words.
"Our federal government doesn’t work, at least not the Congress, not the way it should if we’re going to preserve and pass on the treasure and blessings that were bequeathed to us, not the way it should if we’re going to strut around ceaselessly congratulating ourselves on how exceptional we are. We’re exceptional all right, in that we can’t summon the will, discipline or character to fix even those problems that most of us would like to see addressed. How many Americans doubt that our infrastructure is inadequate and leaves us at a serious global disadvantage? Few, but for all our hand-wringing, little gets done.
We’re exceptional in the billions of dollars that we pour into elections. All those commercials, air miles, speechifying and tweeting — and for what? We’ve spent a fortune on sclerosis, a king’s ransom on dysfunction. Then again, the money is a big part of the problem. In America your hobbyhorse can be a lonely, mangy one. Finance it generously enough and it has Secretariat’s stride.
...Voters should take their disgust with this shutdown and turn it into a fierce, sustained push for a better, fairer system.
Because the system’s the problem. The system’s the illness. We justly congratulate ourselves on what the framers of our Constitution set up, but that doesn’t mean we’re set forevermore. It definitely doesn’t mean we’re in a healthy place now. And I worry that on top of everything else, we’re growing so accustomed to our sickly lot that we’re losing sight of its direness. For all our recurrent brinkmanship, we haven’t tumbled into any abyss. So as we find ourselves on the next cliff, in the next crisis, we trust that John Boehner will snap into action at the last minute; that Democrats will eventually cave; that this, too, shall pass.
It might, because it’s just a symptom. The disease, though, doesn’t go away."
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Our Sickly Political System
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