Strongmen for Scared People?
Strongmen for scared people leads to failure. Democracies have the edge when it comes to health care. Read on.
senate
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.
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.
Corona Virus, Democracy, and Accountability
First, please take a look at the good advice from the CDC. Second, consider also how you might be able to help the people around you. Nextdoor.com and other social media apps can put you in touch with your neighbors, to find out who you can help, or find out who can help you. The …
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.
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 …
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 …
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?
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.
Our Republic needs you.
We provide materials for adult civic education, ages 18 and up.We have two goals: (1) help Americans understand why democracy is precious; and (2) help them understand, protect, and improve the foundations of trust in our republic. Our courses are a great way to build your knowledge. We focus on how the framer’s distrust led …
