Bifurcated. Broken. Bought. Our Democracy Requires An Update Now!
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I am not saying They have won, but we could all lose if our democracy doesn’t get to rehab soon, the disharmony is deafening. While I must have high hopes for the Biden-Harris administration, Republicans don’t need the House or the presidency to continue with their autocratic slash and slow burn campaign. Nothing much gets done, even things 80% of Americans want. The odds of anything more substantial getting through, and that lasts beyond Biden’s term, such as a Green New Deal type plan, is very low.
The Biden administration is moving full steam ahead on passing a coronavirus stimulus bill based on the framework that…www.fool.com
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There must be a way to get things done more efficiently. Why is status quo incrementalism our go-to strategy as a nation? What happens if things must be done in a fast or progressively increased manner, and one party decides such a prognosis is incorrect? Some would call that kind of dilemma the COVID-19 pandemic, or the climate crisis. Huh. Incrementalism may have a purpose here and there, but a dumbstruck reliance on the concept merely corrupts our thinking and planning. Imagine if we debated whether or not to stop Hitler into 1944, and didn’t support Britain at all until then. America 2nd, Nazis 1st?
UNITED NATIONS - President Donald Trump's "America First" fixation was on stark display on Tuesday in his speech to the…www.politico.com
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Delaying may give you the time needed to come up with better solutions, but it makes little sense to reorganize the deck chairs on the Titanic as it sinks, and watch the insufficient number of lifeboats paddle off without us. Of course, no analogy utilizing past calamities really matches either our current pandemic or the climate crisis. That said, whether we have hit the iceberg, or Hitler is already dining in Manhattan, how would we deal with those two calamities today if we knew what came next, and when? Do we stay ahead of things, or wait until the last minute?
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The science of human-caused climate change is well understood. Scientists can’t predict exactly what will happen where, but the overall ramifications of higher temperatures is going to cause ever increasing levels of habitat loss, damage to crops, peoples displacement, urban overcrowding, and multiple other disruptions. Once everyone is frightened into their bunkers, it will be too late to respond effectively. Our democracy must be able to react more collectively and powerfully in a highly coordinated manner.
The evidence is overwhelming. Earth is warming fast, and the heat-trapping emissions we release into the atmosphere…www.ucsusa.org
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Unfortunately, our system is the same system we have had for many decades. If anything, it has seized up even more. Our political parties are like two pre-teens sitting in their own bedrooms, arms crossed in an anger-induced, slumpy-pouty mood, lips pushed up to the nose, after getting grounded for some unknown reason, and each one blaming the other. One side may be more blame worthy, but the grounding will continue until both work out an agreement the parents can accept. Luckily for us, as a nation, both sides, or 100%, don’t need to fully agree.
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Though a near super majority of highly activated citizens and workers would do it more completely. How do you highly activate Americans, especially after a long fought election, an attempted insurrection, a year long pandemic, and its accompanying economic disruption? Bluntly, you must provide a lot of positive benefits, and you must give them enough power to keep achieving their goals. This is not a simple project to accomplish. Though the plan I have put together as a basic template, it shows what is needed and how to get there. The remainder of the work is boots-on-the-ground movement building, and construction of the platform architecture prototype.
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However, the biggest issues are mind changing, perspective rewiring, and shedding the current structure of perceived restrictions. We have been relying on the same general actions to make change for at least a half century. This includes advocacy or lobbying groups, locally or nationally formed, self-funded, small donations, to larger nonprofit and shareholder corporations. It also includes elections, the overall political process, and politician and political party interactions, and financial influencing thereof. Otherwise, protests, rallies, editorials, and social media are the way to make the public and politicians more aware.
Things are quite different today. The evolution of business lobbying from a sparse reactive force into a ubiquitous and…www.theatlantic.com
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The above processes and strategies are vital, yet insufficient. They at best make some wins possible, most being short term. Often it keeps things at par, a par consistently lowered by Republicans. Too many times, it means big losses, which include those due to a conservative Supreme Court. Our traditional, conservative, incrementalist strategy continues to harm those in need. After experiencing Trump’s presidency, and all the harms he did to the country, we see that incrementalism is a failed idea in many ways. One that will keep paying off badly for us.
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Even without Trump, the Republicans would have continued stalling all climate investment, and likely would have failed at pandemic mitigation anyway. They couldn’t even get a major infrastructure bill through Congress. Including the tax refund to billionaires, the evidence is blatantly obvious that expecting major positive change is foolish. Biden-Harris will be lucky to gain back what Trump destroyed as to carbon emissions. To keep up with the 2050 climate goals, we must increase our elimination of carbon many times what was done during the Obama administration.
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“While there has been a tremendous acceleration in renewable energy, to meet 2030 and 2050 climate targets, the pace of change will still need to increase by a factor of five.” — WRI.
Countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) and ideally 1.5 degrees C (2.7…www.wri.org
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If we can’t make changes faster, the failed 6th of January insurrection will be remembered like a violent video game in pathetic pundit town, compared to the calamities we will face in many other areas including the planet’s climate. We can no longer suffer from a lack of imagination. Doing the same old, same old has gotten us here, where we are now. Our democracy had been poised to fall. Trump was the gaseous explosion that collapsed our shabbily shored up, with weak and rotten timbers, mine.
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Democratice Inclusion and Direct Intervention.
Climate change is the center of a quickly melting iceberg of problems. The tip of that iceberg is hurting Americans now, lack of healthcare to systemic racism. Everything gets worse from here on out, unless there is a quintupling down solution put into place. Catching back up to the tin level of solution expansion will not help us. We must rise to the platinum level almost immediately, and hold it there for at least three decades. Is there anyone who believes this is possible with the wildly gyrating, two-party political (devolving and disintegrating) system we have now?!
Our parties are stuck. Our politics have become nationalized. Liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats have gone…www.salon.com
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If there ever was a thing called American Ingenuity, shouldn’t we be getting on to deploying it yesterday?! The concept I am proposing, at the very least, is a place to start. We need a system that makes an end run around the two-party political system, putting the people directly in control of national solution development and deployment. While our Constitution limits a portion of potential power, filling the role that a third party plays in legal terms, a non-profit lobbying group, and a We The People/public partnership, my idea can build a powerful base, that is involving 60+% of workers and citizens.
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Many other elements make up the We The People System, but what I want you to consider is how a direct democracy, parallel structure utilizing current technology could tie us together into a powerful force. A system based on our ideals and the goals reflected in them, with all kinds of data to back up our solutions to avoid the worst forms of partisan polarization and paralysis. Yes, it will have a progressive focus, only because rapid social structure, and economic change and conservatism are not synonymous. Otherwise, policy persuasion is the main goal not traditional politicking.
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Neither capitalist or socialist, the WTP system is democracy on steroids. Only what works will be pursued, and old ideologies will be scrubbed of their excesses, excuses, hideous excretions, and horrible excrement, or justly jettisoned. It includes an advanced Jobs Development Platform, that eliminates illegal and unethical hiring discrimination, to implementing all valid green goals with a powerful civic participation element and exceptional public health plan. We The People will be able to manage it from our kitchen tables or home offices, most spending minutes a day, others working on larger projects important to them and their constituencies.
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The current political power dynamic is problematic for citizens and workers. They are squeezed out, shuffled around, or separated from the decisions that dramatically change their future trajectory. The WTP System turns the table on the current power dynamic by surrounding and subverting every area of political and mega-moneyed obstruction using a countervailing people powered structure.
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The people structure includes a random selection of people from all areas, genders, colors, faiths, abilities, and so on, to serve in various capacities. The One Door Civic Education Platform can prepare citizens for their roles, as well as others selected for their specific skills and experience. Local to national, even international goals can be achieved through the system. The power to implement protests, politician influencing campaigns, and every other method is made available to all participants that mold the political environment more than the billionaires and monopolies ever could. The ideals based system will prevent the propagation of harmful ideas.
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Once we choose our goals and instill our ideals, no strategy can penetrate unless it would actually help in advancing those goals, and fits our ideals. Whatever conflicts with one and not others, will be reviewed, revised, and resubmitted to make sure it actually fits with the WTP approved algorithm. Though we may run into some stalemates, and nothing may proceed in that area for a time, a greater majority of items will be implemented than allowed by our current, traditional, incremental process.
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Conclusion.
Harnessing such a power dynamic, and deploying its energy is required in our polarized political environment. The two-party system has many problems that should be fixed from the filibuster and expanded voting options, to the Electoral College, and a more regular changeover of judges. Unfortunately our built in slow-as-you-go incrementalist inertia, and our disjointed and haphazard pragmatism provides no way out any time soon. The WTP System offers that way out, around, and ability to topple over, the current powers-that-be.
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Second, even a great leap in making traditional improvements to the current system may not be enough, let alone soon enough. It may take two or three presidential terms to get anything substantial done, as to politics, climate change, and other systemic problems. Extending any of these improvement timelines beyond 2030 would likely be catastrophic. Continuing to ramble and stumble about in this muddy bog at such a slow slog that Republicans have manipulated into existence no longer makes sense.
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What is powerful about the WTP System is its ability to scale up to almost any level of influence and control. It can start small, and expand gradually, or grow massively within months. Think of it as a quasi-governmental agency, with the flexibility of a political party or 501(c)(3) organization, yet non-partisan. Neither federal agencies, political parties, or corporate influence were approved in the Constitution, and all have grown to have significant power. There should be no reason We The People would be prevented from developing the same level of power, or more.
Most Americans haven't read the U.S. Constitution in a long time, if ever. They may be able to tell you about the…www.npr.org
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Our Constitution was never meant to restrict the power of the people for so long in so many ways. It was either to be replaced, or significantly upgraded. The WTP System provides the platform to make those adjustments and upgrades without a constitutional convention. In this way we can show how expanded and enhanced direct democracy works, as we build towards making it an actual part of our nation’s internal workings. Time to get to work so we are ready for the future, before it passes U.S. by.
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By Richard The Chwalek.
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To get a much more complete explanation of why I believe a better democratic structure must be pursued, and to learn about an actual, full-on solution, get my ebook: Our Democracy Requires An Update: A Transformational We The People System.
Also other more recent takes via Medium, for example…
Likely heard the tilting @ windmills idiom. Generally means you are wasting time in that endeavor. Often said by those…richard-the-chwalek.medium.com
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