“It feels like the state of politics is generally broken.”
Well, whose fault is that, Joe who typically favors Republicans?
As always, “It’s the economy, stupid!” is the message that resonates best for voters “feeling” disconnected and helpless. Which general election candidate (three and counting) will best deploy an economic argument to cure the malaise?
Anomie is being shoved down our throats!!!
Unfortunately, while the folk theory of democracy has flourished as an ideal, its credibility has been severely undercut by a growing body of scientific evidence presenting a different and considerably darker view of democratic politics. That evidence demonstrates that the great majority of citizens pay little attention to politics. At election time, they are swayed by how they feel about “the nature of the times,” especially the current state of the economy, and by political loyalties typically acquired in childhood. Those loyalties, not the facts of political life and government policy, are the primary drivers of political behavior. Election outcomes turn out to be largely random events from the viewpoint of contemporary democratic theory. That is, elections are well determined by powerful forces, but those forces are not the ones that current theories of democracy believe should determine how elections come out. Hence the old frameworks will no longer do.
Thought this was apropos here.
About 3 in 10 think each party is only moderately open either to new ideas or outsider candidates.
Here’s the thing about “outsider candidates” - being President of the United States requires (or should) years of public service (local, state, federal, community organizer even) and a demonstrated ability to grasp political nuance, to understand complex national and international issues, and to balance pragmatism with idealism.
The GOP has an outsider candidate now. The most “outsider” major party candidate in the last 50 years. And how’s that working out for them?
It’s like complaining that the CEO is always taken from senior executive ranks; it’s never the junior manager down in Sales who gets promoted! It’s NOT FAIR! SYSTEM IS RIGGED FOR HILLARY!