Sagebrush in the Media
The Dispatch
The Broken Windows of American Government
In 1982, criminologists James Wilson and George Kelling introduced the “broken windows theory” in criminal justice. They argued that small signs of neglect, like a broken window, could signal disorder and invite more serious crimes. Today, America doesn’t have just one broken window—it has tens of thousands. Each chronically failing school, every undeveloped park, each spike in local crime rates, and every unresponsive city bureaucracy is another broken window. Individually, they are minor. Collectively, they spell the civic catastrophe undermining America’s strength, unity, and pride.…