8. A Failure to Act or What’s Most Remarkable: Paradox IV

The final chapter in Part II (“A Failure to Act or What’s Most Remarkable: Paradox IV”) begins by addressing what many scholars see as the key paradox of the US government: given how little citizens know about government and politics, how is it that the United States has continued, unabated, for more than two centuries? Following the realist school, instead of criticizing citizens for a lack of knowledge, this chapter moves in another direction and focuses on a related, more pressing dilemma and paradox: how remarkable it is that the United States has continued unabated for more than two-hundred years given how unresponsive and impotent the system is. Using case studies such as immigration reform and gun control, this chapter makes the case that it is not only a lack of knowledge that drives people to fall prey to demagogues and charlatans, it is also frustration with a system that is unable to address or take meaningful action on critical issues. While the academy has spent a good deal of time discussing where the people fall short—and fall short we do—it is incumbent on us to spend at least as much time discussing where the system falls short, how it has contributed toward their frustrations, and how it can be remedied.