The Church of Left or Right

Fourteen chapters ago, we asked a question that seemed extreme: are political parties religion? Not like religion. Not analogous to religion. Not sort-of-kind-of in the same neighborhood as religion. Are they the same thing — the institution that occupies the corruptible center of government, demands loyalty, punishes dissent, divides citizens Read more

Every revolution that succeeded had a practical path from the world as it was to the world as it could be. Every revolution that failed had a theory of what ought to exist but no plan for getting there from here. The difference between a movement and a dream is Read more

Arguments against the party cartel are easy. The hard part is the question that comes after: what would you put in its place? It is the question every revolutionary movement faces, and the failure to answer it has destroyed more revolutions than any counterrevolutionary force ever could. The French Revolution Read more

Thomas Jefferson’s phrase has echoed through two centuries of American law: “a wall of separation between Church and State.” He wrote it in 1802, in a letter to the Danbury Baptists, to explain what the First Amendment had already done. The wall was not an attack on religion. It was Read more

Every few years, someone starts a new political party and announces it will break the two-party system. A charismatic leader, a fresh platform, a movement that captures headlines for a news cycle or two. And then it’s gone — absorbed back into one of the established churches, crushed by structural Read more

Lobbyists write the bills. Staff dictate the votes. The legislator becomes a performer — reading lines someone else wrote, wearing the costume of representation while the real production runs from a different building entirely. Welcome to the cathedral. Not the church where the congregation gathers on Sunday, but the administrative Read more

Eighty-three to eighty-seven percent of Americans support term limits for Congress. It is the most popular constitutional reform idea in the country — more popular than campaign finance reform, more popular than balanced budget amendments, more popular than anything short of motherhood and the flag. And it guarantees nothing. Term Read more

Twenty million registered Americans didn’t vote in 2024. They were signed up, eligible, and present in the system. They just didn’t show up. Add the larger pool of eligible citizens who never registered at all, and the number swells to tens of millions more — people who looked at the Read more

They still sit in the pews. They still sing the hymns. But they don’t believe anymore — not the way they used to. They hold their nose when they vote. They split tickets. They mutter at the television and apologize to their kids. They know their church has been captured Read more

One hundred and seventy million Americans go to work every day. They produce the value — every building, every meal, every road, every shipment, every line of code, every shift, every patient cared for, every truck driven. They are the country. And neither church has a pew for them. The Read more