It’s time to recognize that no overhaul vision will come from either party. Rocking the boat is too uncertain. Better to stick with the status quo. So nothing much will change, and voter frustration and cynicism will grow. A new governing vision is needed to fill the vacuum. With enough support, some candidates in 2024 might embrace it.

Washington doesn’t work, as we know. But the harsher reality is that Washington can’t realistically make itself work. The governing structure is legal quicksand, allowing any naysayer to block almost anything. Perhaps worse, the political culture has settled into a downward spiral of failure, in which parties compete, not by getting things done, but by blaming the other side.

An uncomfortable truth underlies the frustration with democracy that drives people to extremism. That truth is this: Governing sensibly is basically impossible in a bureaucratic and legal jungle. Common sense disappears into the quicksand of thick rulebooks, lengthy processes, and claimed rights. Teachers can’t maintain order, officials can’t approve new transmission lines, and mayors can’t fire rogue cops.

This week, Senator Joe Manchin’s infrastructure permitting reform, aimed at energy projects and supported by The White House, was killed by a weird coalition of Republicans and far-left Democrats. The bill would have expedited the construction of high-speed transmission lines—a reform strongly supported by the editorial board of The Washington Post and other mainstream observers.

Paul Light at Brookings released a report last week which concluded that “public demand for ‘very major’ government reform is at a twenty-year high” and that “confidence in government to do the right thing is at a historic low.” Citing our work, the report calls for “large-scale repairs to aging systems and broken bureaucracy.”

Governing is not a process of perfection. Like other human activities, governing involves tradeoffs and trial and error. One of the most important tradeoffs involves timing. Delay in governing often means failure. Nowhere is this more true than with environmental reviews for infrastructure. Every year of delay for new power lines, modernized ports, congestion pricing for city traffic, and road bottlenecks means more pollution and inefficiency.

There’s a lot going on in the world, with Ukraine, Canadian truckers, and more. So it was easy to miss the report of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, released on February 7. The Task Force, chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, calls for expanding collective bargaining throughout society, including in government.