Regular readers of Bad Dogs and Bakeries.com are familiar with our essays lamenting the flawed U.S. Constitution, the anti-democratic institutions (like the senate and electoral college) it has bred, and the consequences (such as the minority rule) with which we live.

No one in the Republican or Democratic party is doing anything to remedy these systemic problems which undermine the principles and ideals on which we tell ourselves the American experiment is based.  They are content with the status quo and their roles in that status quo.

But outside of government and party politics, there are a few people who recognize the grim state of our country, and have devoted themselves to putting forward proposals that would if enacted in total go some way toward correcting these ills.  One is the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Its recently published set of proposals — Our Common Purpose — Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century — is one such commendable effort.

https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/report

Instead of imagining that Joe Biden is going to save us, we would do better to devote our time and efforts to seeing initiatives like that of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences brought to fruition.