Why Politics? - If our institutions seem broken, that’s more reason to try and fix them
Politics never seemed like an attractive calling when I was growing up. In fact, I can remember the exact moment when I was so frustrated that I thought I wanted nothing to do with it.
It came in the fall of 2013, my junior year of college. Checking the news one evening, I learned the federal government had just shut down because Congress failed to pass a law to keep it open. A senator was grandstanding about how proud he was of that fact. The contrast between the technological progress I saw in the world around me with the dysfunction among our nation’s leadership was enraging: that same night, I had ordered delivery for dinner using an app on my phone. In just a few short years, innovations like multi-touch display interfaces on connected devices that we keep in our pockets had become commonplace. Yet politicians in Washington had spent that time devolving so far into bickering that they could no longer even agree to keep the lights on.
That government shutdown discouraged me for a while from getting involved in US politics. Too many of the most prominent politicians were squandering the opportunity they had to be leaders by focusing instead on petty political differences. As I learned more about global inequality and injustice, it appeared that the greatest opportunity to make an impact on the most lives was through service in foreign countries, so that’s where I expected to start my career.
My attitude began to change when I returned home from school after graduation and learned about the newly-elected Congressman representing my hometown. Seth Moulton was the first candidate that New Politics recruited to run and helped elect: a Marine who deployed four times to Iraq and earned three degrees from Harvard, he defeated a nine-term incumbent on a platform of bringing a new generation of service-driven leadership to Washington. I was inspired by that message and soon began working in Congressman Moulton’s office, first as an intern and then on the staff.
Working with a group of people willing to put in the work to make real progress changed my perspective on the value of working in politics. I saw firsthand it was possible to collaborate with people you didn’t always agree with to get real results for everyday Americans without compromising your core principles. Over and over, I witnessed the impact of taking a courageous stand for what is right, even if the outcome bears uncertain political consequences at the outset.
And when our world was turned upside down by the 2016 election, I realized that no matter how frustrating it can be at times, our democracy needs more of us to get engaged who believe at the most fundamental level that politics is about public service. As the past few months have shown, the nature of crisis is that it is sudden and unforeseen. Leaders who are grounded in their commitment to doing the most good for others are best prepared to navigate these situations when they arise.
My earlier frustration with our politics was hardly unique, but my instinct to recoil was immature. When elected officials are acting in ways that disappoint us, or seem selfish, that should be a signal to get more involved, not less so. If our institutions seem broken, all the more reason to act with extra urgency to fix them. I’m proud of the work we do at New Politics to revitalize our democracy by getting proven leaders involved and elected. Seat by seat and cycle by cycle, change is coming.