Mercifully, the 2024 election has finally come to a close. Good riddance.

This fractious, divisive and emotionally exhausting spectacle is behind us at last. Now it's time to move on — not just from the candidates and the campaign, but from the entire enterprise of politics itself. What we need is not merely a temporary respite from partisan warfare, but a fundamental reassessment of politics' proper place in American life.

Our founders understood this imperative well. As John Adams famously remarked, he had "studied War and Politics" so that his "children might have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."

The implication was clear: Politics was a necessary evil, to be endured so that the true work of living could commence. They saw political engagement not as an end in itself, but as the scaffolding upon which a rich civil society could be built.

Yet somewhere along the way, we have lost sight of this fundamental truth. Politics has become an........

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