Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Quite simply, fairness matters

American flag
SimpleImages/Getty Images

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.


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.

Read More

Gerrymandering, California, and a Fight the Democrats Can Only Lose

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks about the “Election Rigging Response Act” at a press conference at the Democracy Center, Japanese American National Museum on August 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Getty Images, Mario Tama

Gerrymandering, California, and a Fight the Democrats Can Only Lose

California Democrats are getting ready for a fight they can’t win. And taxpayers will foot the bill for the privilege.

Governor Gavin Newsom, backed by national party operatives, appears poised to put a statewide gerrymander on the ballot under the banner of “fighting Trump.” The plan? Overturn California’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, redraw congressional maps, and lock in party control well into the next decade.

Keep ReadingShow less
A close-up of a microphone during a session of government.
Rev. Laurie Manning shares her insights on speaking with political leaders about specific advocacy efforts. "Your senators' offices are waiting to hear from you," writes Manning.
Getty Images, Semen Salivanchuk

How To Rewire a Nation From a Single Seat

In politics, attention is drawn to spectacle. Cable news runs endless loops of red-faced lawmakers clashing in hearings, while pundits dissect every gaffe and polling shift. Every election season becomes a staged drama, parties locked in opposition, candidates maneuvering for advantage. The players may change, but the script stays the same. Those in power know that as long as the public watches the visible fracas, the hidden machinery of control runs quietly, unexamined and untouched.

We are told the drama hinges on which party controls which chamber, which map shapes the advantage, and which scandal sidelines a rising star. These are presented as the key moves in the political game, shifting the balance of power. Every election is declared the most consequential of our time. But these claims are, in reality, crude distractions—very much part of the performance—while the real levers of power turn behind the scenes, where laws and policies shift with the choices of a few hundred individuals, each capable of tipping the balance with a single vote.

Keep ReadingShow less
America’s Gerrymandering Crisis: Why Voters Are Losing Power in Texas and Beyond

People rally during the "Stop the Trump takeover" demonstration outside of the State Capitol on August 16, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Over 200 nationwide demonstrations occurred today against the Trump administration's newly introduced redistricting plans.

Getty Images, Brandon Bell

America’s Gerrymandering Crisis: Why Voters Are Losing Power in Texas and Beyond

Voters should choose their politicians, not the other way around. The Texas gerrymander and the partisan war it has triggered signal an extraordinarily dangerous period for American democracy.

Gerrymandering leads to less choice, less representation for voters, and less accountability for politicians. It also produces more polarization, as party primary voters rather than general election voters have the loudest say. And voters of color all too often suffer the most as their communities are cynically sliced and diced to engineer partisan advantage.

Keep ReadingShow less
Texas Redistricting Showdown: Why the Fight Over Five GOP Seats Reveals a Broken System

A person views a map during a Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting public testimony hearing on August 07, 2025 in Austin, Texas

Getty Images, Brandon Bell

Texas Redistricting Showdown: Why the Fight Over Five GOP Seats Reveals a Broken System

The fight over congressional redistricting in Texas continues to simmer. Democratic state representatives fled the state to block the passage of a rare mid-decade, Republican-drawn map that would give the GOP an additional five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives if put into effect before the midterms. In response, Governor Greg Abbott threatened to remove the absent members from their seats and arrest them.

The Texas Democrats responded with “come and take it,” an overt reference to a slogan from the Texas Revolution. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who welcomed the fleeing Texas legislators to his state, called Abbott a “joke.”

Keep ReadingShow less