Restoration Roundtable


America's Crumbling Foundation And The People Who Might Fix It

And teenagers shall lead them

By Jim Tankersley  //  March 21, 2012 | 7:24 a.m.
For this series, we promised we'd introduce you to people working toward solutions for America's biggest problems. Today, we deliver the first of those stories: solutions for our dysfunctional political system, brought to you by a group of standout, idealistic teenagers, and expertly told by National Journal's Sarah Mimms.

Here's a taste of the story: 

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., teeters on glittery, gold four-inch heels, the skirt of her dress swishing as she trails a fellow Republican who is furiously scribbling a Medicare overhaul plan on a yellow legal pad. Other "senators" bounce balloons back and forth through the aisleways; one Republican sits in the back of the chamber, studying an iPad to figure out how to tie his tie.

The chamber, such as it is, is a ballroom at the Boston Sheraton hotel. The senators are type-A teenagers tasked with assuming the personas of real Capitol Hill lawmakers, including their policy views, personal opinions, and constituent demands. The role-play does not, however, extend to wardrobe. The tall brunette playing Thune wears a black dress with a large cutout in the back. But she feels it's in character. She looks up, eyes hooded in perfectly stenciled eyeliner, and explains: "Well, he's a good looking guy."

John Thune in a dress isn't nearly as surprising as the end result of Harvard University's Model Congress, where 1,400 high school students colonize an icy Boston conference center and somehow, in very non-congressional fashion, manage to get something done for the American people.


Read the rest here. Then come back and tell us: What can, or can't, Congress learn from these students?

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About Restoration Calls

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his first inaugural address, told a country struggling under the weight of the Great Depression that the nation needed to take action to rebuild and rejuvenate itself. He said: "Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now." It was a time not unlike our own, where misbehavior on Wall Street fed a widespread credit and confidence crisis that swept like a tornado through the U.S. and global economy. And as in 1933, Washington again faces the time-sensitive task of diagnosing how its institutions are ill-equipped to fix the nation's problems, and then building a new system responsive to America's new needs. This project will tell that story, through the eyes of the Americans affected.

Introduction to this series >>