About American Habits
Too much of American political life begins and ends in Washington. We consume every national political drama on cable news or social media, but too often, we overlook the places where Americans solve problems and govern themselves.
American Habits exists to shift more of the attention closer to home. We are a publication primarily about federalism and self-government. Federalism can sometimes sound like an abstract constitutional principle, but American Habits makes it practical and understandable.
We talk with governors, mayors, state lawmakers, policy experts and civic leaders. We look at federal overreach and the proper constitutional balance between the states and the national government, while exploring the deeper habits that make self-government a reality.
That doesn’t mean state and local government always gets it right. American Habits does not romanticize local government simply because it is local. We are interested in asking where decisions should be made, who should be accountable for them and how our institutions can better serve the people they were created to serve.
At its best, federalism disperses political power, gives states and communities room to solve problems differently and keeps more decisions closer to the people affected by them. It also creates space for experimentation and accountability that has always characterized a country as large as the United States.
As the 20th century Ohio U.S. Senator Robert Taft once observed, “There is no man and no group of men intelligent enough to coordinate and control the infinitely numerous and complex problems involved in the production, consumption, and daily lives of one hundred and twenty million individualistic and educated people.”
