It is true that two cliches central to our political language today â âresilienceâ and, indeed, âinfrastructureâ â have often covered up a lack of real public policy justifications. But the fact is that Bidenâs plan is in one sense not ambitious enough: it does not address the countryâs decaying civic infrastructure.
Infrastructure is about connecting people; it enables us to reach others and be reached by them. Roads, but also the post office, are paradigmatic examples. The culture war rhetoric of Republicans has made it sound as if the main problem of those âleft behindâ is the condescension of supposedly liberal-cosmopolitan-bicoastal elites who have nothing else to do than sneering at âreal Americansâ. But plenty of people are left behind because itâs hard to reach them, and hard for them to reach out: deregulation made airplane tickets to remote parts of the country horrendously expensive; buses and trains, if the
I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at
The Chronicle covering innovation in and around academe. Here’s what I’m thinking about this week.
Higher ed can help repair the fractures in our democracy. Really, it can.
First off, let’s acknowledge the obvious: It’s hard not to feel depressed and scared about the future of American democracy right now.
Nonetheless, I found myself oddly comforted last Friday when I picked up Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century. Published in June by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, it offers a sober account of the racial, economic, social, and political divisions racking our nation. For me, reading it just 48 hours after the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol (words I can still hardly believe I’m writing), was also a bit of a tonic. That’s because the report proposes dozens of intriguing ideas for bridging those chasms through social media, journalism, political reform, and civic education