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Michael V. Murphy

Michael V. Murphy is Director of FixUS, which engages a nationwide network of Americans and societal leaders to better understand and address the root causes of our nation’s growing divisions and deteriorating political system. He is also Chief of Staff for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, where he leads the organization in advancing its mission of educating the public and policymakers on issues with a significant fiscal policy impact.
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    Congress

    Make governing great again

    Michael V. Murphy
    Benjamin P. Tomchik
    November 21, 2022
    New members of Congress

    Newly elected members of Congress take a break from orientation to gather for their class photo at the Capitol on Nov. 15.

    Alex Wong/Getty Images

    Murphy is the director of FixUS, the democracy reform advocacy arm of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal policy think tank of which he is also chief of staff. Tomchik is vice president nd deputy chief of staff at FixUS and CRFB

    To the new members of Congress,

    Congratulations on your election. In just two short months, you’ll take your seat in an institution that has guided and embodied the world’s oldest representative democracy and its people since its founding more than two centuries ago. Sadly, the excitement you may feel at this moment isn’t matched by your fellow citizens.

    According to Gallup, only 7 percent of Americans possess a great deal of confidence in Congress. That’s lower than their confidence in the presidency, organized labor, large tech companies and the media. And while none of this is surprising, it should be cause for concern.

    The problem stems from the fact that, for many Americans, the first branch of our democracy seems to have little to do with governing. Instead of working together and passing laws, Congress has become a zero-sum game, defined by gridlock and hyper-partisanship. Add to that the endless campaign cycles, self-imposed crises, and back-and-forth bickering in the media, and it’s easy to see why Americans feel as they do.

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    So, how did it get to this point? And more importantly, as an incoming member of Congress, what can you do about it?

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    governance

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    Patriotism over polarization

    Michael V. Murphy
    Andrew Henry
    September 14, 2022
    patriotism
    Jelena Matvejeva/EyeEm/Getty Images

    Murphy is the director of FixUS, the democracy reform advocacy arm of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal policy think tank of which he is also chief of staff. Henry is a program associate for FixUs and CRFB.

    Patriotism is defined as “love for or devotion to one’s country,” a value that, historically, Americans have shared very broadly. Yet one would not be criticized for questioning whether this trait is waning in the face of deep polarization, mounting national pessimism and politicization of the topic itself. In just the last few weeks, polls reminded us that rapidly growing majorities of Republicans and Democrats say their political counterparts are close-minded, dishonest, immoral, and unintelligent, and two-thirds of Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike fear American democracy itself is in danger of collapse.

    Despite our national melancholy, however, American patriotism appears to remain alive and widespread; 72 percent of Americans are proud to be so, and 73 percent would, despite its faults, rather live in the U.S. than another country, according to the results of a poll we conducted with YouGov earlier this summer. At the same time, other polls, such as Gallup’s June American pride survey, suggest patriotism may simultaneously be on a decline.

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    Tapping into and restoring our shared sense of patriotism might be the critical element we need to overcome hyperpolarization, but if we hope to do this, we must better understand what drives our underlying love of country in the first place. We also should recognize how partisans think differently on these topics to prevent extremist voices from exploiting these divisions for their benefit.

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