Political System Isn't Broken —It's Working Perfectly

Charles Krauthammer today disputes the "endlessly repeated conventional wisdom" that our political system is broken. On the contrary, he writes in the Washington Post, it's working "precisely as designed—profound changes in popular will translated into law that alters the nation’s political direction." For proof, look to both Wisconsin and Capitol Hill. Both show how a mostly conservative nation successfully pushed back against government overreach.

Take the debt ceiling debate, for example. "Spare me the hysteria. What happened was that the 2010 electorate, as represented in Congress, forced Washington to finally confront the national debt," writes Krauthammer. "It was a triumph of democratic politics—a powerful shift in popular will finding concrete political expression." The process may be ugly and slow, but democratic politics is rarely pretty. "It’s understandable for sore losers to rage against the machine. But there’s no need for the rest of us to parrot their petulance." (More politics stories.)