I was down in Louisiana attending to my sister’s funeral and its aftermath, so I missed coverage of former SecDef Bob Gates’s starting September 22 speech in Philadelphia. Here’s a link to the text.  Key excerpts:

I do believe that we are now in uncharted waters when it comes to the dysfunction in our political system—and it is no longer a joking matter. It appears that as a result of several long-building, polarizing trends in American politics and culture, we have lost the ability to execute even the basic functions of government, much less solve the most difficult and divisive problems facing the country. Thus, I am more concerned than I have ever been about the state of American governance.

More:

I have worked for eight presidents, and I have known many politicians of both parties over nearly five decades, and I never met one who had a monopoly on revealed truth. At a time when our country faces deep economic and other challenges at home and a world that just keeps getting more complex and more dangerous, those who think that they alone have the right answers, those who demonize those who think differently, and those who refuse to listen
and take other points of view into account—these leaders, in my view, are a danger to the American people and to the future of our republic.

Jim Fallows was astonished that a man of Gates stature and long experience can make a speech in Philadelphia saying that the U.S. system has “lost the ability to execute even the basic functions of government, much less solve the most difficult and divisive problems facing the country,” and it got no more coverage than it did. If you follow the link to Fallows’ remarks, you’ll see that he quotes a reaction from a former GOP Senate staffer named Joseph Britt, who says Gates’s failure to name names in that speech might account for his lack of press. Britt duns Gates for this, saying the former SecDef is being too courteous for the country’s own good. Britt:

I think he believes American government has gone badly wrong, and American news media has become fragmented, frivolous and superficial, but does not want to hurt the feelings of anyone he knows personally or initiate a public controversy that would trouble his life in retirement.  Anyone who believes the failures of our government are failures primarily of men rather than of laws is bound to regard his remarks in Philadelphia as no damned help at all.

Thoughts, readers?