Its not working. That is the continuous thought that I have running through my head, and the one that I hope to explore throughout 2026. Specifically, our political system. Its not working. As a professional, I work in a government affairs division at a scientific society. I focus on trying to implement beneficial policies at the federal level. Before this job I worked at an institution focused on financial policy, and before that I interned on the Hill and studied political science for school. Since a young age, I have been interested in policy. The rules and regulations, laws and structures that form and guide all nations. And our current structure is failing.
I see many aspects contributing to this failure. Some are as simple as age. 250 years is a long time for anything. Most other aspects of human life, medicine, technology, business, society and more have progressed. We have strived to change, adapt and improve our way of life. But for the government, the constitution and our history in common law is sacrosanct. Only massive upheaval or obvious flaws have been amended over the years, but that has been band aids to institutions that are buckling under its own weight.
The Government has suffered from success in other areas. Becoming one of the world superpowers post WWII, to the only one after the fall of the Soviet Union, has seen the federal government scale in size to meet the moment. We are engaging in more government activities than ever before. I think that this is a good thing, we need large state sponsored programs to maintain our expected modern comforts and way of life. But the system was not set up to control something this large. Our republic and political system is too flawed to reliably guide a massive bureaucracy towards a beneficial future for its citizens.
This is because of the politics of it all. Mainly for the executive branch. There is too much money, too much control of information flows, too much power attached to the executive to not have authoritarian, non humane, bad leaders gain the levers of power in this country. And once they gain control, massive harm can be done. I think there should no longer be a president, and the executive branch needs to be bifurcated and diminished in the domineering power it now maintains. All the agencies and executive actions should be diffused to different secretaries who have domain over their limited fields and are given structure and direction from the policy makers. If we are to still have a democratic representation, it should be there, electing law makers to guide the agencies with rules and regulations, but not direct authority.
Ambitious may be too small of a word to encompass what an undertaking like this would look like. But, it is the one we need to explore as a nation if we hope to maintain the US as one of the best places on Earth. Otherwise, we will slowly decay into an authoritarian miasma that only benefits the powerbrokers for short term wealth, or erupt in revolution as our trust and belief in the institutions and governance models gives out, and the people seek to reestablish control. A refresh will lead to new growth and hopefully centuries of prosperity, but we must start acting now.
December 31, 2025