 categories. These activities include things like the following:

• citizens (education, inclusion, libraries),
• governance (openness, digital service, strategy/vision),
• environment (management, green spaces, pollution),
• economy (GDP, innovation, entrepreneurship, flexibility), and
• mobility (public transport, mobile applications, safety, multimodal).

There is only one USA city to make the "gold" rating:

Minneapolis, at #18 in the rankings

This metro area is like Austin (a gay-friendly and bike-trail city which didn't make the list at all) but without the awful traffic congestion and ozone pollution. The USA cities that earned silver ratings are: Boston (#38), Baltimore (#57), and Washington (#85). The USA cities that earned bronze ratings are: San Francisco (#114), Salt Lake City (#145), Madison (#167), Pittsburgh (#190), Rochester (#214), and Portland (#237). See the whole list yourself.

I tell you occasionally about the high voter participation in Minnesota, but the civic mindedness here includes both conservatives and liberals, best exemplified by our US Senator, Paul Wellstone and his famous truism, "We all do better when we all do better." Don't let my little warzone dissuade you from considering Minneapolis (or Minnesota in general) as a relocation destination. Most of the people here are nice and want peaceful coexistence. Even my Jordan neighborhood of north Minneapolis has its small charms. If we can ever get the gunfire under control, it could easily become the kind of creative center that's typical of many multicultural zones throughout the world. While Prince lived in north Minneapolis as he learned music, that home was rather far south of me. It's an obvious example, though, of the potential that I see in the community here.