local politics

What’s the next right thing we can do? It might be getting involved at the state or local level.

But is it fair to expect it?

James and Deborah Fallows traveled around the U.S. to find out.

Despite protests, the group persisted in welcoming refugees to their community.

Avoid the media distractions. Focus on collective responses to Trump.

Americans tend to have a romanticized, inflated sense of the White House and its power. In domestic affairs, most of the power is elsewhere.

“The government that is closest to the people governs best.” That sentiment was expressed recently by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, and it’s long been a staple of conservative political philosophy and of candidates who want federal programs to be taken over by state and local governments. But liberals embrace it in their own way when they talk about “participatory democracy” and the need for people to be able to make decisions about the issues that directly affect them.

The question is: what does it mean for government to be “closer” to people?