Our Leaders Don’t Want Us to Know
We get to have leaders who are accountable to us, and we get to choose our leaders peacefully – but only if …
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Civic Education
Freedom of the Press
Thomas Jefferson said “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” A free press is especially important in the coronavirus pandemic.
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Urgent Attention Needed
It is hard to fight the corona virus without a healthy liberal, republican democracy. Urgent attention is needed.
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In Need of Vigilant Defense
Liberal, republican democracy is precious for the freedom, peace, and better quality of life it can bring, but those benefits don’t come for free. Citizens need to do more to protect and strengthen their democracies – starting here at home.
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Strongmen for Scared People?
Strongmen for scared people leads to failure. Democracies have the edge when it comes to health care. Read on.
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Voting During the Pandemic
Interest in voting by mail has increased – because of anxiety over catching the virus from fellow voters. It seems simple but there are important trade-offs to consider.
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Emergency COVID-19 Powers
Emergency powers are sometimes necessary, but they should always be temporary, and only Congress should have the authority to renew them.
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Constitution Day, 2019
The framers came up with a Constitution that allows people who distrust each other to work productively together in pursuit of their own happiness – but only if the principles of accountability, fairness, and constrained power are respected and enforced.
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Free to Criticize
Decades ago, when this blogger was a boy, it used to be popular to say “I don’t agree with that, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The phrase seemed morbidly fascinating. I understand it better now, having been many places where free speech is only for those with power,
The Last Line in the Declaration of Independence
Much is made of the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. They are stirring words: We propose some humility is required in interpreting Thomas Jefferson’s powerful words. If all men and women are created equal, then all are entitled to be included in “the People.” The idea of “the people” cannot be exclusionary. All Americans
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Competence, Loyalty, and Patronage
Every government needs a civil service to get things done. Yet, hiring people into the civil service tempts politicians with some bad behaviors: could the new hires be selected for their loyalty to me or my party, could the old hires be fired for disloyalty, or could I make some money by asking new hires
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Memorial Day
In respect for their devotion to America, the Congress by a joint resolution approved on May 11, 1950 (64 Stat. 158), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on
Cheat or Compete?
US politics is becoming characterized more and more by cheating to win instead of working harder to be competitive enough to earn bipartisan votes. It is weakening our Republic.
Building a Trustworthy Gov’t
The US Senate is considering another rule change aimed at reducing the backlog of presidential appointees awaiting Senate confirmation. The reality of political appointees has created a battlefield as partisans fight to get as many of their people into office as possible. It should not be this way. We need a government staffed by competent
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HOW TO ENJOY POLITICS
Democracy is all about using free and fair political competition to motivate a contest of the best ideas for solving problems. Politics played as a contest of ideas requires voters and politicians alike to speak for themselves and to listen to others for their ideas.
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Friends When You Need Them
If you ever anticipate you might need some friends in Congress, if you ever figured you might need some allies, why would you ever show yourself to be uncooperative? One of the news stories from March 1 was that the leadership of the Democratic Party was upset that 26 members of the party had voted
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Connecting the Dots
Pundits haven’t yet fully connected the dots in front of them. Yes, presidential use of national emergency powers to spend money on things that Congress chose not to authorize is against the Article 1 of Constitution. Here is the other dot: the choice of president became more consequential as the Office of the President became more powerful. This trend explains why election campaigns have been fought ever more viciously – by politicians and citizens alike.
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Time to Restore Big Tent Politics
In times that strain our system of checks and balances, trying for more party purity – meaning moving the two major parties even further apart – is the wrong way to go. Instead, it is time to restore big tent politics.
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Martin Luther King Jr.
In a democracy, people need to trust that they will be treated fairly. They need to know they can vote like anyone else, that they will be treated just as well as anyone else, regardless of how they vote, and that elected officials will feel as accountable to them as anyone else. This need to
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Emergency Powers
In any republic, much depends upon the trust of political leaders and the people that election winners will not use their power to entrench themselves at the expense of the losers. In fact, entrenchment has been a feature of many governments around the world. Leaders find an excuse to act outside of normal law – by declaring a state of emergency.
Introduction to the Budget Process
Trust in our system of democracy depends in no small part upon how well it delivers for us. The services we get from the government are part of that. Few of us are happy about shut-downs, inadequate services, waste, and unsustainable debt. That prompts a question: how is the U.S. budget process supposed to work?
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WORKING TOGETHER FOR CHANGE
Change is easier when our elected representatives are working together to get something done. The good news in this context is that there is far more common ground for them to build on than you will hear from the media. You can remind them of that.
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Impossible to Be Civil?
Hillary Clinton said this week “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.” A day later, Eric Holder said that when Republicans “go low, we kick them.” Before that, back in 2016, Donald Trump complained that there were no longer consequences to protesting because “nobody wants to
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Lost in the Outrage
Much of the press coverage about the Supreme Court confirmation process, mainstream and otherwise, has been about the alleged low quality of tactics undertaken by each political party as they maneuver to confirm or obstruct the confirmation of the nominee. Forgotten in all the outrage is the fact that none of this maneuvering would be
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Constitution Day
Monday, September 17, is Constitution Day. It’s a good excuse to think about a few things. First of all, what’s the big deal about having a constitution? For the founders of the nation, the constitution was a way to create a new kind of government that outlawed the limitless power to dictate people’s lives that
Can Leaders Change for the Better?
Mahathir Mohamad, George Wallace, and the 2018 Malaysian election. Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (center), the once-and-future Malaysian Prime Minister greets protestors at an anti-corruption rally in 2016. Photo credit: Reuters. Grayson Lewis
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Supreme Court and Democracy
With the composition of the Supreme Court being so consequential, the Senate has an eternal obligation to confirm justices who will defend the constitution on a non-partisan basis for all people within our borders. We hope citizens will ask their senators to go beyond that and make support for free, fair, and accountable democracy one of their major confirmation criteria.
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Free Speech: Abuse It and Lose It
The right to free speech is an integral part of modern democracy. Abuse that right and you abuse democracy. Take that abuse too far and you won’t have free speech any more.
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Cruelty Hurts Democracy Here, Persecuted Minorities Overseas
Cruelty towards immigrants practice puts our democracy at risk, along with our ability to advocate for persecuted minorities overseas.
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Setting Fires and Pouring Gasoline
Our constitution gives the media a central and protected role in our democracy. Our founding fathers expected the media would help hold leaders accountable and also help educate voters (and legislators) about the pros and cons of various policy options. The media have never been especially polite in doing the job the founder fathers gave them: personal attacks on political leaders started early on. In the last many years, however, many media owners have directed their staff to set fires and then pour gasoline on them.
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