Steve Phillips, in his New York Times article of February 21, 2017 (http://nyti.ms/2mhT2px) argues that the Democratic Party needs to make just a few adjustments in its "politics as usual" strategy and efforts to regain the White House in 2020.
For what! It will still be a minority in the two houses of Congress, in the state governorships and legislatures, and have nearly 1/2 of the adult population still rabidly anti--progressive, deliberately obstructionist in governance and policymaking, and newly-enabled in intolerance.
Why would millions of people (or anyone) want to work hard for that result? Is it because they don't know what else to do? Does anyone in the position of influence have any good perspectives on why American governance and social relations is so dysfunctional and divided? It is beyond foolish to think that "politics as usual”will fix any of this accepted such minor ways as to be nearly insignificant.
The existing system is more than just broken. It is obsolete. When nearly every other element of modern society like communications, transportation, management, science, etc. is so modern our political principles and institutions are still 18th-Century!
How can a nation of so many smart people that see that there has to be "smartness" in governance, as well. Smartness includes a collective Interest and fairness, rationality in policymaking, a balance of private and public interests, a greater respect for reason and science, tolerance for trivial differences, and more.
Our existing system is not smart; it is based on factual circumstances of an entirely different era of individualism, parochialism, limited interactivity, minimal governmental needs, and the like. That is certainly not our situation now!
Let's modernize! Let's create new governmental institutions for our present situation. Let's add a "brain"to governance and social relations institutions. Let's identify correctly what it is that divides us into socially invalid categories like so-called "conservative/liberal" and red/blue etc.
These are archaic, invalid, and invidious characterizations of social life. The more accurate characterization of Americans is into two categories: private citizens who exercise self-interest, competitiveness, and individualism, and public citizens who recognize a balance of private and public interests.
How to see anything correctly about social organization and quality of governance requires a new paradigm. What that paradigm is and how it will work is what The Action Manual is all about. he recognizes that we need a new social ethos and set of public values. It emphasizes that public citizens (a large majority of Americans) need to assert themselves against the private ones.
If anyone is truly serious and open-minded enough to work hard for social change, they will make the efforts to become enlightened with new ideas and plans. Take a look at The Action Manual.
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