This is the edition of Time Travel Thursday, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present, surface delightful treasures, and examine the American mindset.
“It’s so easy to get fed up about politics these days… Opinion polls show an indigestible population that hates Congress, despises politics, and has little faith that the government will solve anything.” ” This observation could have been written today, but was made in February 2015 by Atlantic staff writer David A. Graham in America’s Talented and Experienced Politicians. mentioned in the article about the severe shortage of He traced the issue back to 1955, when former Sen. Joseph S. Clark Jr. wrote in The Atlantic that “we are far too mediocre in running the government of this country.”
During this election cycle, voters and pundits alike complained about the choices before them. A 2023 survey of American adults found that 84% of respondents believe there is a leadership crisis in the U.S. government. CNN’s early exit polls revealed that 64% of Trump voters are dissatisfied or angry with the “current state” of the United States. I spoke with David recently and asked him how much his arguments still hold up 10 years later, and how things have changed.
governance issues
Stephanie Bye: In 2015, you wrote about the problem of mediocrity in politics, specifically how our politicians don’t seem to have the best and brightest minds the people have to offer. Almost a decade later, do you think that argument is outdated?
David A. Graham: The problem is much deeper. Shortly after this article was published, Donald Trump began running for president. I think he’s a good example of some of the things I’ve written about before. He’s very good at running for office, but he’s disastrous in terms of governing because he doesn’t understand how the system works.
He also exacerbated a lot of the problems I was thinking about at the time. His second term could bring about a resurgence of far-right political ideas, and most of the current governance problems are also likely to accelerate. We have witnessed an exodus of experienced and serious policy makers who are fed up with the status quo. They know they can’t accomplish anything, and they think some people in Congress are kind of clowns. So instead of getting more talented people in the office, there’s a brain drain.
Stephanie: What do you think it takes to retain talent in politics?
David: It feels like a vicious cycle. I mean, who wants to be a politician now? It takes a lot of ego and a lot of self-deprecation. As long as Marjorie Taylor Greene remains one of the most prominent members of Congress, she will not be able to attract people who can instill a more serious culture.
One precedent we can look to is the post-Watergate moment, when there was a huge loss of trust in government. We’ve seen a lot of young Democrats run for office with big dreams of reform, but many of them stayed in Congress for a very long time as serious policy makers. Perhaps the current political crisis will cause such a situation. But Watergate was a more contained crisis in the executive branch. What we’re seeing now is dysfunction across the legislative and executive branches, and it’s even harder to break out of.
Stephanie: That reminds me of an article you recently wrote about politicians in Ohio, in which you wrote that some local leaders “have their paths to high office blocked by the country’s hyper-partisanship.” He said.
David: If you look at the people who work in local offices, they’re usually a different kind of politician. When I talked to Ohio mayors for this article, one thing that kept coming up was how much time they spend on things that aren’t particularly partisan. Paving roads is bipartisan. Cleaning up after the storm is bipartisan. These are things that must be done. The question is, how can such people rise to higher positions?
The best-case scenario I’ve heard is that if you have a really good mayor, trained in a pragmatic, consensus-building style, you’ll probably see an improvement in the political culture as you move up the political ladder. . However, the outcome remains to be seen. Because they usually end up in these highly partisan, statewide races — and it’s hard to win without being partisan.
Stephanie: Do you think this election will overturn or complicate conventional wisdom about what makes politicians successful?
David: One of the things I’ve been thinking about is the role of people like Elon Musk. He discovered that by owning X, donating heavily to Trump, and controlling systems needed by the federal government like SpaceX. , he can give himself some semblance of political power without running for office. As our political system begins to malfunction, figures like Musk may emerge, who can find a way to hold great power over the public and yet be free from any accountability. .
Read David’s 2015 story here.
