The issue of where to start

While the title and its red/blue handprint cover image is jarring, editor Jeffrey Goldberg explains that even if war is not imminent, now is the best and perhaps only time to improve American politics so that it’s possible to seriously address the country’s most severe challenges.

Allen’s essay stood out to me because of its scope and richness. Many articles have profiled the decline of America’s civic structure and participation, but none in my opinion have tied together so thoroughly the most essential trends in economic disparity, racial inequality, and political organizing. Allen does so across the breadth of American history, weaving academic theory, social milestones, and public opinion into a narrative for the contemporary reader.

I found myself repeatedly surprised and inspired by phrases like ‘defining Americanness,’ ‘more modern social organizations,’ and ‘a decision-making people.’ Many of the beliefs I’ve had about politics but never accurately expressed were astutely articulated and solidly grounded in scholarship. Even though a thoughtful examination on citizenship is right in my wheelhouse, this is the poetic corner of scholarship from which I believe a modern populace can germinate.

Allen’s essay concludes with a call for ‘unity,’ and while turning the page you can’t help but ask: how? The next article by former Secretary of Defense James Mattis steps up to the plate with an extended outline of principles of citizenship. Its key sentiments were less unifying but at least stirring. ‘Only participation can solve the participation problem.’ ‘Trust in the capacity of collective deliberation to move us forward.’ Yet it was still an incomplete answer to the stage set by Allen and the earlier articles in the issue.

And I think that’s why the third section was branded ‘Reconciliation & Its Alternatives’ and not simply ‘How to Do Better.’ The answers are unknown. No, forget answers entirely — today’s best hope might be to simply acknowledge that this toxic political culture and inability to govern is something every person owns.

Amid such an evolution — where democracy is trying to expand to perennially marginalized classes and races — calmness does not equal progress. In fact it may signal that the key issues have been buried. As Dr. King identified, those lamenting the lack of social progress in his time needed to look no further than the moderate who ‘prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.’

Where this special issue punted on specific interventions, I hope you are ready to get to work. It will take a sustained national movement to innovate political organizing so that it benefits the people more than political parties, and can effectively advance a new crop of virtuous leaders capable of re-imagining and overhauling the processes of self governance.

Excited but daunted after finishing this issue, I’m consumed with questions like: How can the 40 percent of Americans who don’t support the two major political parties organize and mobilize? Can good governance and democracy building platforms find support across and bridge the political divide? How will communities learn to communicate better and rebuild their decision-making capacities? How will today’s efforts reliably reach the disenfranchised and politically apathetic?

Ambitiously /

Robert Beets

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The Atlantic — The founders of the publication wanted it to be the magazine of the American idea. Noble as that may be, they are primarily a business, and as such the content of this special issue is behind a paywall. So while I commend the editors and authors for their superb work for which I paid about $10, I encourage them to make this entire issue available online for free starting February 1. That includes not counting visits to any single articles against the free ones you get each month and promoting its open access to teachers.

Mr. Rogers — The special issue also has an article about Fred Rogers. It’s a great examination of friendship and kindness by a journalist who knew him well. I was a big fan of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood growing up. We even named my first cat Fred in his honor. Mr. Rogers is also one of the main reasons I start each letter with ‘dear neighbor.’ This article and the two recent movies about him are full of reasons why love and caring are at the core of a decent humanity.

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