--- title: Americans Should Demand More of Our Leaders description: How Americans might be getting the politicians we deserve, the disturbing staying power of bad ideas and more. canonical: https://time.com/4389761/americans-should-demand-more-of-our-leaders/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-30T16:17:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:49.012Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Americans Should Demand More of Our Leaders og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4389761/americans-should-demand-more-of-our-leaders/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Should Demand More of Our Leaders twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Americans Should Demand More of Our Leaders by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 30, 2016 4:17 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 30, 2016 4:17 PM UTC **1\.** [**Are we getting the politicians we deserve?**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZlulvJydM) By Mitch Landrieu at the Aspen Ideas Festival **2\.** [**Why won’t bad ideas die?**](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/28/why-bad-ideas-refuse-die) By Steven Poole in the Guardian **3\.** [**How to stop the next terrorist video before it goes viral.**](http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/06/how-stop-next-viral-jihadi-video/129210/?oref=d-skybox) By Patrick Tucker in Defense One **4\.** [**Here’s why the Ku Klux Klan thinks it’s winning.**](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bd55fdecb5a54a01876cd58410d4af75/ku-klux-klan-dreams-rising-again-150-years-after-founding) By Jay Reeves at the Associated Press **5\.** [**Is gratitude holding us back?**](http://www.ozy.com/immodest-proposal/screw-gratitude-its-holding-you-back/70201) By Taylor Mayol in Ozy  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4389761/americans-should-demand-more-of-our-leaders/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4389761/americans-should-demand-more-of-our-leaders/"},"headline":"Americans Should Demand More of Our Leaders","datePublished":"2016-06-30T16:17:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:49.012Z","description":"These are today's best ideas.","url":"https://time.com/4389761/americans-should-demand-more-of-our-leaders/","keywords":["Innovation","politics","Race","Terrorism","ideas","gratitude"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4389761/americans-should-demand-more-of-our-leaders/","name":"Americans Should Demand More of Our Leaders"}}]}] ```