In too many small communities, the only people interested in day to day governing are the ones bending it to their financial interest. Usually property developers, sometimes people who own a local industry or visible store front (auto dealers). American's seem to be waking up.
I like your optimism and I hope true change happens For the better, I’m more than a little jaded and in my experience things only get worse.
Take “Poletown” where GM got the government to seize 1,500 homes, 144 businesses and 16 churches and bulldoze them to the ground to build a GM plant.
Ultimately GM provided half the number of promised jobs and ultimately closed the plant.
I fear what we are seeing now is 20-40M Americans lost their jobs, nearly that many will become homeless in the near future, and ultimately they will be swept under the rug (just removed from employment numbers And every other program like they don’t even exist). Watch unemployment Numbers go back to 5% or so and the politicians go back to bragging about the economy. Once you have 40M+ homeless there is no possibility for them to organize and have a voice...they won’t even have the literal energy to survive let alone effect change, they will be steamrolled just like poletown was and no one will ever even know not unlike poletown.
