A Closing Word

Two hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Paine had been in America for about fourteen months when he published a pamphlet challenging an arrangement that looked natural mostly because people had grown used to it.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

Our political system did not become dysfunctional according to anyone's plan. Its rules piled up through decisions that often made sense on their own. Taken together, they now reward conflict, protect safe seats, hide responsibility, and postpone choices.

That should be encouraging. What we did not deliberately design, we can deliberately repair.

The generation that read Paine had little money, little military power, and almost no experience governing itself. What it had was a decision.

We have every material advantage. Now we need to make ours.