Shall we fix politics or complain?
On December 8th, Gavin Newsom posted a link to a poll – Do you approve of Trump? Above it he wrote:
With President-elect Trump announcing new cabinet appointments each day, we’re all worried about what’s in store with a Trump administration. Now more than ever, California has to lead the country forward and stand up against racism, bigotry, misogyny and hate.
That’s why I need to hear from 50,000 people before the end of the month: Do you approve of Trump?
I missed the reason- why does he need to hear from 50,000 people? How is that going to help? So I added a comment (I posted it on his page, and his people will review it…)
My reply: Do you want to fix politics or complain?
Here’s my reply:
The system is broken. Trump is not a new problem- we’ve got lots of crackpots in office. And corruption. And worse. But people like you, Gavin, think we just need to fight harder to fix it.
That’s nonsense. It’s nonsense like that which has kept us from doing anything about it for decades. All the fixes- overturning Citizens United, passing the AACA, ending gerrymandering, using IRV- are good, but they’re tiny improvements that won’t solve the problem. They don’t fix the underlying problem, the real cause.
The real cause isn’t that hard to fix, but it’ll take a few million dollars and 12-24 months. Do you want to fix it, or do you just want to complain?
The real cause
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know the real cause. Do you believe it? Probably not. Few people understand it from reading. It flies in the face of so many of our cultural myths. And those myths make up the bulk of our “understanding” of politics. Very, very few people are open-minded enough to withstand the cognitive dissonance of these new ideas.
The real cause is that our system was never designed for a world that contained big media, corporations, lobbying, nor political parties. It was never designed to deliver political accountability. Big media as well as non-print media was unknown to our founders. Corporations and lobbying were taboo. Political parties were either overlooked, or they simply had no ideas of how to quell their power, but George Washington warned politicians not to form them.
The fix is not “politics as usual”
The fix is to supply the missing piece of the design. It’s not that hard, but it’ll take a team and some funding.
Fix politics or complain? I suggest we start fixing. If you want to make this happen, start sharing about PeopleCount in social media. Like our Facebook page. Follow us on twitter. Email your representative and senators in Congress. And join our announcement list.