Parties of Decay
Why neither party is fit to lead America into the future
The House on the Hill Used to be Beautiful
The America I grew up wanting to be a part of was once to me a grand house up on a hill. The estate of the esteemed, built on a foundation of principles, laws, and sacrosanct norms that were rooted in the hallowed ground where men died for their freedoms and the ideals of the new world rebels who threw off the yoke of kings, seeking to govern themselves without appeals to divine right. Imperfect as these men and their application of their ideals were, they still built the finest house in all the world. It was a house I wanted to live in. A house I was lucky to have been born into.
I don’t recognize this house anymore. I can see the frame through the holes in the walls. I find myself tripping over the buckling in the floor. I see water colored with mud and rust, colored like blood, gushing from the fissures in the foundation. And, I see the men of recent generations, who were elected to be the keepers of the house. The parties they have assembled themselves into. The party that rips the copper plumbing from the walls, and the party that watches on, too aghast and too intoxicated to do anything. At best, they shake their heads and speak of what a shame it is, while trying to stop the flooding with a soggy roll of duct tape.
Is this the true meaning of the words “a house divided against itself cannot stand?”
The Dismantlers
Let me be plain: one of our two dominant parties has abandoned the responsibility of governance altogether. Its leaders do not aspire to build a stronger, more functional nation. Instead, they have embraced sabotage as a political strategy.
This party dismantles systems that once held us together. Voting rights, public education, environmental protections, the independence of courts and agencies, and the most basic provisions of health for our population. What little they invest in are the tools of destruction. They pay well to make ready going to war against the country and the people they were to serve and protect. Where institutions function, they are not to be seen as assets to be nurtured, but rather as enemies to be broken. Truth itself is subject to demolition, replaced by manufactured outrage and a relentless stream of coordinated propaganda.
This is not mere incompetence. It is deliberate. Breaking the government is a strategy to prove government doesn’t work. Hollowing out democracy clears the way for rule by autocrats and oligarchs. The would-be-king and the nouveau-nobles. By driving down the value of the house, they hope to buy out control from all who disagree with demolishing it to build the ministries of an authoritarian state.
The Enablers
This decay does not spread so thoroughly without consent. Here enters the other party. Ever polite, they don’t hold the tools of demolition but willingly step aside to allow their ‘friends across the aisle’ to go about the work of destruction. They pose as the defenders of democracy, yet too often their only goals are to keep the lights on until the next election.
At times, this party has been actively complicit, advancing corporate interests at the expense of working families, signing off on endless wars, and allowing wealth and power to concentrate upward while the foundations of the American standard of living erodes, along with the core principles of the nation’s democracy.
At other times, it has simply been too timid, unwilling to meet a crisis with urgency, retreating into half-measures while the other side marches boldly towards destruction. Any among their number who suggest a plan more than a sternly worded letter is muzzled by the rest, for fear of appearing too uncivil.
The result is a politics of managed decline. Not an alternative to collapse, but a slower, more polite version that may keep the people too unaware and uncoordinated to do anything about it. They do not rip beams out of the house, but neither do they shore it up. The building continues to sag while they plant peace lilies next to where the roses used to be.
The Result: A Nation in Decline
Together, the dismantlers and the enablers have brought us to this point. A nation sliding into dysfunction, unable to deliver on even the most basic promises of public life and turning the weapons of defense inward to make war upon us.
Citizens no longer expect their leaders to solve problems. They only expect theater. Trust in institutions is at historic lows. Young people look at politics and see nothing worth believing in. Abroad, allies question our stability, while adversaries cheer on our divisions and self-distraction.
The once-beautiful house that I was born into is leaning badly. One party accelerates the collapse. The other fails to stop it. Neither can be trusted with the task of rebuilding.
Beyond the Parties
This is where Stewardship enters. Stewardship is not another partisan identity. It is a posture, a duty, a way of understanding politics that transcends the tired conflict between red and blue.
Where parties of decay fight over the scraps of a crumbling order, Stewardship asks: What must we protect? What must we repair? What good can we pass on to those who come after us?
To be a steward is to see the house, not as an inheritance to exploit, but as a trust to safeguard. It means opposing the vandals who would hollow out the walls, but also refusing the complacency of those who would hold open the doors for the vandals. It means being accountable not to donors or factions, but to the generations who will live in the house after us.
The Work Ahead
The monumental task of nation-building still lies before us. It will not be done by parties that have proven themselves incapable. It will require a new ethic, a new frame, and a new sense of responsibility.
Stewardship is that ethic. It is the recognition that politics is not a game, not a business, not a tribal contest for power. Politics is the work of care. The care of people for one another, and for the institutions that allow them to live freely and securely.
The American house is worth saving. But it cannot be left to the parties of decay.