I’ve long admired Norm Ornstein, a public intellectual who leans conservative and has written several books that illuminate the current political dysfunctions in the United States. See, for example, It’s Even Worse than it Looks, reviewed here by Robert Kaiser for the Washington Post in 2012.
See also Ornstein and Mann’s The Broken Branch, an even earlier book about the growing dysfunctionality of Congress:
In 2017, Ornstein wrote this in The Atlantic, starting to see U.S. government as becoming a “kakistocracy” ––
“Kakistocracy is a term that was first used in the 17th century; derived from a Greek word, it means, literally, government by the worst and most unscrupulous people among us. More broadly, it can mean the most inept and cringeworthy kind of government. The term fell into disuse over the past century or more, and most highly informed people have never heard it before (but to kids familiar with the word “kaka” it might resonate).”
Kakistocracy is, of course, perfectly legal. The Constitution has no intelligence tests for people seeking public office in the U.S., and certainly has no requirements that a public office holder must have either morals or common sense. The recently expelled George Santos is a case in point, whose lies and corruption were so epic that even GOP members of the House could no longer stomach his presence in Congress.
Sadly, many of the more competent people in Congress, especially the House, are recently calling it quits.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/us/politics/congress-retirement-republicans-democrats.html
Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan is quoted in the NY Times article linked above as saying that the current Congressional session has been the “most unsatisfying period in my time in Congress because of the absolute chaos and the lack of any serious commitment to effective governance.”
This surge of departers is due at least in part because the government cannot seem to get basic things done, such as (1) funding the government and (2) keeping people safe from mass shootings. Commentator Jack Beatty, on his podcast for WBUR in Boston, reminds us that in the Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes posited that the most important function of government is to provide security for its citizens.
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/10/27/republic-fear-jack-beatty-americas-broken-social-contract
“Thought and prayers” have not spared the U.S. from a continued rise in mass shootings:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/12/04/mass-shootings-record-year/
And, with falling life expectancy and other measures of the health of U.S. citizens, the government is also failing:
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/12/01/the-jackpod-united-states-politics-life-expectancy
Beatty, like Ornstein, has called out our public governance for what it has become: a Kakistocracy.
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/10/13/kakistocracy-jack-beatty-on-government-by-the-worst
It doesn’t have to be this way. But bringing back good government will require a number of steps, including a more honest mainstream and social media, a citizenry re-educated on the benefits of democratic capitalism, and business leaders who refuse to support liars and cheats with campaign donations or to support those who refused to certify Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Many large corporations issued statements condemning the Jan. 6 attack on democracy, but then kept giving substantial sums of money to Republican lawmakers who refused to certify the results of the 2020 election.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/corporations-funding-jan-6-republicans-rcna11115
Two centuries ago, Alexis De Tocqueville’s observations about American life and values became a classic; today, we have the observations of Martin Wolf of the Financial Times to tell us how we might restore democratic capitalism in the United States.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554951/the-crisis-of-democratic-capitalism-by-martin-wolf/
It’s a bit dense, but well worth the reading time. Our collective tolerance for our kakistocracy in the U.S. cannot continue if we expect to preserve democratic capitalism.