Saturday, November 21, 2020

If Pelosi pushes these quick bills, they might achieve wonders… even if blocked!

 All eyes turn to Georgia, whose January 6 runoff election will decide if Mitch McConnell's tightly-disciplined* Senate majority will keep blocking any possibility of legislation - even negotiation - in the U.S. Billions are flowing into the Peach State, where Stacey Abrams might achieve wonders, yet again. But the person who might tip the balance is...Nancy Pelosi.

It's all complicated and interesting; will you let me explain? For those too impatient to read, here's a capsule summary:

1-  Those MAGAs yammering that only keeping the two Georgia seats Republican can prevent communism are fools, for many reasons. Above all, there's Joe Manchin, Democrat from deep red West Virginia, who's vowed to block Supreme Court expansion and to keep the filibuster**. So, even if VP Kamala can break 50:50 ties, there will be a 'check on radicalism.' 

Oh, I'd rather things were different. Let's give Bern&Liz more power to reinstate the Roosevelt social contract loved by the Greatest Generation! But Manchin will at least vote for the most-urgent reforms, like anti-cheating measures, and his vote will make democrats the committee chairs and end Mitch's Moscow rule! That is, if Loeffler and Perdue are tossed. 

Meanwhile though the Manchin thing shatters your semi-sane uncle's 'check on communism' argument. So use him that way.

2- Okay so Joe Biden asks Pelosi to rush through a new attempt at a a stimulus bill, just today. Alas, we know it's for show because Mitch will block it. 

So I am about to propose other quickie bills that would have a different effect, altogether! Bills that are so simple and obvious that Perdue and Loeffler would be put in an awkward position of opposing them in the Senate, just before the January 6 run-off!

Okay, capsule is done. If you want the actual ideas, you're gonna have to read.

== Proposed actions BEFORE Inauguration! ==

With the election of Joe Biden and the imminent expulsion of the Liar/Saboteur-in Chief, about one quarter of the tactics and methods proposed in Polemical Judo are rendered obsolete. That is, until Trump’s “Rant n’ Roll” rave rallies and his maniacal Trump TV Network become more than a nuisance. The rest of the book contains many unconventional tactics that could have turned our recent, nailbiter election into the hoped-for rout.


And so we come to suggestion time. As I did in 2008.  


Phase one: Now until January 20 Inauguration Day

Phase two: The first few weeks and months

Phase Three: More legislation to achieve near and mid-term benefits


Today it's all phase one.


Priority #1 for all new legislators and appointees to the new administration is... avoid blackmail traps!  Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but I promise you, Putin's agents are all over DC, setting up hotel rooms with one way mirrors, just like in the Borat movie! Blackmail has been standard Russian spy technique, going back to the Czarist Okrahna. And even if you shrug this off... but grow more wary of entrapment, I'll have done some good! And warn all your relatives, especially the male ones, about the story of Anthony Kennedy.


(Seriously, no other explanation than blackmail can explain the behavior of many in DC. Read the explanation.)


Note also, even if you have already been snared, now is the time to contact the FBI! They will likely say you were part of a sting, if you help catch the bastards.


Priority #2 - confront the GOP, especially Loeffler and Perdue with lose-lose choices! The goppers are expert at this tactic, so why can't we use it?  Trap them into publicly opposing things that would be wildly popular with voters! 


Want examples that could be passed super quickly, even in the next two weeks?  Defy Perdue and Loeffler to take a stand and demand immediate votes on these! If they refuse, it could tip a few thousand votes.***


- Imagine a bill putting new limits on Presidential powers -- including Biden's! And with Joe's active support! Seriously, it must be done anyway. Incredible failure modes were revealed by a madman predecessor. Like reasonable limits on war powers, or establishing procedures to rule on emoluments. This needn't be the only such bill, so it needn't be perfect! Just cover the quick-obvious ones that also serve as zingers. Nothing would better slash at the Foxite rants that Dems are power-hungry cheats... like Republicans are.


- A COVID relief bill? Sure, try that. Though I doubt Mitch would face defections there. And others on this list will be more effective because they can be utterly simple! A few sentences. 

 

- How about a bill immediately giving medicare coverage to all CHILDREN, a move so guaranteed of parental enthusiasm that anyone opposing it would face toasting. It's a win-win, if we demand those Georgia senators decide now, risking ire from either those parents or Moscow Mitch.

 

How about making it clear that Secret Service agents aren't personal servants!  A few sentences, and suddenly you have all those dedicated men and women eagerly grateful. And the implied slap at all Trumps would be rich! 

- Likewise a quickie-bill requiring up-front payment for political use of Air Force One? A real jab in Trump's eye.

- Or passing rules ending the travesty of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel 'advising' that sitting presidents cannot be sued or indicted or even investigated! Instead, ensure that Presidents can be "slow-indicted" or "slow-sued" without destroying their ability to perform vital functions, and above all they are not totally immune? Would GOP senators dare not to defect, break ranks, to hem in Joe Biden with such rules? 

And with Biden consenting to them, won't this wind up making dems look like non-partisan reformers? And would that also not put those two GA senators (and others like Murkowsk) on the spot, at just the moment we want them to squirm?


- Or here's a clever-tricky one. Pass a few of the promised reforms that gave Newt Gingrich the House in 94, like making Congress subject to the same laws as the rest of us. Those parts of the "Contract With America" - the obviously good parts, that the GOP entirely betrayed - helped win the GOP an undeserved reputation for sober reformism, back then. How tasty if dems actually implemented them!

- Here's one that could be passed in less than an hour, requiring just one sentence! A bill that simply ends the ban on refinancing student debt. It is insane that folks are forbidden to do what anyone with a mortgage can do, taking advantage of low interest rates. Sure, this is not the student debt forgiveness that so many of us want. But it would be a start and matter to millions. So would a second sentence letting student loans be discharged in bankruptcy. (Not available to high earners.) 


Crucially, it can be done quickly in as little as one sentence!  Pelosi/Schiff could do it right now! Making GOP senators choose in what amounts to a lose-lose for Mitch's cabal.


Oh, there are many more of these reforms that don't have to wait for inauguration! Because they'll either get Senate defections to pass with Trump's grudging assent... or else make Republicans look very, very bad and Democrats very good.


Act now (!) and you might get GOP senators (especially Perdue and Loeffler) to either vote yes or else explain why they’d block something so spectacularly positive and simple that any citizen... even a MAGA cultist... should want it.


======

* There has never been a more tightly disciplined political movement in US history, even including the Confederacy or the Communist Party of America than today's Republican Party. Deviation from party commands might be forgiven once. Never twice. Unless you are from Utah. And democrats are fools not to make overtures there.

**About the filibuster. Even if sanity prevails in Georgia, but Joe Manchin prevents total trashing of the filibuster, there's something Manchin might allow... restore the TALK filibuster! End today's idiocy of requiring 60 votes for all actions. Return to tradition where creaky gopper senators will have to talk all night, for days, to block bills that even MAGAs start to realize make perfect sense. It's very likely Manchin might go along with that. In fact, it might even pass if GA doesn't go our way.

*** A few thousand here and there matter! Take the eminently spreadable meme that many MAGAs in GA plan to write in Trump for the Senate seats. Okaaay> Sounds like a good thing to suggest at Thanksgiving dinner....


39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't most of these bills require the Mitch allows them to be considered in the Senate? Why would he want to even consider a bill that would put the two seats in Georgia in any of the slightest bit of contention?

Acacia H. said...

It won't work for one reason and one reason alone: McConnell will not allow them to come to the Senate floor to be voted on. He will just lock them all out and because they never came up the Georgian Senators can honestly and legitimately state "I'd have voted on it but never was given the chance." They can blame a Senator who is safely reelected and in control of the Senate and ignore responsibility. And their supporters will nod and accept that as fact.

McConnell has the Democrats by the balls. So long as he's in control, the only thing that will break his power is a revolt in his own party (say by Romney allying with the Democrats to become the new Senate Majority leader) or death. And given how he's looking of late, I'm willing to bet the latter is more likely to occur.

Acacia

Acacia

David Brin said...

Neither of you paid the slightest attention to my logic, alas. And sure, that illustrates why we lose and why no judo tactic is ever considered, let alone adopted.

Were you to actually, actually read the posting, you might see that this has nothing to do with what Mitch will allow to be voted on.

---

I saw a meme where MAGAs in Georgia were planning to write in Trump for Senate. Is there any way to boost this?

Acacia H. said...

Dr. Brin, is not Judo used primarily in response to other people's attacks and redirecting those attacks so not to cause harm to any but the attacker? So. How is passing a bunch of feel-good bills in the House which will never see the light of day going to harm the Georgian Republican Senators? Now if they had been offered before the Senate election and end up with Mitch ignoring them all and thus showing he never intended on working with the Democrats, THEN we might have seen it work. But it wasn't used that way. Going after the Georgia Senate by showing Mitch is a bully who refuses to play nice will do nothing that everyone hasn't already seen. And in fact it might vitalize Republican voters who at this point know their side are evil but glorify in the fact it "screws over dem damn libs."

No. You want to win the Senate back? You do a massive Get Out The Vote effort in Georgia to encourage every Democratic voter possible to vote in this run-off election and ensure the greatest possible benefit. And then Biden can offer a few positions to Republican Senators in purple or blue states who might be willing to work with Democrats and who are likely sick and tired of McConnell and Trump but need to kowtow to their voters... but now? They get an executive position from a leader who is bipartisan and fair, so they can say "fuck this" and walk away. And when new elections for THOSE Senators come up? You AGAIN go with a widescale Get Out The Vote effort to properly tip the Senate.

Acacia

David Brin said...

Acacia, I'll wait in answering your latest till you have actually, actually... and I'll add a thrid actually... read and bothered to understand the posting.

Keith Halperin said...

Thanks, Dr. Brin. These are (as usual) very practical ideas.
Since I don't know who your MC is (or if they are a Democrat), here's the link to the San Diego County Democratic Party Central Committee (https://sdcdp.ngpvanhost.com/central-committee), whose Executive Board (https://sdcdp.ngpvanhost.com/executive-board) is chaired by Will Rodriguez-Kennedy (chair@sddemocrats.org).
If you want to go to the US Senate-level, here's Senator Feinstein's contact page: https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
and our VP-Elects Harris's:
https://www.harris.senate.gov/contact/email

If you haven't already, you could have one of your *influential contacts known be supportive of your positions make an introduction so you can get these (and Polemical Judo) in front to people who could act on them.

Keith

*IMSM, you mentioned you know some billionaires. Perhaps one of them could step up...

Larry Hart said...

Not exactly what I was talking about last time, but the same dynamic. If a Republican wins on election night, then the rest of the steps (certification, electoral college vote) are mere formalities to ratify the result. If a Democrat wins, then each of the subsequent steps are seen as legitimate means to potentially overturn the result and (presumably) to save the Republic by insuring its rule by the rightful possessors of political power.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/politics/trump-vote.html

Senator John Cornyn of Texas has acknowledged that he hadn’t “seen anything that would change the outcome” but told reporters on Thursday that Mr. Biden “is not president-elect until the votes are certified.” Mr. Cornyn congratulated Mr. Trump as president-elect on the day the major news organizations projected him as the winner in 2016.

gerold said...

The blackmail tutorial is timely once again.

Everybody knows that J Edgar Hoover kept himself in position as chief of the US Secret Police using blackmail on 50 years of presidents. It's a great tragedy that his files were hidden after his death. They would have blown open the lid on a noxious history which continues to this day.

It seems highly likely that Trump and Graham are compromised. Means, motive, opportunity and their bizarre behavior all coincide. But one thing I've been wondering: how does Jeff Epstein fit in? Was Epstein a freelance criminal, or did he have ties to spy shops in DC, Moscow or Tel Aviv? He certainly had "friends" in high places. They got him off when he was busted in Florida, and they just might have offed him in New York.

We know that Trump and Epstein were associates. I wonder if we'll ever find out the exact nature of their relationship?

Dave Peticolas said...

The link in "read the explanation" seems to go to a generic blogger.com page on how to follow blogs.

David Brin said...

Thanks Dave P.

Keith Yes I am officially 'friends' with some billionaires, and only one answers my emails anymore with any reliability. (The one you'd want.) But I am VERY careful not to tread on toes. As for approaching folks in the political or punditry castes, I gave up on that. It is an utter waste of my time,better spent trying to get ideas circulating wide enough that someone ELSE might get through where I cannot.

So far more score on both accounts is a giant goose egg.

gerold said...

Down Atlanta way there was a little flash mob threatening the establishment GOP if they didn't go all-in on Trump for the win. It looked kind of scripted to me, like Breitbart astroturf, but it was a clear statement of intent from Trump. His account retweeted it.
Thus does Leviathan devour Itself as Hobbes would say.

https://www.newsweek.com/georgia-trump-supporters-destroy-gop-boycott-senate-runoffs-1549245

Larry Hart said...

From gerold's Newsweek link above:

President Donald Trump supporters protesting the outcome of the 2020 election have a new and surprising opponent: the Republican Party.

A viral video of protesters, as well as posts on social media platform Parler, indicate that Trump supporters are looking to boycott the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff elections.
...
Seemingly reacting to certification from Georgia election officials that President-elect Joe Biden had indeed won the Peach State following an election recount, the protesters disavowed the GOP.


First of all, that would be so sweet if Republican voters give us the Senate back in order to punish the Republican Party for refusing to cheat for Trump. I'd call that a win-win.

Second, this is the sort of infighting that Democrats usually destroy their own political chances with. Who knew that Republicans were capable?

Finally, I'm not ruling out the possibility that the instigators are actually not Republicans, but are trolling them. But, if enough go along to generate right-wing mobs, it doesn't matter who lit the fuse.

TCB said...

Meanwhile, in Guatemala.

Why?

Corruption and austerity, basically.

Der Oger said...

TCB, thank you for the link. I made the mistake to go on the main page:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/jyuwxt/security_guard_quitt_job_after_covididot_compare/

Words fail me.

15k-20k infections each day, 300 Deaths per day, ICU beds running low, the Nazis marching with the Covidiots and assaulting members of parliament, and she compares herself with Sophie Scholl?

Totally unhinged.

David Brin said...

Expect an economic BOOM in RED America! As MAGAs spend the inheritances they are about to receive by deliberately murdering Nana and Gramps over the 'holidays.' Ho, ho.

TCB said...

Der Oger, that Sophie Scholl comparison was pure gold. Gold, I'm tellin' ya! Hahaaaaaa, the security guard did the right thing and showed the rest of us how to do it too.

Meanwhile in Chile!

Cracked used to be a magazine, a second-tier knockoff of Mad. But the internet turned it into something else.

-----------------------------------------------------

Dr. Brin reminded me of something I saw a few days ago about "anti-maskers going home for Thanksgiving gonna need to sell their dead parent's stuff in estate sales".

Hard to feel bad for such people... hey, what if Dems gained a Senate majority from GOP senators dying of covid? *chef kiss*

Larry Hart said...

TCB:

hey, what if Dems gained a Senate majority from GOP senators dying of covid? *


My "Mike Doonesbury's summer daydream" for years has been that The Rapture actually happens and takes the "good Christian" Republican politicians up, leaving the rest of us free of their continual interference. This might be the mysterious way that the Lord works in.

Alfred Differ said...

Heh. I get the snark and appreciate it, but Nana and Gramps will die slowly enough to rack up hospital bills. Yah. Even if they can't get to ICU beds. Everyone's a motivated buyer when the guy who speaks in ALL CAPS is nearby.

Then there are the relatives who will suffer chronic (long lasting) damage who won't have incomes for a while. Those 'costs' are almost as bad as hospital bills per capita, but will likely aggregate as MUCH more.

My initial gloomy death toll prediction was for something like a WWII body count in the US. I was happy to see that as unlikely after the first wave, thought we might still avoid it with the second wave, and now I'm back to gloomy. The two vaccine studies reported recently look great, but mass production isn't magic. Maybe we will squeak under that bar? If so, I'll have something to be thankful for next Turkey Day. For this one I'm settling for the fact that my relatives have enough functioning brain cells to stay away from each other.

We can always jump on Zoom and wave turkey legs at each other. Hah! I got one this time!

gerold said...

Larry Hart said: "this is the sort of infighting that Democrats usually destroy their own political chances with. Who knew that Republicans were capable?"

We're accustomed to seeing coalitions come together and fall apart in parliamentary systems, but lets remember that our two-party system has similar internal coalitions.

The Repubs are particularly unstable right now. Winning was the glue that kept it together but we could be seeing a meltdown.

Trump is threatening to blow-up the Elephant House. These are the kinds of power struggles that normal politicians have indoors, but Trump is not a politician. He's doing it over twitter. It appears to have just about zero chance of working, but if he does manage to put a bullet in the spinal cord of the Republican Party the nation will owe him a smirk.

Larry Hart said...

If only, Lord; if only.

https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Pres/Maps/Nov23.html#item-11

While various Republican pooh-bahs are campaigning for [Georgia Senate candidate] Loeffler and Perdue, some Trump supporters are so angry with the Republicans who have congratulated Joe Biden as president-elect that they are calling for a boycott of the runoffs to punish the Party. This is like a terrorist who threatens to shoot himself if his demands aren't met. The protesters (on Parler) call the Republicans who think Biden won RINOs and worse. One post said victories of Warnock and Ossoff were a small price to pay to teach the Republicans a lesson. Many Democrats would have agreed had they been on Parler.

Larry Hart said...

Voter suppression in plain sight...

https://www.gregpalast.com/georgia-tries-to-block-new-voters-ahead-of-runoff/

Georgia’s Board of Elections is trying to sneak through a new rule that could block new registrations before the Senate runoff to people who don’t have a car registered in the state.

This knocks out students and lower income urban voters (i.e. Black Atlantans) without cars. Of course, you can’t force people to buy a car in order to vote. The voters will be allowed on the rolls after a hearing, which will of course be after the January 5 election.

The GOP Secretary of State’s excuse? To prevent voter fraud. Brad Raffensperger claims people from out of state will be driving into Georgia to register to vote in the runoff.
...

matthew said...

Please read this Twitter thread from Michael Harriot. It's an amazing read.

Probably you've heard of Robert Smalls but I'd bet dollars to donuts you do not know the whole story and how it relates to the Freedom Riders, Selma, and the last living slave.

https://twitter.com/michaelharriot/status/1331129594292936709?s=20

Oh, and I want to see the Robert Smalls movie. So badly.

A.F. Rey said...

As MAGAs spend the inheritances they are about to receive by deliberately murdering Nana and Gramps over the 'holidays.' Ho, ho.

Reminds me of something I posted over on Ornery American. I said that Republicans used to advocate starving their grandmothers. Now (by calling for herd immunity before a vaccine is available), they want to kill them outright.

I guess you can call that "progress." Just don't ask me toward what. :)

Larry Hart said...

From the Twitter thread matthew links to:

Sometimes, in Alabama, you might meet Black people who know the Constitution like the back of their hands. That's because these "literacy" tests required Black people to recite whole passages, take handwriting tests, do math etc. Basically most WHITE people couldn't pass the test

But again, Amelia was smart. In 1934, Amelia took the literacy test in spite of everyone telling her it was an impossible feat.

Amelia Boynton passed that shit on her first try.

And guess what she did?

She started traveling around Alabama teaching people how to pass the test!


That reminds me of a tale I heard about university admissions in the Soviet Union. Apparently, Jewish applicants were given "Jewish questions", which were so difficult that it was virtually impossible to answer them correctly. And then, to add insult to injury, even if a Jewish applicant did somehow manage to pass the test, they were still denied admission.

I'm sure black Alabamians received the same treatment if they passed their "literacy tests".

Come to think of it, that's similar to the way Democrats have to win an overwhelming majority in multiple states to keep from being cheated out of a presidential run. And even when they do so, the win is not a sure thing.

Der Oger said...

@Larry Hart: "Voter suppression in plain sight..."

Couldn't this rule be lifted by the courts before the election? Poll tax and all such stuff?

And if an election is proven to be fraudulent, can't the result be nullified and a new election be held?

______________________________________________________________________________________

@TCB: The Sophie Scholl comparison made me read the leaflets again. I'll quote a passage from the first one, in regards to Trump losing to Biden and the transition phase:

From Goethe’s The Awakening of Epimenides, Act II, Scene 4:

SPIRITS
Though he who has boldly risen from the abyss
Through an iron will and cunning
May conquer half the world,
Yet to the abyss he must return.
Already a terrible fear has seized him;
In vain will he resist!
And all who still hung onto him
Must perish in his fall.

HOPE
Now I meet my good men
Who have gathered in the night,
To wait in silence, not to sleep.
And the glorious word of liberty
They lisp and stammer,
Till in unaccustomed newness,
On the steps of our temple

Once again in delight we cry:
(with conviction, loudly:)
Freedom!
(more moderately:)
Freedom!
(echo from all sides and ends:)
Freedom!

https://www.weisse-rose-stiftung.de/white-rose-resistance-group/leaflets-of-the-white-rose/i-leaflet-of-the-white-rose/

TCB said...

Everyone's a motivated buyer when the guy who speaks in ALL CAPS is nearby.

Hahahaha! I, too, have read some Pratchett.

Re: Greg Palast: Why weren't the Dems paying attention to him ten or fifteen years ago???

Re: Robert Smalls: Yeah, that needs to be a movie.

Trump has directed the GSA to certify and allow the transition. Word is, some of the big GOP donors threatened to pull their money out of Georgia if he didn't.

Larry Hart said...

Der Oger:

Couldn't this rule be lifted by the courts before the election? Poll tax and all such stuff?


I'm not a Georgia resident, so I'm not familiar with their specific election laws. If the courts wanted to get involved, I'm sure they could, but I don't know if they are Republican operatives as well.

But their argument is that they're not requiring voters to buy a car in order to vote (which would be a poll tax). No, they're simply using vehicle registration as a means of determining residency. Non owners of cars will have their chance to establish residency a different way--just not in time for that particular runoff election on January 5.


And if an election is proven to be fraudulent, can't the result be nullified and a new election be held?


That's what they're trying to do with the presidential election, and it's not even working for Republicans. Hard to imagine that it would work opposing them. In the previous Georgia governor's race, the current (Republican) governor won by blatant cheats, such as people "collecting" mail-in ballots from black neighborhoods and throwing them in the trash. But the Georgia secretary of state overseeing the election certified the result. Incidentally, he himself was the victor in that election. The secretary of state overseeing the election was running for governor, and won.

That's what we're up against.

Larry Hart said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/opinion/election-integrity.html


There is a notable overlap of interests. Voting machines are distrusted by people in both parties, and postelection audits help everyone. Improving voter registration makes registration easier (usually a Democratic demand) and removes suspicions of voter fraud (usually a Republican demand).


The problem with such bipartisan pleading is that it ignores what the Republicans are actually up to. The man on the street might suspect voter fraud by Democrats, but that's because it's the line that their leaders are feeding them. The Republicans in power don't believe that voter fraud is rampant. They just use it as an excuse to justify their voter suppression. So removing the suspicion of voter fraud wouldn't be a "Republican demand." In fact, they'd do all they could to prevent such a thing, as more trustworthiness would make it more difficult for them to justify voter suppression.

So when people ask why both parties don't agree to something they both want--that's why.

Larry Hart said...

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/527253-michigan-county-board-approves-resolution-to-support-impeaching-gov

Michigan county board approves resolution in support of impeaching Whitmer


Gretchen Whitmer is now The X-Men. "Hated and feared by those they are sworn to protect."

TCB said...

There are several manufacturers of voting machines and software, including Election Systems & Software, Inc (ES&S) which bought Diebold but then spun it off because of monopoly accusations. The Diebold assets, now called Premier, were bought by Dominion which is a Canadian company (their products are used in elections in the US, Canada, and I think Serbia!?). I strongly suspect that the company would run afoul of the Canadian regulators if they were still carrying water for GOP interests. My shoot-from-the-hip impression is that Republicans are raising a stink over Dominion machines in particular because that is a company Republicans do not control.

Larry Hart said...

TCB:

My shoot-from-the-hip impression is that Republicans are raising a stink over Dominion machines in particular because that is a company Republicans do not control.


That's exactly the Republican definition of "rigging the election." It means "Not rigged by us". Just as their "fake news" means "Actual facts that we don't like." And the only judges who are not "biased against Trump" are Trump supporters.

See how that works?

A line from the movie The Sting comes to mind, when Robert Shaw's character angrily asks, "What was I supposed to do? Call him out for cheatin' better than me in front of the others?"

Keith Halperin said...

Hi Folks,

I finally re-found this:

Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship
(A PROJECT OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES)
(https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/report)
The Commission spent two years engaging with communities all over the U.S. to explore how best to respond to the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our political and civic life.
Its final and bipartisan report, Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, was released in June 2020 and includes six strategies and 31 ambitious recommendations to help the nation emerge as a more resilient democracy by 2026,
the nation's 250th anniversary.

The Way Forward: Essential Reinvention of American Constitutional Democracy
The Six Strategies and Thirty-One Recommendations
(These struck me as rather "Brinnish" and are detailed here: https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/report/section/3)
Strategy 1
Achieve Equality of Voice and Representation
Strategy 2
Empower Voters
Strategy 3
Ensure the Responsiveness of Political Institutions
Strategy 4
Dramatically Expand Civic Bridging Capacity
Strategy 5
Build Civic Information Architecture that Supports Common Purpose
Strategy 6
Inspire a Culture of Commitment to American Constitutional Democracy and One Another

David Brin said...

Thanks for the update TCB. Weird! To see Diebold become a TRUSTWORTHY voting machine maker hated by Repubs is amazing. But even more so is the fact that paperless machine voting is now being hated-on by the right! And it became a much lesser factor, with all the mail-in and drop-off voting, this year. And with early voting, it appears that there will be no need for a national bill ending the Tuesday-only election day that prejudiced against working people. Some solutions happen organically.

It is still essential to file suit against states who limit access to DMV offices in poor areas with blatantly deliberate intent to prevent poor folks and minorities/women etc from getting the very same ID that would improve their lives, beyond just voting. It's been so blatant that such a case - under the 14th Amendment - could pass even this Court. Voter ID laws should only happen where voter ID compliance assistance is vigorous and sincere. (See Polemical Judo.)

David Brin said...

Keith absolutely none of those goals will be achieved without first restoring the primacy of demonstrable fact, in argument.

duncan cairncross said...

Access to DMV offices

How about a solution to a ton of other problems as well

Make your Post Office a bank and give EVERYBODY - all legal residents - or all Citizens - a bank account
This would make things like stimulus "cheques" dead easy - would remove the problems of people who don't have a bank account and would provide a simple "proof of identity" for everyone - it could also be used for Voter Registration
Your State system could mean that the last one was a stretch

David Brin said...

Duncan yeah the postal bank has long been one of my 'fuggestions' though using it as an ID dispensary is somethin I shall add!

David Brin said...

onward
onward

Dave Peticolas said...

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the "blackmail is the only explanation" for certain behaviors line. I read the linked-to article and it seems to be a generic argument that blackmail is probably being practiced by somebody somewhere, given its historical prevalence and practical utility. It doesn't seem to follow that high-level US political figures are currently being blackmailed. What are the specific behaviors that can't be accounted for any other way? Wouldn't it be hard to hide such blackmail from US intelligence services?

David Brin said...

Please note the "onward" DP, when a thread is done./


onward