With many believing U.S. democracy is in peril, Brookings Senior Fellow Darrell M. West offers a more optimistic outlook.

It’s not that West, a former director of Brown University’s Taubman Center, doesn’t see that democracy may be in jeopardy, but he is confident that mainly younger voters are recognizing the dangers.

We talked with West, trying to make sense of the chaos. In this podcast, West talks about a political atmosphere, maybe best described by former President Bill Clinton, as “politics of personal destruction.” 

Our conversation ranges from the blurring of separation of powers, immigration, the divide in America, and ramifications of the “Big Beautiful Bill” on marginalized Americans, and what West sees as provisions that will add to a doctor shortage in this country.

West is a senior fellow of Governance Studies in Brookings Center for Technology Innovation within the Governance Studies program and a co-editor-in-chief of TechTank. He is a former Brookings vice president and director of Governance Studies, the author numerous books, including his latest, Lies that Kill: A Citizens’s Guide to Disinformation, co-authored with Elaine Kamarck. He was honored by Public Administration Review for having written one of the 75 most influential articles since 1940.