Quite simply, fairness matters

Sturner, the author of “Fairness Matters,” is the managing partner of Entourage Effect Capital. Meyers is the executive editor of The Fulcrum.

This is the first entry in the “Fairness Matters” series, examining structural problems with the current political systems, critical policies issues that are going unaddressed and the state of the 2024 election.

Our path forward as a nation requires that we send a resounding message to Washington that fairness matters. That proportional representation needs to be the heart and soul of our political system because, right now, the far left and the far right are disproportionately represented. Meanwhile, "we the people" are not nearly as polarized as our legislatures, and that is by design.

The absence of fairness (some real and some perceived) is driving the political dysfunction in our country today. The vast majority of the American public wakes up every day and we go to work. We are moderate in our views on most issues, mostly just to the right or left of center. Most of us value common sense in our lives and strive to find a way to peacefully get through our days, to enable us to care for our loved ones while trying to make better lives for ourselves and our children.

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If this sounds familiar and you find yourself in the proverbial middle, you too are likely frustrated with the state of disarray in politics in America.

But even if you find yourself further along — either right or left — on the ideological spectrum, and/or you've become so disenfranchised and consider yourself "anti-establishment," then you too believe our political system isn't working in the best interests of America. All of our voices matter, whether we are somewhere near the political center or closer to the extremes. We are all entitled to a proportional voice in how our nation is run.

According to a study by the Harvard Institute of Politics, a large percentage of Americans are feeling hopeless.

“Roughly 55 percent of Americans under 30 years old reported feeling ‘nervous, anxious, or on edge’ and 47 percent reported feeling ‘down, depressed or hopeless’ at least several days in the last two weeks in a new survey of young adults released by the Harvard Institute of Politics Monday.”

When people lose hope, they act in irrational ways.

To regain our footing and build hope for the future, we need to rebuild trust in our political system. We will only begin to believe, collectively, that our elected leaders were aligned in working towards our collective best interests after we instill fairness and competition in elections and governing. Then, much of what divides us and distracts us from finding common-sense solutions to the challenges we face would fade away.

Data supports this idea. A number of studies from social psychologists show that procedural fairness matters in citizens’ evaluations of the success and legitimacy of various outcomes. According to one study, conducted by the International Political Science Review:

“One of the key factors distinguishing democracies from non-democracies is the process by which political decisions are made. Central to democratic thought is the idea that policy made in an (objectively) procedurally fair manner is more legitimate than policy that violates central tenets of procedural fairness.”

The problem is pervasive and not limited to this or that particular candidate. It’s not who we elect as governor of our state or president of the United States. The problem is not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party or their partisan views or platforms. Ultimately, the problem lies with the system itself. It is a fact that the system that governs us today has been corrupted and is the source of much of the rancor and divisiveness that we struggle with every day in this country.

When it comes to taking action to address the issues facing our country, Americans have been lulled into complacency — including the two of us. Andy found it felt too daunting to even imagine how he could make a difference. He also rationalized that the United States will persevere, having been conditioned by the past five decades to believe we will continue to thrive. But over the past 10 to 15 years, he has come to the conclusion that our foundation is crumbling. That our competitiveness in a global connected economy is declining.

David was trained to be a dispassionate journalist, focused on providing balanced coverage of politics and the political system. It was only in the last half-dozen or so years his thinking changed as he realized the system will only improve when all the players — political leaders, reformers, researchers, the media, voters — accept our failings and begin to work towards solutions.

We face an alarming array of weaknesses. Challenges such as education, worker skills, complex regulation, and crumbling infrastructure are not being discussed in a meaningful way as paralysis has Washington in its grips.

Numerous factors have led us to where we are today, and one of the most damaging is the erosion of the journalism industry. If we intend to restore a sense of unity as a nation, we must transform the media industry in this country. Declining media literacy, expanding news deserts, and diminished revenue for traditional news outlets have created opportunities for bias, misinformation and disinformation.

And while economic policy is an important driver of prosperity, it is only one part of the government’s job. The other half is social policy. In the same way that our economic competitiveness has been declining, we are falling behind in many aspects of social performance, including some in areas that Americans cherish and often pioneered. And it's a vicious cycle because a decline in social performance has contributed to our economic challenges, too — especially inequality and fairness.

A foreboding feeling

Carl Sagan said the following in 1995:

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. … The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

That was nearly 30 years ago. Time to face a hard truth: Our generation, and the generation before us, manifested this reality.

At times, it feels like we are so divided that common ground is out of reach. But thankfully, it's not as bad as partisans and the media make it seem. Together, we can fight for fairness.