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.
"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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.