I think another key to recovery is related to how money moves around in society. As long as campaign donations can buy policy we will see politicians acting in the interest of business rather than the people. Reversing Citizens United would be a good first step in at least providing transparency on who is funding policy.
The same for the media as you touched on. As long as the priority is on profits, they will behave in the interest of outrage instead of community.
Absolutely. There should be a nationwide movement to reverse the Citizens United decision at this point in time, but it looks like we'll need a bottom-up movement to eventually take on that challenge as well.
I'm big on localization, but I think there's a real chance for this to snowball that people aren't catching on to yet. People doubt that a new party can work because most other prominent minor parties pursue a high-level campaign at the expense of real party-building. If someone stays laser focused on the latter and starts building in communities across the country, I think people will see a success story and start to jump on board. People are desperate to end the two-party system, after all, they just need proof that it can happen.
I don't know what it would take to break off from a party but both major parties have internal divisions that different enough to be more successful if divorced from their current affiliation.
I think it's true that the divisions within the major parties make them closer to splintering today than they have been in a long time. As the article mentions there were four Democrats Arizona State Representatives who announced themselves as "Forward Democrats" this year, aligning themselves with the Forward Party movement while remaining registered Democrats.
It's a big leap from four State Representatives to the rest of the country, but those four choosing to come out as Forward Democrats is something of a model for how it could be done.
"Basic costs of living such as healthcare, renting an apartment or buying a home, childcare, and college education are increasingly unaffordable for the average person."
This is true and the solutions to these problems are fairly obvious, only politically difficult. As I have written, we could end student loans and replace them with ISAs, we could easing zoning regs to bring down housing costs, and adopt risk adjusted capitation for healthcare.
All would work, we know they would because they work elsewhere. The problem is that undertaking real reform means abandoning the political and ideological system the two parties have built. You are correct that we need a third party, but I am not sure how that will play out in practice.
Right, I like to think of it this way: the solutions are simple, not easy. What needs to be done is relatively straightforward, it's mostly just cutting out waste and fraud. But simple does not mean easy to accomplish.
I think that the best way it can play out in practice is for new parties to start winning local elections and solving problems. This does two things: first, new parties can actually get some influence to get things done in communities and build that up to the state level. Second, it builds up a new party's reputation so they can actually make progress on building a national brand.
Great article! I agree with so many of the premises in your argument. "The United States is facing a crisis of confidence in its political and economic systems." The dual nature of the American crisis only adds to the sadness that culture wars are making pragmatic problem solving so difficult.
Your reference to "pervasive corruption in our society" is so critical to getting at the root of the problem. It's not "hard corruption" that poses the real problem (breaking legal statutes), but soft corruption (giving way to perverse incentives that self-serve and enrich at the harmful expense of others). However, we are seeing too many instances of trying to find legal fault with opponents for the purpose of political take-downs.
I absolutely love the acknowledgement that "No one person or entity is to blame for the fragile state of our Union today, nor did we did get here purely by accident." The problem is structural and moral. This has everything to do with complex system dynamics operating with feedback loops. It just happens to feel like the two-party doom loop right now - cooperation turned to full-scale competition (like the Prisoners Dilemma framework in game theory economics) and the informal checks of our democratic system have broken down such that mutual tolerance and institutional forbearance are no longer the default norms of civic behavior.
"U.S. elections have become less competitive in recent years due to gerrymandering." It's also more than that. Political sorting by identity and geography are also huge factors. Gerrymandering is a corrupt overlay on top of those forces.
You absolutely nailed the heart of the matter: "In essence, the culture wars stem from the erosion of average Americans' ability to attain financial self-reliance, impact government policy, or simply survive." The corrupt merger of state and corporate power leaves citizens feeling powerless to preserve certain freedoms or obtain adequate security for the basics of life. The more that corporate welfare and rent-seeking behaviors become entrenched in the current political structure, the harder it becomes for any election to bring change at the national level.
Localization and election reform are both great potential sources of renewal. I strongly support both. Still, I liken the political problem to gardening in an old growth forest. If no one ever lops off the tops of the overgrown trees, it's hard to get the sunlight down to the newly-planted sources of life on the ground below. I will be exploring other ideas to end the culture war that involve "one fell swoop" in my soon-to-launch Substack - The Common Sense Papers. Tipping point moments do come, and often quite suddenly. You simply need the right context, message, and messengers to all coincide - when that happens, revolutionary change is possible.
Thanks for your comment Joe! It feels like there is a need to identify the root causes for our problems that are currently covered by the "fog of the culture war," essentially. People need to be able to see the path out of the culture war if we're going to pursue that path. I personally think that localization is the strongest way to go right now, election reforms are also vital but a very tall order in states that do not allow citizen-led ballot initiatives. Those 24 states can much more easily pursue local political wins as well as state-level ballot initiatives.
Fantastic article.
I think another key to recovery is related to how money moves around in society. As long as campaign donations can buy policy we will see politicians acting in the interest of business rather than the people. Reversing Citizens United would be a good first step in at least providing transparency on who is funding policy.
The same for the media as you touched on. As long as the priority is on profits, they will behave in the interest of outrage instead of community.
Absolutely. There should be a nationwide movement to reverse the Citizens United decision at this point in time, but it looks like we'll need a bottom-up movement to eventually take on that challenge as well.
I'm big on localization, but I think there's a real chance for this to snowball that people aren't catching on to yet. People doubt that a new party can work because most other prominent minor parties pursue a high-level campaign at the expense of real party-building. If someone stays laser focused on the latter and starts building in communities across the country, I think people will see a success story and start to jump on board. People are desperate to end the two-party system, after all, they just need proof that it can happen.
I don't know what it would take to break off from a party but both major parties have internal divisions that different enough to be more successful if divorced from their current affiliation.
I think it's true that the divisions within the major parties make them closer to splintering today than they have been in a long time. As the article mentions there were four Democrats Arizona State Representatives who announced themselves as "Forward Democrats" this year, aligning themselves with the Forward Party movement while remaining registered Democrats.
It's a big leap from four State Representatives to the rest of the country, but those four choosing to come out as Forward Democrats is something of a model for how it could be done.
"Basic costs of living such as healthcare, renting an apartment or buying a home, childcare, and college education are increasingly unaffordable for the average person."
This is true and the solutions to these problems are fairly obvious, only politically difficult. As I have written, we could end student loans and replace them with ISAs, we could easing zoning regs to bring down housing costs, and adopt risk adjusted capitation for healthcare.
All would work, we know they would because they work elsewhere. The problem is that undertaking real reform means abandoning the political and ideological system the two parties have built. You are correct that we need a third party, but I am not sure how that will play out in practice.
Right, I like to think of it this way: the solutions are simple, not easy. What needs to be done is relatively straightforward, it's mostly just cutting out waste and fraud. But simple does not mean easy to accomplish.
I think that the best way it can play out in practice is for new parties to start winning local elections and solving problems. This does two things: first, new parties can actually get some influence to get things done in communities and build that up to the state level. Second, it builds up a new party's reputation so they can actually make progress on building a national brand.
Great article! I agree with so many of the premises in your argument. "The United States is facing a crisis of confidence in its political and economic systems." The dual nature of the American crisis only adds to the sadness that culture wars are making pragmatic problem solving so difficult.
Your reference to "pervasive corruption in our society" is so critical to getting at the root of the problem. It's not "hard corruption" that poses the real problem (breaking legal statutes), but soft corruption (giving way to perverse incentives that self-serve and enrich at the harmful expense of others). However, we are seeing too many instances of trying to find legal fault with opponents for the purpose of political take-downs.
I absolutely love the acknowledgement that "No one person or entity is to blame for the fragile state of our Union today, nor did we did get here purely by accident." The problem is structural and moral. This has everything to do with complex system dynamics operating with feedback loops. It just happens to feel like the two-party doom loop right now - cooperation turned to full-scale competition (like the Prisoners Dilemma framework in game theory economics) and the informal checks of our democratic system have broken down such that mutual tolerance and institutional forbearance are no longer the default norms of civic behavior.
"U.S. elections have become less competitive in recent years due to gerrymandering." It's also more than that. Political sorting by identity and geography are also huge factors. Gerrymandering is a corrupt overlay on top of those forces.
You absolutely nailed the heart of the matter: "In essence, the culture wars stem from the erosion of average Americans' ability to attain financial self-reliance, impact government policy, or simply survive." The corrupt merger of state and corporate power leaves citizens feeling powerless to preserve certain freedoms or obtain adequate security for the basics of life. The more that corporate welfare and rent-seeking behaviors become entrenched in the current political structure, the harder it becomes for any election to bring change at the national level.
Localization and election reform are both great potential sources of renewal. I strongly support both. Still, I liken the political problem to gardening in an old growth forest. If no one ever lops off the tops of the overgrown trees, it's hard to get the sunlight down to the newly-planted sources of life on the ground below. I will be exploring other ideas to end the culture war that involve "one fell swoop" in my soon-to-launch Substack - The Common Sense Papers. Tipping point moments do come, and often quite suddenly. You simply need the right context, message, and messengers to all coincide - when that happens, revolutionary change is possible.
Thanks for your comment Joe! It feels like there is a need to identify the root causes for our problems that are currently covered by the "fog of the culture war," essentially. People need to be able to see the path out of the culture war if we're going to pursue that path. I personally think that localization is the strongest way to go right now, election reforms are also vital but a very tall order in states that do not allow citizen-led ballot initiatives. Those 24 states can much more easily pursue local political wins as well as state-level ballot initiatives.
Looking forward to your upcoming Substack!