Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

The question to ask in 2020

First Democratic debate

Debate moderators and voters should be asking presidential candidates what they would do to help heal our national divisions, writes Michael V. Murphy.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images News

Murphy is director of the FixUS initiative at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which educates the public about issues with significant fiscal policy impact.

A dozen Democratic primary debates have already been announced, with the first taking place this week. While everything from Medicare for All to impeachment and immigration are sure to be raised, I fear not a single question will be asked on the topic most needing discussion – the state of our democracy.

Whether in Iowa living rooms, New Hampshire union halls or South Carolina coffee shops, the presidential primaries offer a chance to raise issues that often fall off the radar once nominees are chosen and the general election is under way. The first primaries and caucuses are a mere seven months away and there's no doubt that countless advocacy groups are already on the ground, organizing and hoping to elevate their issues with both voters and candidates.

Having run a coalition effort to bring attention to the importance of the national debt in the 2016 cycle, I'm intimately familiar with the work being undertaken by advocacy groups in these early states. Unfortunately it is now four years later, and our debt situation has greatly deteriorated. Next year, the federal government will spend more on interest payments on the debt than it spends on children – in other words, we'll be doing more to finance our past than invest in our future.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

While candidates for federal office are and must be asked how they will fix the debt, this time around there is a more pressing question that needs to be asked – one that affects not only the debt, but the ability to make progress on a multitude of issues confronting the electorate.

The question goes something like this:

"My primary issue of concern is [fill in the blank], but politics in Washington have been mired in gridlock for years. Even when things are passed in Washington, it is often by party-line votes with the risk that it will be overturned after the next election given how divided we are as a nation. As [president, senator or House member] what changes will you make to help heal our national divisions and ultimately improve our government's ability to function and address pressing challenges? And how will you lead in Washington to make sure these changes are enacted?"

Pinning candidates down on specifics here is important, given that politicians for years have paid lip service to the need to bring us together to solve problems but to no avail.


The worsening of the debt, along with a range of other policy problems, symbolizes the brokenness of our political system – one that routinely discourages making tough choices or achieving bipartisan compromise, that focuses on short-term political gain at the expense of solving long-term issues, and that in many ways is set up to reward hyper-partisanship over making progress on behalf of the American people.

Consider the following report card tracking our lack of progress since the start of this century, the time in which the millennial generation, now the largest eligible voting bloc, came of age to engage in and observe our political discourse:

Admittedly, focusing on just these stats is a gross oversimplification of the issues facing our nation. Each of these illustrative problems have strong ideological differences on how they should be addressed, and our system of government was designed to be slow in enacting change.

But what is important is this – majorities of Americans would agree that some sort of resolution is desirable. We have policy ideas that have been developed by those in each party, yet minimal progress has been made.

The hyper-partisanship that has come to define our politics has produced a predictable, all too familiar cycle. Major legislation is passed on a party-line vote, with the opposition vowing to undo what the majority has done.

Is it any wonder why public trust in government is at record lows?

As Albert Einstein said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. While continuing to press for action on the debt and other issues remains important, the political climate seems ripe for a cross-partisan coalition to come together under common cause to reform our political system.

The good news is the seeds of such an effort have already been planted. Over the past few years a multitude of groups have sprouted up, dedicated to better understanding the root causes of our political divisions and advancing changes.

Some of these seek to enact electoral and governance reform, such as redistricting, campaign finance reform, ethics reform, changes to congressional rules and a host of other institutional reforms. Others are studying how our economic system has contributed to rising anxiety and political tension, and encouraging action to address increasing economic disparities and an economic system perceived as no longer working for many Americans. There are also those attempting to promote new models of civic engagement and civil discourse, seeking to confront a growing cultural divide and a sense of lost shared values.

Much like fixing the debt, there is no silver bullet or cure-all that will address the polarization that has led us to this state of affairs. The root causes are interrelated, long in the making, and may take years to enact required changes to alter our trajectory. With all eyes on 2020, and the nation's attention focused on politics, it is incumbent upon those who seek to lead our nation to answer how they would address the meta issue of our time and for us to ask it.

Read More

Podcast: How do police feel about gun control?

Podcast: How do police feel about gun control?

Jesus "Eddie" Campa, former Chief Deputy of the El Paso County Sheriff's Department and former Chief of Police for Marshall Texas, discusses the recent school shooting in Uvalde and how loose restrictions on gun ownership complicate the lives of law enforcement on this episode of YDHTY.

Listen now

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

There's something natural and organic about perceiving that the people in power are out to advance their own interests. It's in part because it’s often true. Governments actually do keep secrets from the public. Politicians engage in scandals. There often is corruption at high levels. So, we don't want citizens in a democracy to be too trusting of their politicians. It's healthy to be skeptical of the state and its real abuses and tendencies towards secrecy. The danger is when this distrust gets redirected, not toward the state, but targets innocent people who are not actually responsible for people's problems.

Keep ReadingShow less
Your Take:  The Price of Freedom

Your Take: The Price of Freedom

Our question about the price of freedom received a light response. We asked:

What price have you, your friends or your family paid for the freedom we enjoy? And what price would you willingly pay?

It was a question born out of the horror of images from Ukraine. We hope that the news about the Jan. 6 commission and Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination was so riveting that this question was overlooked. We considered another possibility that the images were so traumatic, that our readers didn’t want to consider the question for themselves. We saw the price Ukrainians paid.

One response came from a veteran who noted that being willing to pay the ultimate price for one’s country and surviving was a gift that was repaid over and over throughout his life. “I know exactly what it is like to accept that you are a dead man,” he said. What most closely mirrored my own experience was a respondent who noted her lack of payment in blood, sweat or tears, yet chose to volunteer in helping others exercise their freedom.

Personally, my price includes service to our nation, too. The price I paid was the loss of my former life, which included a husband, a home and a seemingly secure job to enter the political fray with a message of partisan healing and hope for the future. This work isn’t risking my life, but it’s the price I’ve paid.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Given the earnest question we asked, and the meager responses, I am also left wondering if we think at all about the price of freedom? Or have we all become so entitled to our freedom that we fail to defend freedom for others? Or was the question poorly timed?

I read another respondent’s words as an indicator of his pacifism. And another veteran who simply stated his years of service. And that was it. Four responses to a question that lives in my heart every day. We look forward to hearing Your Take on other topics. Feel free to share questions to which you’d like to respond.

Keep ReadingShow less
No, autocracies don't make economies great

libre de droit/Getty Images

No, autocracies don't make economies great

Tom G. Palmer has been involved in the advance of democratic free-market policies and reforms around the globe for more than three decades. He is executive vice president for international programs at Atlas Network and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

One argument frequently advanced for abandoning the messy business of democratic deliberation is that all those checks and balances, hearings and debates, judicial review and individual rights get in the way of development. What’s needed is action, not more empty debate or selfish individualism!

In the words of European autocrat Viktor Orbán, “No policy-specific debates are needed now, the alternatives in front of us are obvious…[W]e need to understand that for rebuilding the economy it is not theories that are needed but rather thirty robust lads who start working to implement what we all know needs to be done.” See! Just thirty robust lads and one far-sighted overseer and you’re on the way to a great economy!

Keep ReadingShow less
Podcast: A right-wing perspective on Jan. 6th and the 2020 election

Podcast: A right-wing perspective on Jan. 6th and the 2020 election

Peter Wood is an anthropologist and president of the National Association of Scholars. He believes—like many Americans on the right—that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and the January 6th riots were incited by the left in collusion with the FBI. He’s also the author of a new book called Wrath: America Enraged, which wrestles with our politics of anger and counsels conservatives on how to respond to perceived aggression.

Where does America go from here? In this episode, Peter joins Ciaran O’Connor for a frank conversation about the role of anger in our politics as well as the nature of truth, trust, and conspiracy theories.

Keep ReadingShow less