Letters: ‘Dingell Has Hit on a Solution to Cut the Gordian Knot’
I Served in Congress Longer Than Anyone. Here’s How to Fix It.
A December 2017 study by the Pew Research Center found that just 18 percent of Americans trusted the federal government “to do the right thing almost always or most of the time.” After his six decades of public service, John D. Dingell has some ideas for restoring this lost confidence. In a recent piece on TheAtlantic.com, he provided suggestions, including calls to abolish the Senate and publicly fund elections.
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The most important point that Dingell makes is an abstract one: Americans need to believe that government can do good if we are going to fix our politics. I have just returned to the United States after living in Brazil, where voting is mandatory. Dingell proposes automatic voter registration as one way to improve our politics here in the U.S., and I endorse his view. But followers of Brazilian politics know that mandatory voting did not prevent an anti-democratic, right-wing zealot from winning the presidency. That is because Brazilians’ faith in government (and democracy) is low, as a |
