Krystal Ball

It meant full participation in communal life, in economic life, in national life.

It meant a sense of solidarity.

It meant, you know, ultimately that you also had this connection between generations, that you were inheriting something from the people who had invested to give it to you, that you in turn had an obligation to invest and give it to the next generation.

And

It seems to me that and what we're really focused on American Compass is that that's just fundamental to human flourishing, to a well-functioning society.

And I think it's something that we've lost.

And, you know, we obviously do a lot of work on economic policy.

I think in terms of what do policymakers need to do, better economic policy is a huge piece of it.

But the reality is that you also need a political culture that's going to be able to make those kinds of changes.

You need people who are bought into the system.

This thing we spoke about a lot with Secretary Besson last night, that especially when you talk to young people, you know, the problem isn't that they don't have enough stuff, right?

Like...

We have more material abundance than ever, I think, but their very well-founded frustration is that it's not clear what any of it's for.

And so when we think about reclaiming American citizenship, and the reclaiming is very important because I think there really is something that was sort of stripped away that over, you know, really the past generation, we've degraded that kind of relationship into something that is just more, you know, you are a consumer, not an actual productive person.

participant necessarily in the economy.

You are sort of this individual with radical autonomy to invent your own truth, not somebody who is a member of a community and lives within those obligations.

And at the national level, to some extent, even outright shame or disdain for what is an incredible heritage that we have inherited and

should be trying to carry forward.

And so I think in substantive terms, I mean, there's a lot of policy that has caused some of these problems that could address some of them.

But also just as a matter of how we approach our politics, I think what is really missing out there right now is