If your goal is solving a national or state-level problem, you will want to work with voters and lawmakers on all sides to get results that most people will accept as legitimate and useful. To achieve this, you will rely on fact-seeking and brainstorming.
If your goal is for your side to win, you will want to bend or ignore elections and break government institutions that get in your way. To justify those actions, you will spread division and disinformation while discouraging debate and dissent.
And think again if you believe your side winning means “problem solved.”
- History and events around the world today show that the losers will find ways to fight back. You will not have order and stability.
- More subtly, if you can dominate, who will tell you when you are making mistakes?
How will life be better for our children and grandchildren if we get so caught up in winning that we fail to solve the big problems in front of us?
The American system of government was conceived as a way for people with differing needs and ideologies to solve problems together.
It wasn’t perfect, and changes were made gradually over time. Some, like the end of slavery and the right of almost all adult citizens to vote, came only after great sacrifice.
All the way through American history, to this very day, there has been a tug of war between those who want their side to win and those who want to solve problems so that both sides can win.
There has been too much emphasis on winning over the last several decades: the people who want their side to win have done some real damage to the way our government operates.
No capitulation to evil is required for problem-solving. To the contrary, we believe evil is much more likely when good people allow elections to be manipulated (mutually assured gerrymandering) and government institutions to be broken (checks and balances, civil liberties).
We believe problem-solving is most likely when (1) most voters are more interested in problem-solving than winning, (2) our governments are representative of, and accountable to, the citizens they serve, and (3) government institutions include multiple protections against government tyranny, including checks on concentrated power through the separation and sharing of powers, civil liberties, civil rights, due process, and equal treatment under the law, all backed by a written constitution.
If you want to learn more about these things, check out our website CFFAD.org
