The USA was designed, but there were huge omissions in the design. This doesn’t reflect poorly on the founders. They were humans, limited, fallible. They did something new and novel and did a good job. But they were human- the Constitution is not perfect. Continue reading
When I make a list of what’s wrong with our American political system, it becomes long. Consider the following: Continue reading
When are problems in politics not problems? This is why our political system seems impossible to fix. Continue reading
This is a bad question: Is Social Media Bad for Democracy? Yet this is precisely the sort of thing America is spending it’s time on.
America’s problems worsen as citizens are bewildered. Culturally, we don’t understand what’s happening, so we work on magical solutions. Continue reading
Politics seems to be completely broken, but it’s not. It simply lacks the foundation that’s required for politicians to be accountable. And it can easily be fixed. Continue reading
(Note: This article is very obtuse unless you know me and PeopleCount. If you don’t, start with this 2-article piece about the nuts and bolts of PeopleCount, or the site’s How it Works page. For more background, see the piece about how America has been blind to political accountability. A Guide to the Blog is also available.)
Obama failed. The Democrats failed. The Republicans failed. Bush failed. Before that, Clinton failed. Bush Sr failed. They all left us with a more dismal, less workable future. Why?
They failed because they ignored the most central problem in America. When you ignore the most central problem, it gets worse.
What IS the most central problem in America today? It’s not climate change or pollution. It’s not income disparity. It’s not poverty or education or racial or sexual prejudice. It’s not economic at all.
Google and Facebook and Twitter and Musk are not working on it. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings ignored it, and still do (though Jobs now has an excuse.) Peter Thiel and Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George Soros skirted it. The Pope’s were concerned about it, but none of them tackled it. Nor the Dalai Lama.
The central problem is not lack of knowledge. It’s not nuclear war, or any of our weaponized conflicts.
There’s one solution that is touted as being the most promising for reversing climate change, ending wars, improving prosperity worldwide. It’s taken seriously by world leaders, but isn’t yet valued in many parts of the world. But it also skirts America’s, and humanity’s central problem.
The solution isn’t enlightenment (though it would certainly help). The solution isn’t education, though that’s a side-effect.
A little over a year ago, Obama pointed in the problem’s general direction. He admitted it had gotten worse and he regretted it. Yet in his entire tenure, he failed to use the considerable power of his office or his persona to bring resources to bear on the problem. Never mind that he had no solution. He, and all of Congress failed to focus on it. Bush, Carson, Christie, Cruz, Fiorina, Gilmore, Graham, Jindal, Kasich, Pataki, Paul, Perry, Rubio, and Walker, and Chafee, Lessig, O’Malley, Sanders, and Webb all failed to focus on it. Many mentioned its edges.
The amazing thing is, most of the people above have the resources to actually FIX the problem, worldwide. But they’re not listening. They’re not aware. Many think it’s too hard. They think it’s part of the fabric of humanity.
Do you know what it was like before we knew about bacteria and germs? Most people were positive there were good and bad demons. They thought that sickness could be cured by blessing.
Humanity is walking around believing its mythology. You are going about your everyday life, ignoring our central problem. Yet, it could easily be solved.
There are a few small groups working on it, and one quick and effective solution is available. Larger groups are working on its edges, committed to unworkable approaches. But the media wants to ignore them until after they’re successful.
Gandhi and King and Mandela were on the right track, but their goals were too small. They addressed applied pieces of the problem, not the problem itself. And that was great. We can now stand atop their work.
Pride keeps it hidden
What keeps the problem in place is pride. You actually think that if there were a “most important” problem that you’d know about it. And you actually believe that if you learned about a simple solution, you’d recognize it quickly. You forget that we’re human. We’re really the same beings that thought diseases were caused by spirits.
If you want to learn about a solution, it’ll take about a week of spending time with me, if you’re bright. Building it would take six months and having it change our world for the better would take a year.
So far, people with resources that I’ve reached have not taken the time or effort to understand it, yet wrote it off as unworkable. Others have had their people filter out the contacts. Most simply aren’t reachable. And I am very, very frustrated…
PS: This is by far the most obtuse piece I’ve written (I think). Some are very straightforward.
Parties are not all bad. They help publicize important issues and give Americans a choice about them. But parties are mostly bad.
Parties concentrate political power in a narrow-minded hierarchy. I’ve tried to reach people in both parties. They are largely unreachable. When reached, people are too busy to consider a new approach.
They dominate the political conversation. Many want a balanced budget or to audit the Federal Reserve Bank’s decisions. Some want a central US Bank. Others want deregulation or to end to the shadow banking system. Many want an end to corruption or climate change. But politicians and the parties dominate the media with news against the other party. Their messaging floods the airwaves with one-sided rhetoric. Other ideas gain little of no attention.
Both parties are dominated by the economic elite. Clearly the wealthy have more time and money to spend on politics. But America has effectively become an oligarchy, serving a variety of wealthy special interests, rather than its voters.
Parties represent the political elite. Most Americans are in favor of term limits for Congress. Neither party will touch this issue, so it has been virtually invisible for decades, even though a compromise is available. When it did a survey, the above anti-corruption effort found 97% of Americans favored it. Congress did nothing and we hear nothing from big media.
Parties work hard to stifle third parties. In the last election, the Democratic party worked hard to ensure Lawrence Lessig was kept out of their debate. After the primaries, the parties refused to let the Libertarian and Green parties take part. Part of this is the natural desire to beat all opposition and collect power. But part is that there is no check or balance to them. The two parties run the Federal Election Commission and years ago they took control of the presidential debates. They steadfastly oppose a voting method that would make third-party candidacies easier.
They end up working against democracy, choice and representation. Our representatives can only form coalitions today with their party’s blessing. Many successfully “reach across the aisle”, but without party support, no legislation is passed. The message of parties to America- support one of us or have no political say.
There are lots of ways to organize ourselves and lessen or eliminate our 2-party monopoly. But almost all of them involve changes in laws. That means fighting the powerful parties.
PeopleCount proposes making politicians accountable to voters rather than parties, donors or special interests. It starts by letting Americans vote on interesting issues, chosen by themselves. But it doesn’t stop there. It includes communication with and from your politicians, a system that creates a relationship of accountability with voters. This relationship between voters and politicians will supplant the both of their dependence on parties.
After a short time of using PeopleCount, voters can easily influence their politicians to align with the will of the people. And when they disagree, they’ll be motivated to compromise, such as with term limits.
The American political system was poorly designed for modern times. Most people praise America’s founders for their wisdom and foresight in creating a system of government that seemed to be a highly workable system. It largely resisted tyranny. And it clawed its way back from many types of corruption.
There’s more to a political system than just a system of government. The government is the institutions that make and interpret laws and carry them out, plus the laws about election. The political system includes all the ways the government is chosen and influenced. While the founders said a lot about government, they said little about elections and almost nothing about influence.
Our political system was founded on some ideas about good people acting in good faith for the benefit of a free country. In 1776, Freedom and Democracy were old ideas but new practices. It hadn’t been tried on a national level for over a millennium. We honor our founders and find wisdom in their writing. But we shouldn’t think their basic solution was sufficient, especially for today’s world, which was very different from theirs.
In the beginning, America’s constitution did not even guarantee basic rights. The constitution was signed in September, 1787. The Bill of Rights was proposed two years later, and signed into law after another two years.
What else didn’t they plan for?
Washington warned against political parties and “factions” before he left office. Madison wrote about it in the Federalist papers. He hoped being a federation would stop them from taking over. He was mistaken. No checks and balances were designed to keep them from warping our politics or stealing our power.
In their day, lobbying was abhorrent. People had the right to petition government. But no one had the right to hire influential people to petition government for them. That was unthinkable. Prohibitions of it were written into state constitutions at times, but eventually those were lost.
Corporations were abhorrent to America’s founders. Their rise in America was against everything the founders believed. They certain never intended corporations to have the rights of people. Yet today, corporations with budgets larger than most countries operate with near impunity, often influencing and even bribing our Congress.
Mostly, the founders didn’t think much about democracy. To them, citizens were unreliable, uneducated and poorly informed. The founders had debates about whether they should have any say at all- perhaps just landowners? Perhaps just the educated? They didn’t foresee a time when most people could read and write. They didn’t foresee a time when most every citizen had access to media. They certainly didn’t conceive of the anything like the internet.
To them, voting for representatives was a pretty new idea. It hadn’t been around long enough for them to see the possible flaws and corruption. They didn’t think hard about ensuring that politicians would be accountable to people, accept in elections. Nor did they foresee that elections would be influenced by huge corporations and politicians would be corrupted by lobbyists.
PeopleCount has taken a hard, deep look at accountability. We’ve designed a way for politicians to be accountable to citizens after the election is over. And a way for citizens to hold their elected officials accountable. But we need your support. Please add your email address to our announcement list.
America has failed elections. Another piece of evidence is the talk of overturning Trump’s election.
I see three ways to peacefully overturn the election of Donald Trump.
All of these could result in peaceful transfer of power. Though there would be some upset citizens, all of these are legal methods. None are “trickery,” though that would likely be a common accusation.
Our primitive party system was never designed. It evolved. We struggle under its burden as if we can do nothing about it. Actually, it’s only our own lack of ability to organize and communicate that makes us powerless.
Similarly, or system of primaries has failed. In some states they’re open, in other states they’re closed, locking out independent voters. And while most voters want one or more new parties, third parties are almost entirely locked out.
The presidential election system also has failed. The electoral college idea was never updated. It was never redesigned for our modern world.
1. The electoral college was needed until the last few decades. Elections were slow, expensive, manual processes. And until the 1890’s, the postal service didn’t even deliver to small towns. In the case of the vote not choosing a president, the electors would be together and could choose.
Some founders had two other reasons:
2. They wanted to give small states more power. The smallest states have only one representative in Congress. But they have two senators, the same number as the largest states. Every state also gets the same number of electors as representatives, plus two more. This imbalance was designed in.
3. They wanted an obstacle to tyrants. Quoting the above article: “They feared a tyrant could manipulate public opinion and come to power”.
To many, this is exactly what happened in 2016. To many, Trump is a liar and manipulator and has neither the judgement nor the temperament to serve America. Obviously, many think he’s best-qualified, too. But our country is designed to let the electoral college decide, given the way the people voted, who would should be president?
Personally, I’m hoping the electoral college recognizes the failed elections. I’m hoping they elect neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton. Since Congress is Republican, I suggest Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Jill Stein’s a remote possibility. Another possibility is to choose a centrist member of Congress.
But the real question is, what’s next? Should we fix our election system so it produces better choices? There are many ways of doing this, but it’ll take commissioning a new task force, and working with the many groups who are already working on this.
Of course my suggestion is to support PeopleCount: put yourself on our announcement list.