America’s problems worsen as citizens are bewildered. Culturally, we don’t understand what’s happening, so we work on magical solutions.
Problems Worsen
The debt is huge and growing. Global warming is steadily marching toward catastrophe. The average American is becoming poorer and at higher risk as health care costs continue to soar. The younger generations are looking toward a bleak future.
Trump is making poor decisions, continues lying and appoints poor administrators. There’s been no real leadership in the Republican party. Half the Democrats are doubling down on politics-as-usual and the other half is grasping for radical solutions. Independents continue to lack organization. Real solutions like United.Vote are based on long-term hope, rather than backing.
Misunderstanding
Most people are either in denial about how bad things have gotten, or are surprised. Both of these show a lack of understanding.
Magical solutions are the only ones we know
Searching the media, there seems to be no solution. People suggest many solutions, but they all involve “magic,” mostly in two forms.
1) Congress should pass new laws. This is magic because Congress continues to be gridlocked. Many of the proposed laws involve changes to politics, to campaign financing, or the voting system, or term limits. These are big changes that threaten incumbents in both parties and their addiction to money and power, so it can’t happen.
2) Voters should come together and vote in better people. There are more registered independents, that is, unaffiliated voters, then in either of the two major parties. Yet candidates are mostly split between the two major parties. Many hope for a new party or that independents will be elected, but there’s no realistic plan to achieve this.
Both of these magical kinds of solutions involve influencing politics. As such, they’re enormously expensive. Yet millions of people actively participate because it’s all we know how to do.
A real solution is mostly unthinkable
There seems to be just one real solution. In our analysis, the kind of problems we’re seeing are expected. Democracy requires something that is rarely present, accountability. When it’s occasionally present, it’s due to luck which quickly runs out.
Both of the magical solutions require that people communicate and work together productively. Despite all the broadcasts and videos and media and blogs, we have no way of communicating effectively in groups. And the organizations we have in politics tend to make working together more difficult. So a real solution must include a nuts and bolts way of solving this.
This is what PeopleCount offers. It begins with an analysis of our situation that focuses on the problem with our democracy, and then addresses it’s core. By fixing this flaw in our democracy, we can communicate and work together effectively.
Our circumstances are dire, but the real problem is that we are powerless to deal with them. We have a lever, democracy, but no place to stand. We have a gun, Congress, but no bullets. We have a car, our political system, but no gas. We need to stop blaming each other and build a way to work together.