Politics has become a synonym for all that is dirty, corrupt, dishonest, compromising, and wrong. For many people, politics seems not only remote from their daily lives but abhorrent to their personal values. Outside of the rare inspirational politician or social movement, politics is a wasteland of apathy and disinterest.

It wasn t always this way. For Americans who came of age shortly after World War II, politics was a field of dreams. Democracy promised to cure the world s ills. But starting in the late seventies, conservative economists promoted self-interest as the source of all good,...