I heard the host on my news show today say “I’m confident you could pick random people off the street and they would do a better job than our elected officials,” or something along those lines. They were referring specifically to our congressional representatives’ complete lack of advocation for wildly popular policies, like drug price reform and a $15 federal minimum wage and healthcare for all; these positions consistently poll at 60% majority or higher.

Yet I don’t think it’s that simple. It appears the system we have incentivizes such behavior, or lack of action, from our legislative officials. I don’t know if “regular people” would do any better, as they would be subjected to the same systemic forces.

So how do we combat these institutional pitfalls, these larger-than-life machines? It’s our same answer: evaluate our paradigms, in order to recognize we are one. Reject the culture war, the partisanship, and the polarized pandering. We will all benefit from a reformed system, as we are all more similar than we are different. We all want the same things. If we come together, we can change the world.