The continuing failure of Washington to forge sustainable solutions to pressing problems like health care, income inequality, immigration, race relations and climate change has done more than deny the nation effective responses to its greatest challenges. Federal deadlock is undermining American’s confidence in our constitutional democracy.
The fact that most Americans see the federal government as broken has led many of our fellow citizens to conclude that democracy doesn’t work.
Recent polls indicate that roughly 30 percent of Americans would prefer government “with a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with Congress and elections” or “army rule” to our current democratic system.
The culprit most cited for Washington deadlock is the partisan, cultural, ethnic, generational and economic divides that have deepened over the past decades. The solution promoted by pundits and politicians alike has been for leadership that “brings us together” around a new national consensus on the best solutions.
We disagree.
Continue reading at The Hill.
