This led me to wonder: what would make it to the top of the priority list if Americans were determined to reboot government? What would be so essential to our national identity it would be central to the New America?
As my O'Reilly-loving, Republican step-father once said to me (a serious, tree-hugging homo): "I think we need to get back to some of the basic tenets of democracy in the constitution."
I couldn't agree more.
If we had a good citizens' uprising with a clean slate I imagine the New America we Americans would create is based on the core principle of the Old America; in a word all that democracy stuff.
Lest we forget we were pretty much the first country established solely on the idea that we wouldn't bow down to people because of their lineage, the amount of stuff they own or their position in the church.
Instead we came together around the near-sacred notion of personal freedom and dignity built on informed choice. Central to that are open debate and discussion, our first amendment.
We decided to create a government made up of fellow citizens who get elected by their peers based on core concepts of democracy.
The three that come to mind immediately are:
1 - rotating leadership (we all have the opportunity to lead and our leaders take turns leading),
2 - a person's capacity to really hear the needs of a people and then speak convincingly to a crowd and
3 - the people's right to vote based on good information.
Just thinking about these three ideas brought up some really obvious changes we could make immediately - say- before this Christmas;-)
1 - That old electoral college obviously has got to go - in the country that crystallized democracy we really need direct suffrage. We just do.
2 - Standardized modern voting machines are a no-brainer. They're the basic bread and butter of democracy. Even poor countries have more standardized voting systems than we do.
3 - Term limits become the norm. Lifers are so 18th Century.
4 - My favorite: Thirty-second sound-byte voting ads slapped together by marketing whizzes and sold for huge sums of money to local TV stations a week before the vote are just out. (see core concept #3 above).
(Ironically I still have a copy of the letter my congressman sent me at the age of 16 assuring me that my request to abolish the electoral college was at the top of his list of priorities. He left government after being caught doing something unsavory in the whole savings and loan scandal.)
2 - Standardized modern voting machines are a no-brainer. They're the basic bread and butter of democracy. Even poor countries have more standardized voting systems than we do.
3 - Term limits become the norm. Lifers are so 18th Century.
4 - My favorite: Thirty-second sound-byte voting ads slapped together by marketing whizzes and sold for huge sums of money to local TV stations a week before the vote are just out. (see core concept #3 above).
While studying this I found myself looking at the original Virginia Constitution which inspired the US's founding documents. Here's what they say about rotating leadership in the legislature:
...(Legislators) should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections, in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct.
There's something to be said for stepping out of the government bubble of media, power brokering and constant solicitations and going back into the constituency - back to life on life's terms for a while before returning to Washington or some other government position.
So another big game changer in a more democratic America is:
5 - The lobbies, the regulating commissions and the industries that hire recently terminated politicians and the many rotating doors between them and the legislatures need to be eliminated.
Under the bright lights of New American democracy these make no sense at all. Isn't feeding a legislator bill proposals paid for by unions or billionaires similar to being a legislator - only more slimy?
Of course legislators need experts from whom they can glean information in order to make their own informed choices but lobbyists can't be dominating their choices. We all know that behind lobbyists are industries and behind industries are campaign donations that legislators feel they can't live without. (And even though the Supreme Court nudged the legislature in their Citizens United decision we all know they aren't going to vote themselves out of all that money).
Those conventional conventions
Surely the one place where this old-school form of democracy REALLY works is in the whole local-caucus-thing leading up to the giant presidential nominating conventions we put together every four years! Now there's a model that will work great for the New America: the penultimate citizen events where we come together first on a grassroots level then build momentum over 18 long months to ensure the most empathic, smartest and most powerfully persuasive person makes it to the top of the food chain.
I decided to take a look up close. What a let down! Go ahead; read Wikipedia. You'll see how since the 1970's these conventions have basically become three-ring circuses rigged from the start with no real vote because the candidate is already chosen. The people selected to make speeches are not there to debate an idea and persuade you one way or the other - they are mostly already-elected party members. Most of the caucusing only happens in a couple of states anymore. So no one is actually building a platform from the bottom up.
What?! How can political leaders expect us to trust them if they don't even include us in the discussion? So that explains why the one time I actually saw a presidential candidate in person all he did was fire up the troops with saccharine truisms. My hero.
So the next no-brainer in the New Democracy is
6 - Politicians will actually interact with voters to find out how they stand on certain issues. (Perhaps we'll use a Facebook type interface to allow a smooth flow of sharing ideas.) They will build real citizen-centric platforms with detailed planks that respond to the needs of a majority of their constituents and help the minorities feel included.
One of the main advantages of this is that it will create an accountability vis a vis citizens so that candidates will no longer be able to run on vague platforms that allow them to get into office and do something completely opposite to what they promised.
Consequently in the New America citizens will be interested in public debate in part because leaders will actually be engaging in it again (and not just riling up the troops with cheerleader type cries).
Consequently journalism will change.
7 - Local TV stations will host debates where journalists will finally be freed of their aqua-net reporting on cute puppy stories and actually be open to grilling a legislator with pointed questions. They will adhere to basic principles of ethical journalism by hosting equal time for each candidate. They will invite real citizens with real-life concerns onto the sets so they can ask questions of these candidates. And the cherry on top: we will no longer be subjected to scary ads, marketing-spin doorknob flyers and robocalls. These shows will be so far from the usual spin that we are subjected to that ordinary citizens will feel compelled to listen. Sports bars will actually be a place for people to gather and listen to real-life promises from candidates.
Once a legislator has been elected we will need to keep communication flowing.
8 - Hence we will have harnessed technology so that communication between citizens and legislators is fluid and open. Legislators will have to confer with their constituents and will no longer be able to vote because of a lobbyist's or donator's influence. And if they do they will really have to explain clearly to their constituents why said vote was in
the interest of a majority of those folks.
(Imagine your opinion counting for more than just some silly marketing survey).
the interest of a majority of those folks.
(Imagine your opinion counting for more than just some silly marketing survey).
Which sorta leads to the next idea. Another biggy dear to the hearts of democracy lovers --and one that the New Democracy will insist upon -- the notion of equality in the face of the law. Not only won't wealthy individuals or corporations be able to find tax loopholes so they pay less than middle class or working class folks percentage-wise but the whole silly notion of "money as speech" and "corporations as individuals" will of course disappear.
9 - In the New America, Speech is speech. And citizens are citizens. Money cannot develop an argument, share it passionately with another human being and convince someone to vote for it. Money like a corporation cannot think, have dreams and aspirations.
Neither has the capacity to embody life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
Neither has the capacity to embody life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
So in our renewed democracy If a millionaire sends a check for $200,000 and I send a check for $2 - that doesn't make him anymore important. He still has one vote and I have one vote. My legislator still has to give my concerns equal voice to his concerns - even if the millionaire takes him out to lots of fancy restaurants (a dubious practice at best).
Expertise as a source of reliable information
Learned people are a necessary part of getting to informed decisions, a core principle in democracy. We need witnesses from time to time to get expert opinions in a courtroom, in the press or in a legislative chamber.
In the country that invented marketing we've turned expertise into a commodity that we cultivate to our liking and then sell nicely.
This mostly happens in think-tanks. But there are also communication agencies that just spend their time coming up with catchy phrases. They turn a complex human political issue (that has a real impact on the everyday lives of millions of Americans - sometimes causing incredible strife or pain) into a knee-jerk, two-word slogan to be pushed away or adopted and repeated again and again until it has no meaning whatsoever. They are usually paid quite dearly for these clever, democracy-impoverishing sobriquets.
One recent newcomer to the think-tanks is Veronique de Rugy - a French economist with a Phd. I'd say more about her but it is virtually impossible to find any kind of information about on the Web aside from her education and her professional affiliations - a sure sign that she's very good at managing her online data.
These have her working for CATO, A.E.I., Mercatus and Reason - all of which are right-wing think tanks which most folks believe to be heavily funded by the Koch brothers, two immensely wealthy mid-western men who fund a lot of socially and economically conservative lobbying. So her bias as an expert is pretty clear: she is a hardcore, small-government, low-taxes, the-market-will-take-care-of-everyone kinda gal.
Now that these institutions have styled her an expert she can appear on various TV shows as, you guessed it, an expert. She is the poster-girl for free-market-at-all-costs folks because 1) she is a bonafide economist and 2) she talks about how bad the French model is for poor people.
The internet is covered with articles by her that usually have the word "Truth" in the title: The truth about healthcare, the truth about bio-terrorism, the truth about tax incentives...Somehow she has become one of the experts on what's good for Americans' wallets.
Nowhere does this expert on American pocketbooks mention how much money she receives from these institutions to sell her Ph.d-stamp-of-approval; one of which has no doubt helped her get a work permit in the US. She doesn't mention how much FOX news pays her each time she comes on and defends a Republican idea then plugs her next book. She certainly doesn't mention how much money she does NOT owe a bank in France for her 9 years of higher education because she comes from a country where very cheap access to college is a government priority (for both left and right parties). And finally she is connected to an aristocratic family. This just hints at the likelihood that she was born with access to a rather well-connected network of folks in high places.
Good healthy democracy absolutely needs unbiased, fact-based experts who allow legislators and citizens alike to get cutting-edge information before they vote. Alas what we get are a lot of values-based analyses disguised as fact-based analyses.
Of course no one is without bias but it is always possible to strive toward objectivity - this usually happens through peer-review in which we rub our ideas up against other peoples (a basic notion of democracy by the way).
Do we really need slyly funded think tanks to develop highly biased experts? Lest we forget, through our taxes we citizens actually invest in oodles of institutions of higher learning where eloquent, brilliant thinkers develop solid science.
Perhaps in this new democracy of ours we could:
10- Develop a rating system in which information sources are graded on their level of subjectivity - a clear way for citizens to have an idea of just how much of an agenda a source may have. (And while we're at it we can create a policy --like many other developed countries -- whereby people who own and run Web sites will have to decline their identity so that
we know who and where we're getting stuff from.)
we know who and where we're getting stuff from.)
The next idea for New America is a doozey. I hope you're sitting down.
Really too big to fail
First some background info: The phrase "too big to fail" got written into some government documents after the whole Savings and Loan implosion in the late 80's. Some policy wonk decided that certain financial institutions had become so important they were by nature infrastructural and if they were to collapse the nation would go down with them.
In case of emergency they would be propped up somehow. They were deemed "too big to fail".
According to a recent bipartisan commission investigation, top banks actually competed with each other to expand in order to make it to this imaginary list and get that subtle protection. (Remember last decade when your local bank changed names three times in as many years?) The study shows that banks on this fictitious list were even able to offer better rates to borrowers compared to banks not on this list because those loans were implicitly backed by the US government.
Lo and behold - a sort of veiled socialist protectionist mechanism allowed a bunch of really capitalist capitalists to make a lot of money (and we're talking more money than most of us can even comprehend). With the help of powerful computer programs, questionable behavior and a government safety net these banks 1) sorta bankrupted the American people, 2) set off a worldwide downward spiral and 3) managed to keep the main players out of jail.
Well, in a country that puts democracy first the most important natural resource is not oil or nickel or fossile fuels. In a democracy the most important resource is the brains of the citizens because citizens make democracy work by questioning, debating, informing, comparing and voting.
Well-working brains help citizens develop critical thinking and realize that too good to be true really is. They help citizens understand when a politician (or a journalist or a loan-maker) is selling you a line of BS or not. They help you see that when a government agency is saying "We can't afford it" what they really mean is that it isn't a priority.
Good brains help you get the fact that the upheavals of the economic crashes and bubbles aren't just an out-of-control phenomenon like an earthquake or a tornado but are actually designed by humans in order to make lots of money.
Well-primed brains help you suss out that an article, an email or a Web page is 90% opinion being passed off as facts. They help citizens to be both curious and cautious.
Well-trained brains break down the barrier between those who have access to the latest information and technology which help make them more wealth and the other people.
In order for those brains to work well they need to be:
1- in good health and
2 -taught in an environment that enhances creativity, history, civics, critical thinking and a capacity to analyze.
These brains need to understand the importance of democratic discussion, Socratic thinking, checks and balances, the importance of voting.
So in the New Democracy of America :
11 - The two things on top of the "Too Big to Fail List" i.e. the two things that are "democratically infrastructural" are not GM, Goldman-Sachs, the Pentagon or the highway system.
They are: education and healthcare for all citizens.
They are: education and healthcare for all citizens.
I can already hear you saying: Whoa! That's Socialism!!
But in a healthy democracy where the central concern is about keeping citizens involved in and enjoying the workings of citizen-centric government, these are the two components everyone should go to extreme lengths to protect.
(Also we will all have clearer notions of history and politics so we will all know from a basic junior high education that socialism in America didn't start with Obama - that lots of industries besides healthcare such as aviation, defense, farming and even our local sports stadiums have been benefiting from socialist measures for a very long time.)
And of course in this healthy new democracy government officials won't think twice about implementing this policy because they themselves will be active citizens with their ears and eyes open to the needs of their fellow citizens. They will see the struggles of their fellow citizens without healthcare. They will see how many people in their community are dropping out of high school or college. They won't be some member of an elite class who drops in for the occasional visit while benefiting from a privileged health insurance, income and a lifestyle that all look absolutely nothing like the real life of their constituents.
Imagine the money we'll save from people no longer buying into fraudulent Ponzi schemes or pyramidal sales gigs!! We'll save even more on healthcare costs since it's pretty well established that educated people integrate public health messages more readily.
I have a dream...
When I close my eyes and allow myself to dream about this New America; one that actually adheres to core principles of deep democracy might look like- I imagine some of the following:
- Young people will be so interested in geo-political issues they'll actually be making the news. Instead of the same comb-over, face-lifted journalists of the last thirty years who stoop to lower and lower heights to attract higher ratings the cast of Glee (or 90210 or something similar) will be using their brains instead of their buns and pecs. They'll gain fame through amazing, poignant, dead-on journalism.
The next morning kids will be so excited they'll be tweeting one another:
"omg! did u c bieber tear up obama last night?! cool!" or
"wow lindsay really hit putin hard on corruption. ftw!"
- News outlets will be more focused on communicating with citizens on the ins-and-outs of what goes on behind closed doors in our nation's capitals and less about what goes on in the bedrooms of the rich and famous - because an educated people will actually be interested in government and will have forced government -and the corporations, non-profits, unions and lobbies they work with - to be much more transparent. It won't take a Phd or a congressional investigation for citizens to see clearly what elected officials are doing and when they're being shafted.
- The official government line won't just be what the White House (or the governor or the speaker) dictates. Members of congress will have strong voices and a variety of positions on the same issue. Secretaries will not just toe the party line but will be real leaders with real ideas who are not afraid to say when they disagree with the President. Because in a healthy democracy citizens won't have to be subjected to black and white thinking, they will actually tolerate complex, subtle variations on the same issue.
- New political parties will emerge - some based on region (Western States Party), some based on cultural values (The Green-First Party), some based on a single issue perhaps (The Low Tax Tea Party). New movements like The Tea Partiers won't simply have to merge into the GOP to gain legitimacy (and hold the GOP hostage on certain issues).
- Heated issues that bring out a lot of values-based analyses and seem to touch our very identity --such as gay marriage, immigration, the right to bear arms and the role of religion in government-- will no longer be hashed out in courtrooms or ignored entirely by legislators for fear of not getting re-elected. Town-hall meetings will be organized and people from neighborhoods will come together to discuss these ideas. People will get together and invite real experts who represent two (or three or four) sides on these issues. Their ideas will be pooled and shared with elected officials who will actually attend some of the meetings. We will take the time we need to mete out good solid policy that people feel connected to.
- Education will no longer be an ivory tower. Colleges won't just be expensive places in charming towns where people disappear for four years of blissful thinking. Instead they'll be like community colleges - where well-educated local citizens teach people of all ages at an affordable price. We won't have to stand in line to get access to a doctor or a lawyer, begging him or her for expertise because we'll have far more experts per capita than we do now.
(Recent statistics from the OECD show that though we were on par with other rich countries in college enrollment after World War II we have fallen behind to almost half of most other rich countries in percentage. And a recent US study shows that knowledge of history and social studies is suffering greatly among kids in America due to the focus being put on reading and math as driven by No Child Left Behind.)
- Because citizens' needs will be a priority we will give ourselves the flexibility to engage in new government entities: five of the New England states might come together and create a regional parliament to oversee certain legislation, we may decide to increase the number of representatives per capita in order to have better representation in Washington, the District of Columbia might finally become a state with real representation in Congress, while Hawaii and Puerto Rico just may decide on Self-rule (And we will celebrate their determination --or not-- to democratically stand on their own two feet!). Metropolitan Chicagoans (which covers two time zones, four states and multiple counties and cities) will get to decide if they want an extra layer of government to manage certain parts of their lives and maybe eliminate others.
- Medical care will no longer be a privilege afforded to people with a full-time job and full benefits. We will be able to walk into neighborhood medical centers and receive care with the same ease as we receive services in a courthouse, a police station, or a DMV.
(I hope to write soon about my experience going through healthcare systems to get my partner's cancer treated and how very clear it is to me that the healthcare market is not at all a free market with the components of healthy capitalism - even though the most common argument against nationalized healthcare is the desire to protect free market principles.)
- Foreign Policy will no longer be that well-kept secret at the State Department. American citizens will actually have a say in how we want to participate in other countries' affairs. Americans will question the massive amounts of money poured into Defense and whether that's really how we want to make use of our wealth.
- By improving the dialog between those who govern and the governed, citizens will have a clearer idea of the many roles government actually does play in their lives. Certain citizens will cease to fantasize that they pay into a government that only hinders their every move while only supporting welfare moms and immigrants.
- Public services will actually work for the public: courthouses will be properly staffed and citizens won't have to wait for justice, citizens will get paid for jury duty, schools will stop asking for handouts, smaller parks will be maintained and the poor won't have to be on a 10 year wait list to obtain social services. Regulatory agencies will not have to go begging every year for the money they need to keep their services functioning.
- Some members of congress will not be high-paid lawyers because real people with smarts and drive and passion for democracy will be able to get elected without needing to give ad agencies and TV stations millions of dollars in campaign funds.
- One-man-show non-profits like Grover Norquist will no longer be able to hold the American people hostage with a single issue. Citizens groups' weight in legislation will be based in part on the number of citizens they actually regroup and not because of their power to bully or charm. In a democracy size matters!
- Emails from candidates or their campaigns won't just be requests for money. They'll actually ask you to participate in a discussion, design a real platform, vote for a position, hold a house party, boycott a group, stand in the streets and distribute pamphlets.
A word about capitalism
Before I finish I would like to briefly touch on capitalism. I imagine if you're a die-hard turbo-capitalist just reading this makes you a little sick because you think it will bring modern American capitalism to a screeching halt.
Of course democracy helped capitalism to spread and conversely capitalism helped democracy to expand. We know from many examples around that world however that we don't particularly need democracy for capitalism to work. Look at China for example. Some folks will even argue that, more than democracy, America was founded to protect capitalism and the free flow of money.
In my opinion the most important by-product of democracy is increased transparency and access to decision-makers. With the fall of kings and queens, the secretive man behind the curtain fell and we took over running the kingdom, together as a people. The more transparency we maintain the more democracy functions well. The absolute enemy of democracy is opacity. Governments that want to extend their power beyond their mandate use secrecy and lies.
Conversely opacity is the friend of capitalism. Lots of money gets made daily because many people (including regulators) don't understand the complexities of what is being bought and sold. Cell phone carriers, cable subscriptions, medical insurance, airlines: these places are infamous --among many others-- at getting us to spend more than we understood we would. We often ignore the real value of a product we purchase because we have no idea about the components that make it up, their origins or the cost of the often desperately poor labor it took to build it.
The expressions "shell game" and "Read the fine print" didn't come into our colloquial language for nothing.
But I contend that a stronger democracy - one where people exercise their right to assemble and share information, their right to have clear language and transparency, their right to say no -- actually makes for healthier capitalism.
By knowing more about a product end-users can prod manufacturers into making it better.
Cutting edge firms like Apple and Google know that they have to have open loop communication with their end-users so they can keep testing iterations of their products and integrating more and more user-info. This is nothing more than democratic capitalism. To quote a "Human Factors Specialist" in a major consulting and design firm, "The black box of secret information that you guard with your life is getting smaller and smaller. We do our most exciting creative work for corporations or governments by putting everything out in the open with their customers."
More democracy can also lead to more citizens driving capitalism such as cooperatives, credit unions, member-owned car insurance organizations, employee-owned commerce.
Democracy can lead to healthier companies where for instance employees and users or consumers actually participate in decision-making processes. In many places large corporations have seats on the board reserved for the democratically-elected employee representative who actually has a vote on company matters. Now there's democracy for you!
Imagine if your "non-profit" HMO which calls you a "Member" really was a non-profit and you really were a member ie with a voice to vote at the general assembly and a way to have your premiums (and your fellow members' premiums) lowered during the fatter years...
I firmly believe that increasing democratic participation in this country is the path to increasing healthy participation in our businesses.
Final words (I promise)
1 - This model takes time
When I read over all of this I realize that civic participation takes a time commitment. This is tough at a moment in history when many Americans desire more training and have to work three jobs to pay for their healthcare and mortgage.
The downside of democracy compared to say totalitarianism is that it takes time (the other big downside in democracy is that one group rarely gets everything it wants). Debating, discussing and crafting policies that are based in reality, then comparing them to previously established policy and tweaking that -- these all take time.
One of the common denominators among extremists be they to the far left or the far right is that they want change RIGHT NOW and they don't want to be bothered with having to adapt their policy to the needs of others.
Maybe in the new democracy we'll get paid time off to participate in honing new policies for our state or county.
2 - This model costs money
When we came together and decided we wanted to pool our resources to a) protect citizens from both internal and external danger and b) give those people suspected of causing danger the right to a fair trial - we immediately set ourselves up for a whole bunch of really costly systems: police, judges, soldiers, firefighters, park rangers, regulatory commissions.
It would be far cheaper to a) let all people fend for themselves, b) cut the heads off of every person suspected of causing danger and c) allow damage caused by fire, water, air, earth, or bacteria to just happen. But what kind of a country would we be?
So I'm suggesting we take it one step farther and actually protect citizens from illness via a pooled healthcare system, one that works somewhat for all the stakeholders instead of working a lot for a few.
3 - Looks like Europe
I also know all of this wreaks of European Social Democracy. I am confident we can create an American version of that social model: one that includes creative, market-driven aspects, good ole American pragmatism and some of the citizen-centered qualities we find in Western Europe.
My fear is that if we do not begin talking to one another about what this model will look like we will end up becoming the model at the other end of the spectrum: the China model. All the wealth and decision-making power will be concentrated into few hands while huge masses of poorly-paid laborers will be moved about at the whims of the elite. In some ways it feels like we're already there.
Ironically China which has become our most privileged trade partner happens to be communist - the boogey-man under the bed during most of the 20th century. Also ironically before we began trading with China and were boycotting trade with all those other communist countries, refusing to use their cheap labor out of a principled stand against centrally-controlled economies our own economy was expanding incredibly fast. (For reasons I don't quite understand we didn't take over Mexico and turn it into our lawless, cheap manufacturing base).
4 - Modern communication tools
In France I marvel at how people can get pissed off over a government issue, come out into the streets and literally shut down the entire country. The truck drivers' union blocks highways and ports, the student unions abandon the schools and get kids out in the streets, the civil servants stay home and everyone demonstrates while the leader of the opposition party marches right up front holding the biggest banner.
This whole ritual can be annoying as hell if you just want to get to work or school but I can assure you: the government simply can't say they don't hear the message.
Today in America I don't see any tools available to us that allow us to "turn up the volume" on the governing class. Boycotts, demonstrations, phone calls, emails all seem so bland, barely audible by those who are pulling government strings. We do have the occasional opportunity to vote someone in and out of office but that often feels so anti-climactic.
Maybe this is why a lot of citizen movements in America end up replicating the political party strategy of simply asking people for more money. I have tried multiple times to offer my time and expertise to certain orgs (I have more extra time than extra money) and they've replied to me that they are only interested in donations or having me collect donations.
I feel like we need to create new communication tools that are accessible to people. It feels like -- in the arm wrestling power dynamic that exists between citizens and government -- most of the communication tools are in the hands of the governing classes and their allies. Our only choice is shut up and listen.
5 - Breaking my own rules
I am aware that I am violating my very own precept of bumping my ideas up against those of my fellow citizens. I have asked some people to read this text. I have collected a lot of ideas from elsewhere but in essence this dream of mine can only come alive when it gets tossed around by other people. This is an invitation to keep the dream going. (I'm not sure a blog with comments is the best forum for this.)
6 - My bias
I should end by naming my bias: I believe that in a civilized country those of us who have the luck and privilege to access higher education, decent healthcare and some financial security need to use our health, our brains and our financial security not just for our own good but for the greater good of our fellow citizens. I believe that I have a duty not only to take care of myself but to make sure my government - an extension of me - is watching out for my fellow citizens who may not have the same luck, privilege or capacities that I have. We are not animals; we do not leave our weakest members behind as food for the prowling lions.
My 10 point recipe for leaders in America to move away from democracy:
1 - Keep putting reasonably-priced, widespread higher education at the bottom of the priority list
2 - Keep making healthcare more and more expensive and harder to access
3 - Keep all of the money at the top while preaching the power of the ever-out-of-reach trickle-down effect
4 - Keep speaking to Americans like they are stupid - (they are simply less educated but they are on to you)
5 - Keep hiding all the back-room deals from Americans
6 - Keep making elections about money and spin rather than about human connection, empathy, analysis and discourse
7 - Keep telling Americans they should be happy to have a job even though their wages and benefits have decreased over the last 30 years and they are forced to spend more and more time going through voice mail prompts and websites to get things done.
8 - Keep impoverishing the political debate by using snappy catch phrases, robocalls and prostitutional media coups and by replacing fact-based analysis with values-based analysis, blurring the line between research and opinion, journalism and entertainment
9 - Keep using high paid, narrowly-focused opinion surveys to ask us what we think about how you're doing and what we would like to see change
10 - Keep demonizing any other social model besides our own
