A Three-Part Agenda To Fight The Wildfire, Part 1

A more perfect union, general welfare, and domestic tranquility.

Now, let’s turn our attention to that wildfire. If we can get our bear out of the trap of our dysfunctional party politics, and get those politician-wolves turned back into sled dogs pulling for us, we’ll be able to turn our energies toward beating back the flames bearing down on us.

A reminder: The wildfire is global economic turbulence fueled by two forces bigger than the United States. These are globalization (and now de-globalization) and technological transformation, both of which are also driving climate change and historically unprecedented levels of human migration. The wildfire has sparked cultural destabilization in societies around the globe, including in the U.S. The economic turbulence manifests itself at home in our nationwide housing crisis and stagnating opportunity.

So what do we do about it?

We have three major steps to take. The preamble to the Constitution can be our guide. Let’s recall how our ancestors defined the job of fighting the wildfire:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This is our job too. We’ll get a more perfect union by renovating our democracy. We’ll promote the general welfare by rebalancing power in our economy and society, especially by redirecting tech power into channels that are good for people and good for democracy. We’ll provide for the common defence and domestic tranquility by pursuing safety as the outcome of strong, fair institutions that recognize the power and blessings of our liberties.

The overall picture is pretty simple.

First, for that more perfect union, we’ve got to make sure our instruments of governance are fit for purpose. This means our institutions of representative democracy need to work. They need to be responsive to our needs and get stuff done for us. Otherwise, autocracy is calling. There is more democracy renovation needed than just getting rid of party primaries. There’s cultural work to do as well as institutional reform. We need to put civic education at the center of our education system. If we renovate our institutions but not our civic culture, all the hard work of institutional change will have been in vain.

Second, for the general welfare, we need to take power back from technology and put it in our hands -- the hands of ordinary people. We need to take our kids back from tech so that we parents shape their development, not algorithms. We adults need to declare independence from tech, reclaiming mastery of our own minds, souls, and habits of attention. And we need to put tech to work for us, fueling an economy that gives us all a meaningful and rewarding part to play.

We need technology strategies that work to complement human labor, not replace it. We’ll feel better back in the driver’s seat, and our economic opportunities will increase. And we need to take control of our time back from a tech-powered economy that above all extracts our life force down to the minute.

We need this so that we can pursue not work-life balance, but life-work-civic balance. Life should come first. We need a world where life feels good, is supported by good schools and good jobs, and leaves enough time for all of us who want to take up a civic role.

Third, we also need to deliver domestic tranquility and common defense while preserving our liberties to pass on to our children. Just as we want to win the AI war–both the competition with China and the war for our human souls– without ceasing to be a free society, so, too, we want to secure the border and keep our streets safe, without turning into a police state. We have to protect personal liberties, including due process and freedom of speech, while at the same time we defend ourselves.

Safety is the outcome not just of force, but of strong, fair institutions. It requires economic stability, educational opportunity and the fostering of civic trust, health-care systems that support positive mental health, and social cohesion. All the work we do on democracy renovation and securing the general welfare will also support safety and domestic tranquility. Our work on border security, immigration, and policing should always be set against consistent efforts to create strong, fair institutions. There will be a lot of work to do on this front. We do need to keep irregular border crossings to a bare minimum, but we also need to clean up the system of legal entry, develop a structure for earned legalization for the millions of long-term but unauthorized residents embedded in families and workplaces, and develop a renewed capacity to work with global partners on fresh global conventions.

With these fundamentals in place, we’ll also be in a good position to tackle climate issues, not only mitigation but – because it is already necessary – adaptation.

We can make constitutional democracy work in the 21st century with responsive, resilient governance; deliver the general welfare by shifting power in our economy and society back to ordinary people; and secure domestic tranquility and the common defense by putting respect for the blessings of liberty at the heart of our work.

Next up: essays on each of these three aspects of the agenda for fighting the wildfire that’s bearing down on us.

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Catch up on Danielle Allen’s “Bear in a Trap” series today!

• “America as a Bear in a Trap,” Aug. 18

• “A Bear in a Trap, Part 2,” Aug. 21

• “Don’t Be Afraid to Free the Bear,” Aug. 26