You know who I feel sorry for? Today’s politicians.
You'll laugh at this, but hear me out. This is a very tough time to be a politician—whether running for office or trying to lead while holding office. The women and men who’ve undertaken to represent us face circumstances that make campaigning and governing unusually challenging right now.
Not that they’ve ever been easy, at least in my lifetime. Our size, diversity, and multi-layered government structure; the number and complexity of the problems our political leaders face daily; and the divided politics of our time, which make settling on coherent policies especially challenging—all these combine to make being a politician in a representative democracy one of the most demanding jobs around.
Several features of the current political landscape, however, give politics a sharper edge and make it far more difficult to navigate.
