What broke American politics?

America is suffering from too much accountability? Color me skeptical.

Many factors have contributed to the breakdown of American politics.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Is American politics suffering from too much accountability?

It's a thesis with growing appeal to the class of centrist political commentators, exemplified by a recent cover story by Jonathan Rauch for The Atlantic. Rauch's thesis is that successive waves of political reform have reduced or eliminated the role of mediating institutions and practices that made government work in spite of profound divisions.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.