Caroline Fredrickson is the strategic councilor on democracy and power at the Open Markets Institute. She is a frequent guest on television and radio and regularly contributes to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other outlets.
You’ve probably heard of Bowling Alone, the hugely influential 2000 book diagnosing our country’s malaise by Robert Putnam, the Harvard University political scientist. In it, Putnam showed that Americans’ stock of social capital—the fabric of a community’s trust and cooperation—had been plummeting since the 1950s, and that its decline was harming our well-being, personal relationships, health, lifespan, and economic growth. In the quarter-century since the book received widespread attention, social trust, accepted norms, and community cohesion continue to come undone, paving the way for the rise of authoritarian populism and damage to the republic. Indeed, the number of people saying…
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The late great representative’s near political end in a sex scandal is a reminder of why Congress should pause before forcing members to resign.
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My wife, Emily Lazar, worked at both The Colbert Report and The Late Show and she helps me look under the hood.
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AI companies want to monetize what makes us human. Who will stop them?
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Long before the Southern Poverty Law Center, non-government organizations ran undercover operations against American fascists.
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