We need more politics

By Lee H. Hamilton


Every so often, I jot down a list of the things that discourage me about our country. There’s the widespread disregard for our core values of tolerance and mutual respect, for instance. Our declining national optimism.

Our relaxed attitude toward fixing our election machinery, overseeing financial institutions and making sure that our key democratic institutions and processes are working effectively. There’s wage stagnation, income inequality, a high poverty rate, failing infrastructure, inadequate health-care coverage, a dysfunctional Congress…. You get the idea.

This is not really a list of failings. It’s a to-do list. And it pretty much begs the question, if we’re not to throw up our hands and give in, how do we make progress on it? Well, I’ll tell you: politics.

I suppose most Americans will disagree. How can we depend on people – politicians – whom many hold in utter disregard? And what can we expect from political institutions like legislatures, Congress, the bureaucracy, the political parties and a rickety electoral system that are widely viewed with suspicion?

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