By David W. Burns
July 2, 2012

Mayors dove head first into politics during the Opening Plenary session of the 80th Annual Meeting, as Yahoo! News' Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian and ABC News Political Analyst Matthew Dowd discussed the promise and pitfalls of politics in 2012 from the national perspective, painting a grim future.

Chalian, acting as a moderator for the session, posed a question to Dowd, setting a table for an overview of politics in 2012, remarking, "I don't remember a time when there was so much consensus across the aisle over the problems, even a consensus over the options… yet we are locked in a stasis politically."

"We have lost faith and trust with every major institution in this country simultaneously…. We've lost faith in churches, the media, our governmental institutions and our corporate institutions," said Dowd. "We are in a spiritual crisis in our country, not a moral crisis as some may say. There is an unbelievable poverty of the soul that exists in this country. People are looking for leaders to fulfill that." He continued, "[Leaders] keep arguing over the ends and nobody is doing anything about the means…" referring to, for instance, transportation where Republicans and Democrats agree that it needs to be improved but they won't talk to each other or work together to figure out how they can actually pass a bill.

Dowd then brought up a research project, which concluded that the American public sees themselves as "an orphan," as having to do things on their own. Dowd said of politics today, "Citizens are like kids in a family going through a bad divorce." Continuing, "…citizens want the two people who have disagreements [the parents, or in this case, politicians] not use the kids to accomplish whatever specific means they have."

With that grim outlook, Chalian proposed the question, "What kind of hope do you have that the 2012 presidential election can restore that trust?"

Dowd replied, "We are going to have an election, people are going to make a decision. 48 percent of the country going one way, 48 percent of the country going the other way and 4 percent will decide the election." He continued, "We're going to have a [more] divided congress. The House of Representatives will be closer than it is now... we're going to have a United States Senate that is closer." "The Aftermath of that will be the public throwing up their hands."

Dowd concluded, "Ultimately, the leaders that'll fix this problem are not in Washington (DC). Washington (DC) will, for the forcible future, be in the way."

This entire session is available for viewiing on demand at the 80th Annual Meeting web site: usmayors.org/80thAnnualMeeting.