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Why our politics is failing!
Why is it so hard for the political class to fix the big problems we have in America? Here are some of the reasons:
1. Politics in America is present minded and has never really dealt well with future problems.
2. There is a culture of spending in Washington that is made up of members of both parties that is poorly equipped to deal with the real necessity of spending much less.
3. The current political parties in Washington are poorly equipped to fight with private interests and lobbyist who have deeply held positions and greater resources. So, no one in politics can take on the hospitals, doctors, lawyers, drug companies, and the other parts of the health care system to reform them before health care bankrupts the whole country.
4. Politicians are poorly adaptive when the traditional economic positions or globalization positions are no longer working for large number of Americans. They can repeat the old tired platitudes but they don’t know ideas enough to really change.
5. Foreign countries and foreign owned companies have figured out how to influence the politics of Washington and the country to their own ends.
6. Businesses in America are more forced to be concerned with short term profits over long term gains by market forces without government oversight.
7. Government has failed to spend money to repair the infrastructure, since they would rather create something new rather than fix something that already exists.
8. Our politics is not good at asking the American people to sacrifice for the future since no one trusts that the sacrifice will result in the end that we sacrificed for
9. The media does not cover serious politicians well since the media does not understand either the problems or the solutions.
10. Complex problems require complex solutions and our politicians do a poor job of educating Americans about the real nature of the problems, instead they look for simple solutions to complex problems that don’t usually work.
I would add that creative visionary type people who think up long term
solutions do not wish to get involved with politics because the rewards for
creative, long term solutions are either no attention or character
assassination (because no one takes the time to understand the solution and
arguments tend to be ad hominem). I definitely think you're right. The
incentives of the system are nearly impossible to avoid even for the well
meaning politician. I spent a little time as an intern in Congress and it
was very much like living in an enormous bubble. No one seemed to
understand regular people after they'd been there for a month or so.