Calling Student Writers

If you’re a student and a writer, The Nation is having a contest you want to check out. The topic:

It’s clear that the political system in the US isn’t working for many. If you had to pick one root cause underlying our broken politics, what would it be and why?

My candidate would be the toxic blend of partisan congressional redistricting and technology. It allows elected officials to pick their constituents rather than the other way around. What’s yours?

2 Replies to “Calling Student Writers”

  1. I blame mathematics and our general lack of empathy. I remember Andy writing some time ago about what the education field could learn from the NFL. I think the answer to this question is what we can “unlearn” from our sports industry. When some of our brightest minds are focused on securing a wild card or analyzing data to secure a congressional seat in perpetuity, we seem destined to be a culture that is hyper-focused on winning rather than one that acknowledges our civic obligations to one another. Our sabermetricians of partisan politics have no incentive to do anything different and our general populace refuses to put their I-phones down long enough to stop providing them with the data necessary for their trade.

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