Your grandchildren’s world promises to be very different from the one in which we have grown up. Living in a very divided nation, the future of the union is quite uncertain. Congress is marked by intense polarization, hyper-partisanship, and gridlock, failing to address the needs of all but a few. Notwithstanding these challenges and the outcome of the 2020 election, our government will need, over the coming decades, to address the “elephant in the room,” the growing income and wealth gap that is suffocating our spirit, our hope, and our sense of unity.

The U.S. in 2050, the landscape your grandchildren will inherit, depends on whether, as a nation, we can effectively address critical and complex issues - political dysfunction, the increasing diversity of the population, looming fiscal challenges facing the federal government, widespread automation and technological change, the health care crisis, climate change, global pressures, and more. These challenges will not resolve themselves. The extent to which Congress will be able to respond to these challenges effectively will depend on whether politics in the U.S. will be polarized or pluralized.

The goal is to first of all gain a deeper understanding of our political dysfunction, including government by and for the few, then examine some of these ongoing challenges. Participants will be asked to do two to three hours of reading for each class.