One of the main reasons why American politics has turned upside down in recent years is that a growing number of Americans do not believe that their leaders represent their interests. This simple sentiment underlies almost every recent problem in American politics. However, for some reason, almost no one has been involved in the process of finding out how this happened and how to fix it.
It’s hard to trust elected representatives if you think they’re there to line their pockets. Voters also distrust politicians who appear to prioritize foreign interests or special interests over their own well-being. These are precisely the sentiments felt by many voters today.
It has now been more than six years since the American political class was clearly warned that their voters are not happy. In those six years, almost zero effort has been made to understand why voters are so frustrated and turned off. It is much easier for a politician to bemoan the state of the country than to look inward at a system that clearly needs reform. Go to any dinner party or any after-work trade association meeting in Washington, DC, and you’ll hear plenty of complaints about the brokenness of the political system, which it has. What you’re unlikely to hear, however, is much insight or proposed solutions. Trust in government continues to plummet year after year, to previously unimaginable depths, and those in power still refuse to seek solutions. Until they do, the system will not heal. If you’re ever interested in getting started, here’s a good place to start.
No. 1: The culture of Washington.
Without a doubt, the days of the citizen legislator have passed. George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson served the country and then left politics to return to their farms. Since then, many civic-minded leaders have made stints in Washington as part of their business, military or other careers. Current leaders make sojourns to Washington to make inroads with the corporate lobbying community. His time in Congress is, in essence, a test for a career in corporate influence. This may sound overblown, but the numbers tell the story. Departing members of Congress are now more likely to enter the lucrative field of corporate influence than not. More than 50% of those leaving Congress take this route.
In a highly regulated economy, there is nothing wrong with corporations hiring people to protect their interests. There is something wrong with a system where most elected representatives go into this line of work.
This raises some obvious questions: Who do these people represent when they are in Congress? When the interests of their constituents conflict with those of their potential future employers, whose side are they on? Many Republicans ignore this inherent tension because they believe that what is good for corporate America is good for America. With many large companies more focused on increasing profits in China or other foreign markets than on their legacy American businesses, those days, if they ever existed, are over. Interests do not necessarily align. Anyone who has walked through the thousands of American communities previously decimated by the last 20-30 years of record corporate profits knows this to be the case. And if that is indeed the case, then there is a big problem when the majority of Congress is actually testing jobs by lobbying for big international companies.
If those in Congress really started to deal with this issue, complicated as it is, they would take the first step in regaining the lost trust.
No. 2: Prioritize American interests.
In a representative democracy, politicians are supposed to represent the interests of their constituents. Many voters do not trust this to happen. Top Americans have thrived under America’s trade, immigration, and economic policies. The donor class gets things done. Others feel left out of the process. Wall Street and American multinational corporations in particular have thrived on fueling the rise of a newly assertive China and its fast-growing economy. Whether these policies have benefited average Americans is much more in question.
Voters also worry that their leaders are not focused enough on truly American interests. There are legitimate humanitarian concerns around the world. These concerns must be taken into account when leaders consider things like immigration and foreign policy. Most voters would agree. The problem is that many voters see their elected officials as being even more concerned about these kinds of matters than they are about their own interests. They see their communities stagnant (or worse) and worry that opportunities are shrinking.
America has benefited greatly from immigration, but America cannot continue as a stable country with a wide open border. The country is headed for a debt crisis, but the idea of asking other countries to pay for the benefits that Washington bestows on them seems foreign to American leaders.
It wasn’t always like that. America has no closer ally than England. However, in the early 1940s, when England was in its greatest need and asked for help from the United States, this help was not structured as a gift funded by American taxpayers. It was structured as a loan to be paid back by another rich country.
Many Americans are convinced that their politicians no longer care about such trivial matters. They spend American taxpayer dollars all over the world for many goals that do not directly benefit Americans (or that benefit others even more than Americans), and they don’t even seem to consider that return them Why should American taxpayers foot the bill for the security of other rich countries? Why should the United States unilaterally eliminate its fossil fuel industry in the name of climate change just to allow China and India to take over? Are Chinese coal emissions better for the climate than US natural gas emissions? These are reasonable questions that many Americans are asking. You don’t find many politicians who take this mantle strongly.
American citizens would like American interests to weigh more heavily in these decisions. That doesn’t seem like much to ask.
Neil Patel co-founded The Daily Caller, one of America’s fastest-growing online news outlets, regularly reporting news and delivering it to more than 15 million monthly readers.
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