By: Philip K. Howard

Something vital is missing in the presidential debate so far: Neither candidate has a vision on how to make government work better.

Americans are a practical people. But political debate offers no practical path to deal with social challenges. Most understand, for example, that “defund the police” goes too far. Who else will protect us against criminals? Tolerating abusive police, on the other hand, is clearly unacceptable. Restoring trust and respect to police requires changing the way they are trained and supervised. Americans need a practical vision of how to fix what’s broken. Instead, extremists on both sides have taken over political debate: Are you for the police, or against them?

Republicans say they’ll “drain the swamp” by de-regulating. Democrats have a full agenda of programs to expand government: universal health care, racial justice, climate change, income stagnation, LGBT rights … Nowhere in either platform is there any plan to fix broken bureaucracies. Our choice is this: Are you for government, or against it?

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