Over the past several decades, the United States has faced a growing list of challenges.  In previous challenges that our country has faced, we were helped by the governing capacities of our democratic institutions.  But over the last twenty years, American voters have lost confidence in democratic institutions to provide efficient and equitable governance and to solve social problems.  This loss of democratic confidence has occurred largely in conjunction with increasingly high levels of ideological polarization and partisan animosity.  This lecture will explore the rise of polarized politics, its profound impact on our governing capacities, and what we can do to once again make progress on common challenges.