Our citizens are spread far and wide, and they represent a great variety of races, religions, regional interests, and national origins. It is not easy to develop a system to enable such a country to live together peacefully and productively, but representative democracy allows us to do it. Representative democracy, for all its faults, is our best hope for dealing with our problems through a process of compromise, negotiation, and deliberation. Our system gives people an opportunity not only to speak but also to participate in the decision-making process and to engage with others in open discussion and debate. At its best, representative democracy gives us a system whereby all of us have a voice in the process and a stake in the product.
Many people think that the way to deal with their problems is to abolish politics.
But politics the process of compromise, negotiation, and deliberation is the essence of how we make our system work. Politics may be unpopular but it is also indispensable. It is the way that we express the popular will of the people. We need to strengthen representative democracy, not enfeeble it. The widespread public contempt for government today produces a vicious circle that makes government worse.