Why I'm reading Nick Troiano's "The Primary Solution"
"We run our country like a company that scrutinizes its final products but entirely ignores its own assembly line," he says.
This is the first post about Nick Troiano's book The Primary Solution, which was released Feb. 27. The second post, on how our current system blocks good people from politics and breaks those who do make it into office, is here. The third post, on why getting rid of party primaries would change our politics, is here. The fourth and final post, which features an interview with Troiano, is here.
In January, I went through The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life by Michael Wear, which was released Jan. 23. The final post of that series is here. If you want to see a schedule of every book I'm going deep on this year (one a month), I explained that here.
Hello friends,
Everyone, just about, knows our politics are broken. This is not working, for anyone, other than the rich and powerful, and things just about always work for them.
The point of having an effective and productive politics is so that the rest of us can work our will, together, for the greater good: to solve problems, to administer justice, to work toward a more equal and harmonious society.
But early on in Nick's book, he uses a great metaphor to describe why our politics is broken.
"We run our country like a company that scrutinizes its final products but entirely ignores its own assembly line. It's time we refocus our attention," (7) Nick says.
The broken toys keep coming off the line. So we buy different toys, yet those too are broken. But instead of asking why toys keep breaking, we just keep trying to buy a new toy.
We keep looking at the politicians who show up on our TV's and our phones, at the lawmakers who end up in Congress, and the general lack of solutions to our biggest problems, and we shake our head. We promise to vote the bums out. We vow to drain the swamp. We pledge to overturn the plutocracy.
But we don't think about our assembly line, the system that gives us the choices we are presented with.
Remember Lee Drutman's line? "Who chooses the choices?"
That's the right question. When we show up to the toy store, and don't like our choices, we're not asking who is making the decision to limit us to these options. We simply keep buying from their limited selection, hoping for a different outcome.
The point of Nick's book is that we have to change the way we choose our choices.
What does that mean?
It means recognizing — first and foremost — that in every election, there are actually two election days: a winter, spring or summer election called a primary, and a fall election called a general.
Most of us only vote in the general.
And yet the primary is the one that decides not only who will represent that seat in Congress, or that party in the presidential election. The primary has also become a weapon used by ideologues and zealots to turn our politics into a bloodsport rather than something that serves its citizens.
Nick's book is an explanation of how that came to be, why it should be changed, and how we can change it.
I like how
’s book — which I went through in January — complements Nick’s book, and vice versa.Michael’s book is about how our politics will be better if we are better: as citizens, as leaders, as advocates and activists and politicians and voters.
Nick’s book is about how our politics needs structural reform.
Together, this is the way forward. Better people. Better systems. We need both.
Follow along in the coming weeks for posts on the book, and an interview with Nick.