To reestablish its role as a stabilizing force in the international system, the United States needs to reimagine its central political institutions, beginning with the presidency, to curb the threat of autocratic backsliding. It needs to reform how Congress is elected and how it operates to allow it to make timely and difficult decisions. It needs to revolutionize an election system that produces intractable partisan gridlock and rancor by default. Most urgently, America needs to rethink the role of money in politics to curb the plutocratic takeover of its most important institutions.
