There’s a line in today’s New York Times that tells you almost everything you need to know about American politics right now.
Donald Trump told his supporters:
“Pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.”
Think about that.
Not: Pretend your community is on the ballot.
Not: Pretend your children’s future is on the ballot.
Not: Pretend the country is on the ballot.
Pretend I’m on the ballot.
And that perfectly illustrates the problem we have created in American politics.
We have turned governing into a personality contest.
Republicans have a fascinating problem heading into November.
Donald Trump remains enormously powerful with the Republican base. He can endorse candidates, raise money, drive turnout and potentially destroy Republicans who publicly cross him.
But according to the Times, his approval rating is underwater.
So Republican candidates in competitive districts face an almost impossible political calculation:
How close do I stand to Trump without standing so close that I lose everybody else?
And Democrats have their own calculation:
How do we make every Republican candidate answer for Donald Trump?
Meanwhile, there’s another group of people nobody seems particularly interested in talking about.
Us.
The citizens.
We’re watching two enormous political machines spend hundreds of millions of dollars figuring out how to manipulate turnout.
One side wants you terrified of Donald Trump.
The other side wants you terrified of what happens without Donald Trump.
And everybody wants your vote.
But here’s the question I’ve been asking strangers lately:
Why do ordinary people feel like they can’t change anything?
I’m interviewing 100 people, and something interesting is already happening.
When you actually sit down with people—not politicians, not pundits, not somebody screaming on television—you discover Americans aren’t nearly as crazy as our politics makes us look.
People worry about prices.
They worry about their families.
They worry about opportunity.
They worry about whether government actually works.
And they wonder whether anybody in Washington gives a damn about them after Election Day.
That’s the conversation I think we’re missing.
Because November shouldn’t ultimately be a referendum on Donald Trump.
It shouldn’t be a referendum on the Democratic Party.
It shouldn’t even be a referendum on the Republican Party.
It should be a referendum on us.
Are we going to continue being spectators while political organizations decide which team we’re supposed to hate this year?
Or are we finally going to become citizens again?
Read the article carefully and you’ll notice how much of the conversation is about power.
Trump’s power.
The Republican Party’s power.
The Democratic Party’s power.
Super PAC money.
Campaign strategy.
Control of Congress.
But there’s one source of power bigger than every one of them.
Millions of ordinary Americans deciding to participate.
That’s why I’m doing these 100 interviews.
I’m done assuming I know what people think.
I want to hear it.
And when we’ve heard 100 voices, we’re going to look for the things that connect them instead of the things that divide them.
Because maybe the most important name on the ballot this November isn’t Trump.
It isn’t Republican.
It isn’t Democrat.
It’s citizen.
Don’t pretend somebody else is on the ballot.
Act like you are.
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