Now that No Labels has abandoned its third party bid, Mitt Romney has called for it to offer political support to whichever party is willing to accept centrist influence on its governing team—to “help promote the interests of Americans-at-large above those of the rabid partisans.”
 
America could certainly use some “sensible middle voices” in Washington, but centrism doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. The radical fervor on both sides is driven by a broad and growing sentiment of brokenness. Americans feel buffeted by forces beyond their control, while government fails and flounders. Partisan energy is unlikely to be swayed much by what one observer called the “platitudinal agenda” of No Labels.
 
What’s needed is not compromise but a new governing vision to re-empower America’s can-do culture—not a MAGA vision to tear down government or a leftist vision of woke utopia. America needs a practical vision that empowers citizens and officials at all levels of responsibility to roll up their sleeves and fix what’s broken—in schools, on city streets, for new infrastructure, and at the border.
 
America is suffering from a breakdown of institutional authority. This breakdown of authority is the direct result of a post-1960s governing structure that subjects everyday choices to legal micromanagement—with thousand-page rulebooks, years-long legal proceedings, and a self-interested concept of individual rights. Nothing much works as it should because people in charge have their hands tied. The theory was that less authority meant more freedom. The result was dramatically less freedom—for example, disorder in the classroom and the death of free speech on campus—because freedom only exists within a framework of standards and norms that people in charge must affirmatively uphold.
 
A new political movement is indeed needed—not for compromise but to replace the anti-human framework that disempowers human responsibility. This is centrist because the goal is to make government work. This is radical because it requires major structural overhaul. If you’re not convinced, please watch this half-hour discussion with political scientist Francis Fukuyama, and listen to this interview with NPR’s Meghna Chakrabarti.
 
Let us know if you want to help get this new political movement off the ground. We need contacts, media, and funding.

Here are reviews of Everyday Freedom since our last newsletter:

• The Manhattan Institute’s John Ketcham calls it “slender and persuasive” in City Journal, concluding: “Everyday Freedom calls on individuals, families, and communities to exercise newfound authority in the pursuit of flourishing lives. By the last page, the book acts as a mirror, staring back at readers with a challenging question: Are we ready to live up to the responsibilities of such freedom?”
   

• In The American Spectator, former Reagan administration official Donald Devinewrites that the book is “required if America is to recover its everyday freedom.”
   

• For American Purpose, former Henry Kissinger staffer Theodore Leonhardt says: “In Everyday Freedom, Philip Howard has provided the vision for refreshing our law and society.”
   

• Playwright and social commentator Jonathan Leaf writes in First Things: “Philip Howard’s new book…explains why government functions so poorly and bureaucracy and litigiousness have become ubiquitous aspects of American life. It even dares to offer solutions.”