In hindsight, the Obama campaign was most notable for the passion it excited. After a period in which apathy seemed endemic to prosperous democracies, politics as mass movement was reborn. Volunteers swarmed states not their own; devotees assembled in the …

What is politics for? For getting something done, surely. And what needs to be done seems particularly obvious today. From bridges to banking, America is crumbling, while its enemies continue to burn with hatred. It seems beyond dispute that the …

Every day each of us confronts the question of what politics is for as we interact with our neighbors. I live in the neighborhood of Hyde Park, which occupies roughly one and a half square miles on the South Side …

Cynicism about politics, rampant in the United States for years now, has peculiar features that distinguish it from its siblings in the disillusionment family, such as cynicism about romantic relationships or one’s efforts at work. First among these is that …