The soul of a nation may not be restored from the top down, but for the soul to rejuvenate, it must have something to believe in. And that starts from the top.
As Marc J. Dunkelman describes in his book "Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back," the problem is that people with a wide range of values believe that government doesn't work. A majority voted for Trump (and earlier Reagan) because he agreed and promised to tear it all down and build back better (irony acknowledged).
For those who believe government can be a force for good, we must resolve our contradictions. We ask for a strong government (in the Hamiltonian tradition) to force new energy sources to save the planet while we ask government to stand down (in the Jeffersonian tradition) when it comes to abortion rights.
To reform government to be efficient and impactful for the majority of Americans, we'll need to find the sweet spot between the two and gird ourselves for the slings and arrows of both camps.
This nails it. The “soul of the nation” pitch offered comfort without repair; moral tone instead of structural change. People aren’t rejecting democracy. They’re rejecting a version of it that no longer listens, includes, or delivers.
Legitimacy has to be earned...not assumed, and not branded.
Rick… you are spot on! Her writing is superb and clears away all of the detritus! What could join Americans together? How can we clean out the rot? Who will be the leader to take us there? XXG
I agree with you, Evelyn. Biden’s speeches — and much of the Democratic narrative — don’t get to the root causes of what’s killed the American Dream and reinvent one we can believe in. It’s not enough to defend democracy in the abstract when so many people feel like they’ve done everything mostly right and are still financially falling short.
There’s no longer a credible promise that if you work hard, play by the rules, and build strong character, you’ll be okay. That dream has unraveled — with globalization, the loss of strong union jobs, and now AI accelerating inequality. Even for many white-collar workers, stability is fragile. No one in the political mainstream seems to have a clear answer for how to rebuild the financial foundation of the American Dream — except maybe Bernie Sanders, and even his ideas face what seem insurmountable structural and political roadblocks.
Most Democrats today appear to favor incremental improvements. Meanwhile, we remain divided on cultural lines: half the country feels condescended to; the other half still believes the current system might yet be tweaked to work for them. We’re trapped on the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy — worried about financial security, not citizenship. When basic security feels out of reach, it’s hard to ask what it means to be a good neighbor or citizen.
Beneath it all is the deeper realization that our politicians are bought and sold, that the system is too rigged to fix itself. We hear Socrates asking us how just laws could come from an unjust system. So, even imagining laws that would make the system fair feels like a fantasy. It’s a kind of doom loop — mistrust of a corrupt system breeds disengagement, disengagement leaves power unchecked, and unchecked power deepens the inequality. The word 'revolution' comes to mind, but we have dishes to clean.
Surely, the ideas for an alternative 'way out' must be out there — in think tanks, policy institutes, maybe buried in unread white papers. So what are we waiting for? A leader who can put it all together? Someone with the moral clarity, institutional savvy, and charisma to unite the country around a real way out? But in today’s political climate, someone that gifted might avoid politics entirely.
I hope I’m wrong. But is this close to where you think we are?
Evelyn is right on and the comments are smart. I began believing people totally saw government as wallpaper. The things they wanted, infrastructure, civil rights, FEMA, safe food and environment, libraries, museums labor boards OSHA and more became invisible.
Politicians helped this along because they are risk adverse. I thought we should label everything the federal and state government does with a big sign that said PAID FOR BY YOUR TAX DOLLARS. THANK YOU.
Ah then what do you do when you have programs people don’t understand entirely like USAID or a war or agencies that are covert that are also paid for by our tax dollars there was no way to constituency hostility, so politicians said invisibility it is. Invisibility like lying takes choice away from people.
I still like the idea of Signs that they paid by your tax dollars to remind people what the government does for them. I am not sure what the solution to to that cliché, “you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time” And of course there’s the income and power inequality that has entirely corrupted our democracy.
Solutions are hard choices and so many people wish to put the genie back in the bottle and live in a simpler world. The only way we could do that is to have the dark ages come again those same people would hate that as well.
The soul of a nation may not be restored from the top down, but for the soul to rejuvenate, it must have something to believe in. And that starts from the top.
As Marc J. Dunkelman describes in his book "Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back," the problem is that people with a wide range of values believe that government doesn't work. A majority voted for Trump (and earlier Reagan) because he agreed and promised to tear it all down and build back better (irony acknowledged).
For those who believe government can be a force for good, we must resolve our contradictions. We ask for a strong government (in the Hamiltonian tradition) to force new energy sources to save the planet while we ask government to stand down (in the Jeffersonian tradition) when it comes to abortion rights.
To reform government to be efficient and impactful for the majority of Americans, we'll need to find the sweet spot between the two and gird ourselves for the slings and arrows of both camps.
This nails it. The “soul of the nation” pitch offered comfort without repair; moral tone instead of structural change. People aren’t rejecting democracy. They’re rejecting a version of it that no longer listens, includes, or delivers.
Legitimacy has to be earned...not assumed, and not branded.
Thank you for articulating this. It’s a really meaningful framing.
This is so well-written.
Thank you, Rick!
Rick… you are spot on! Her writing is superb and clears away all of the detritus! What could join Americans together? How can we clean out the rot? Who will be the leader to take us there? XXG
I agree with you, Evelyn. Biden’s speeches — and much of the Democratic narrative — don’t get to the root causes of what’s killed the American Dream and reinvent one we can believe in. It’s not enough to defend democracy in the abstract when so many people feel like they’ve done everything mostly right and are still financially falling short.
There’s no longer a credible promise that if you work hard, play by the rules, and build strong character, you’ll be okay. That dream has unraveled — with globalization, the loss of strong union jobs, and now AI accelerating inequality. Even for many white-collar workers, stability is fragile. No one in the political mainstream seems to have a clear answer for how to rebuild the financial foundation of the American Dream — except maybe Bernie Sanders, and even his ideas face what seem insurmountable structural and political roadblocks.
Most Democrats today appear to favor incremental improvements. Meanwhile, we remain divided on cultural lines: half the country feels condescended to; the other half still believes the current system might yet be tweaked to work for them. We’re trapped on the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy — worried about financial security, not citizenship. When basic security feels out of reach, it’s hard to ask what it means to be a good neighbor or citizen.
Beneath it all is the deeper realization that our politicians are bought and sold, that the system is too rigged to fix itself. We hear Socrates asking us how just laws could come from an unjust system. So, even imagining laws that would make the system fair feels like a fantasy. It’s a kind of doom loop — mistrust of a corrupt system breeds disengagement, disengagement leaves power unchecked, and unchecked power deepens the inequality. The word 'revolution' comes to mind, but we have dishes to clean.
Surely, the ideas for an alternative 'way out' must be out there — in think tanks, policy institutes, maybe buried in unread white papers. So what are we waiting for? A leader who can put it all together? Someone with the moral clarity, institutional savvy, and charisma to unite the country around a real way out? But in today’s political climate, someone that gifted might avoid politics entirely.
I hope I’m wrong. But is this close to where you think we are?
Evelyn is right on and the comments are smart. I began believing people totally saw government as wallpaper. The things they wanted, infrastructure, civil rights, FEMA, safe food and environment, libraries, museums labor boards OSHA and more became invisible.
Politicians helped this along because they are risk adverse. I thought we should label everything the federal and state government does with a big sign that said PAID FOR BY YOUR TAX DOLLARS. THANK YOU.
Ah then what do you do when you have programs people don’t understand entirely like USAID or a war or agencies that are covert that are also paid for by our tax dollars there was no way to constituency hostility, so politicians said invisibility it is. Invisibility like lying takes choice away from people.
I still like the idea of Signs that they paid by your tax dollars to remind people what the government does for them. I am not sure what the solution to to that cliché, “you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time” And of course there’s the income and power inequality that has entirely corrupted our democracy.
Solutions are hard choices and so many people wish to put the genie back in the bottle and live in a simpler world. The only way we could do that is to have the dark ages come again those same people would hate that as well.