America, The Beautiful Mess
Our untidiness, unpredictability, inefficiency, and complexity are part of what makes America great.
America has always been an exceptional nation. By this, I mean that we are indeed the exception, not the rule. No other country on the planet is like us. We are sui generis. One of a kind. Without comparison. This is not always a good thing, mind you. But it is the truth.
One of the ways we are unique and special – and something often remarked upon as a net negative by foreign observers and even some Americans – is our national penchant for seeming disorganization, redundancy, and, frankly, chaos. We Americans are an unruly bunch and our culture, government, and national ethos all reflect that. Compared to most European or Asian societies, our country’s apparent disorder is confusing and bizarre. Compared to places like Singapore or Denmark, it is positively intolerable. Those societies are organized, planned, regimented, and constrained. The range of life outcomes is limited, choices are circumscribed, and efficiency and one-size-fits-all solutions prized. Predictability is relatively high. Tolerance for difference is relatively low. Government is deeply embedded in everyday life so as to ensure that citizens follow the ever-growing societal rulebook – one that can be altered by even the tiniest governing majority. Citizens are protected from their own impulses and made “safe” by authorities who claim to have their best interests at heart. Naturally, the government is assumed to know what these interests are for everyone. Life is made comfortable, as long as the beneficent hand of centralized government is there to ease the way.
America, by contrast, is messy.
Our political system is not neat and tidy. Instead of one single national government with plenary power over the daily lives of all citizens, we have a deliberately-constrained federal government alongside 50 state governments, all of which have their own prerogatives, interests, and laws. Each state has its own distinct culture, food, elections, legal systems, and politicians. They are able to set the vast majority of laws and compete internally for investment, people, and economic growth. Contra the trend in Europe (and the vast majority of the world, developed and developing), America retains its regional and local distinctions; federalism ensures that this will remain, even as mass media consolidates global culture.
Our national government is itself a microcosm of this broader complexity and redundancy. It has three branches – executive, legislative, and judicial – all of which compete with one another for power.1 They all have specific prerogatives and abilities, often running counter to those of the other branches. The push and pull of American politics are dynamic and constant; there are no permanent victories unless they are codified into our Constitution. (More on that in a bit.) Divided government is the norm, not the exception. This is completely alien to most of the world, where the country is either run by unelected leaders or the democratic system allows for a bare majority to control the entire polity. The idea that 50% plus 1 vote, much less a mere plurality of the electorate, could lead to wholesale alterations to the political system is antithetical to the American experiment. “One Weird Trick” governance is not a thing in the United States of America, no matter how much partisans on both sides would like it to be.
In fact, government in America is exceptionally constrained, and not only by the federalist system and separation of powers, but by the rest of our Constitution. Our polity has established limits on government that can be very inconvenient at times, but center and defend our rights and liberties. Would there be less violence if the Second Amendment didn’t exist? Sure, but that would also mean the destruction of one of the most profoundly important rights we have, that of self-defense, whether against crime or tyranny. The same applies to the First Amendment and many other amendments, notably the Ninth and Tenth. Our constitutional order also proscribes how the document itself can be changed and the presumption of unconstitutionality overcome. The amendment process is complex and distributed, requiring large majorities in both houses of Congress and a presidential signature, plus independent ratification by 38 of 50 states. Similar hurdles, though not constitutionally mandated, exist in the Senate, where the filibuster ensures that at least 60 of 100 senators must agree to pass most legislation. This friction is a feature, not a bug.
Is having such a dispersed and complex political system efficient? Not at all. But its inefficiency allows for far more variety, choice, and internal diversity than anywhere else on the planet. That means that progressive Rhode Island and conservative Wyoming can coexist in the same nation. It means that the people have far more control over their everyday lives and the polities they reside in; there simply is no real possibility for over-the-top central planning in a nation like ours, where difference is prized over conformity. And that is a very good thing. An overweening national government undermining the constitutional order, regardless of its regnant ideology, would lead to the inevitable dissolution of this great nation. What allows our unique continental republic to thrive is not homogeneity, but diversity. Not skin-level diversity, something that frankly does not and should not matter, but real difference on the basis of ideas, life choices, faith, careers, and more. Diversity does not reside at the group level, but at the only level that truly matters: that of the individual. And nothing makes America messier or better than our hyperfixation on the individual.
Our country was founded, more than anything else, on the inextricably-linked ideas of individual liberty, personal agency, and human freedom. Those ideas were radical in 1776 and they are just as radical 250 years later. There are infinite possibilities here in America – for good and ill. We let a thousand flowers bloom. That will inevitably result in some bad or suboptimal outcomes, but that is the result of centering the individual in everything we do. Humans are flawed, imperfect beings; our choices will not always be the best or safest ones. Sometimes our own choices will lead to penury, pain, or even death. But just as often – I would argue far more so – the ability to choose for oneself leads to incredible outcomes. It leads to risk-seeking, entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, and autonomy. It breeds personal responsibility and a never-say-die mindset. It has created the world’s most impressive and dynamic economy and a culture that is rife with change and imagination. Individualism has defined our nation for 250 years; we can only hope that it continues to define America for the next quarter millennium.
In America, liberty is the assumption. The people are not constrained by government; government is restrained by the people. From the outside, that can look like chaos or disorder – surely an inefficient and imperfect way to run a nation. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. America may sometimes feel like a mess, but damn, is it a beautiful one.
This tripartite system is replicated across each state, adding further complexity and friction to the system.