I have been arguing for years that the American political system is broken. Not in the way that everyone else says it is — the Democrats and Republicans unable to compromise or get anything done. Given what happens when the two major parties cooperate — "free trade" agreements that send American jobs overseas and cut wages for those that remain, wars we have no chance of winning, and tax "reform" that only benefits the extremely wealthy and the corporations they control — we could use a lot more Washington gridlock.

The best indication that the U.S. government is no longer a viable entity, and so beyond reform that we need to start from scratch, is the fact that the best and the brightest no longer aspire to a career in politics or governmental inspiration. It's not just anecdotal; polls and studies show that the millennial generation, like the generation Xers before them, care deeply about the nation's and the world's problems but don't think that it's possible to solve them through the political system, refuse to sacrifice their personal privacy in a campaign, and are disgusted by the requirement of raising millions of dollars in order to run.

Despite the obstacles, every now and then — like that one tadpole out of a thousand that manages to evade the snapping jaws of hungry fish — someone interesting and intelligent decides to enter public life. Unfortunately, these poor souls must present themselves as boring and stupid in order to do so — and shred every last ounce of integrity they had before they entered the political process. If there is a better case for this political system being over and done, I don't know what it is.