Hope over Hate

The strength of America, I think, is our culture of self-determination. What we choose to do, and how we do it, is up to each of us. We can make a difference—to ourselves and our community. This sense of ownership creates what Tocqueville saw as “a superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable from it.” It also creates a hopeful culture—the future can be better because we can make it better.

Americans’ confidence has eroded in recent decades. This is due in part to the intrusion of forces beyond any individual’s control—global markets that supplant jobs and opportunities; centralized bureaucracies that suffocate human instincts and interactions; and cultural clashes that dislodge community values.

Even Americans who are “doing well” feel pushed around.

NewslettersAndrew ParkDecember 15, 2025Joe Lonsdale, polarization

The Missing Vision

Maybe it’s me, but the news cycle seems both terrifying and tedious. We’re treated to a steady diet of crises followed by reactions which create new crises. It’s as if we’re in a straitjacket, bouncing off today’s emergency instead of making deliberate choices that might lead to a coherent future.

In a thoughtful New York Times column, Ben Rhodes explains how “short-term compulsions blind us to the forces remaking our lives.” He characterizes Trump as seeking “short-term ‘wins’ at the expense of the future”—for example, ignoring unsustainable national debt, climate change, and other existential perils. But Rhodes says Democrats too are trapped in short-termism—“spend[ing] more time defending what is being lost than imagining what will take its place.”

NewslettersAndrew ParkAugust 13, 2025New York Times, Ben Rhodes, polarization, Saving Can-Do, Book

Change = Vision plus Outside Pressure

Polls are expecting a divided Congress. One sure bet is that the new president and new Congress will not fix how government works. Change is too hard. All those Washington lobbyists and lawyers are doing fine with thousand-page rulebooks and years-long bureaucratic processes.

Change requires outside pressure. Sometimes it’s a crisis, as in the Depression. Sometimes it’s a shift in public opinion, as in the Progressive Era. Sooner rather than later, pressures will likely require replacing the paralytic and wasteful red tape state. The world order is too perilous to perpetuate an inept governing framework.

NewslettersAndrew ParkSeptember 3, 2024polarization

A Third Movement?

Now that No Labels has abandoned its third party bid, Mitt Romney has called for it to offer political support to whichever party is willing to accept centrist influence on its governing team—to “help promote the interests of Americans-at-large above those of the rabid partisans.”

America could certainly use some “sensible middle voices” in Washington, but centrism doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. The radical fervor on both sides is driven by a broad and growing sentiment of brokenness. Americans feel buffeted by forces beyond their control, while government fails and flounders.

NewslettersAndrew ParkApril 8, 2024polarization

Powerlessness and Populism

Politics is a contest about leadership and general values. Is government good or bad? Policy debate engages a much smaller group of experts and interest groups, and is usually incremental.

Almost no one talks about system failure. That’s too hard to fix, at least within the confines of the Washington establishment. But history shows that meaningful change is usually the result of system failure and dramatic overhaul. “Punctuated equilibrium” is the name political scientists give these tectonic shifts.

NewslettersAndrew ParkDecember 1, 2023populism, polarization

Pulling Out of Polarization

Reformers have confused cause and effect: Paralyzed government, not polarization, is the original sin of modern government. Government’s inability to respond to public needs is the chicken that laid the egg of polarized politics.

Essays & ReportsSeth KarechaOctober 6, 2019polarization, Philip K. Howard, The Hill