The U.S. Government Has a People Problem
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Started by metmike - Aug. 30, 2024, 7:43 a.m.

Man, is this guy ever right!!!

https://www.newsweek.com/us-government-has-people-problem-opinion-1945063

The presidency, however, isn't the only branch of government failing to attract the best and the brightest. The median age in the Senate is 65 years old. The House of Representatives is teeming with under-qualified political zealots and preoccupied social-media celebrities. And discontent with judges is so bad that Biden is trying to impose term limits on the Supreme Court. According to the Pew Research Center, Americans' trust in the federal government is far below historical levels

First, incumbents stay in office too long. Biden may have withdrawn from the upcoming presidential election, but he's still the president of the United States. While the nation's focus has shifted to the election, the discomforting fact remains that the sitting president is no longer fit for the job.

The third and most powerful driving force behind the American government's people problem is political polarization. From MAGA zealots on the right, to hardcore extremists on the left, American government is overflowing with tribalism and rage.

This dysfunction leads to high-quality people getting run out of town. Liz Cheney, for example, was voted out for daring to condemn Donald Trump's attempt to reverse the election. And, even worse, it deters rational people from running in the first place.

The result of these factors is a federal government increasingly unable to address the country's myriad public-policy failures, which are mounting—from a broken immigration system, to deteriorating public schools, to excessive incarceration, to widespread drug overdoses, to startling economic inequality.

These and other challenges are only getting harder to address as the world gets more complicated. More than ever, it's essential that all three branches of government are staffed with talented and responsible public officials. The American government's people problem, however, is bad and getting worse.

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