Mark Twain once noted, “Politicians and diapers must be changed often – and for the same reason.” Well, he’s probably rolling over in his grave right now, given the putrid, stagnant state of U.S. politics. It’s possible that we’ll have yet another Bush or Clinton in the White House.

It’s also possible that Joe Biden, who’s been Vice President for the last eight years, will run and become President.

Americans are desperate for real change, and the popularity of non-politicians exemplifies this sentiment.

Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson haven’t roamed around Capitol Hill for the past umpteen years – and it’s a big reason why they’re atop many preliminary polls of Republican voters. Can you blame people for wanting new leadership? After all,economic stagnation has coincided with our political stagnation.

Little Hope

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, real (inflation adjusted) median household income has declined by 6.5% since 2007, the year before the last recession.

In fact, real median earnings for a man with a full-time job are no higher today than they were in the early 1970s.

Widening income inequality is impeding wage growth. And politicians had better get their collective act together because the accelerating pace of technological advancement is only going to make the income inequality problem harder to rectify.

As Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee point out in The Second Machine Age, “There’s never been a worse time to be a worker with only ‘ordinary’ skills and abilities to offer, because computers, robots, and other digital technologies are acquiring these skills and abilities at an extraordinary rate.”

The challenges facing our nation are monumental, and it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that even clear and urgent issues haven’t been addressed.