This meme broke my mind
I thought it was an answer but now it seems more like a broken piñata spilling questions across the ground
When I first saw this meme, I thought, “Yes … we should get organized like the Project 2025 folks did.”
It surfaced again when I considered adding it to the Review for Week 16 (to be posted on Sunday, May 11th.) This time, prickly questions hung all over it like a desert cholla:
Who would write it?
How would it reflect the “voice of the people?”
What billionaire would fund it?
Who would champion it?
Would it miss the mark as badly as Project 2025?
Is democracy the answer or is there a better way to govern 350 million people?
Who’s listening?
One thing that struck me was how, periodically in our election cycles, people show up and toss their hats in the ring, telling us what they’re going to do for us. And, by the way, could we contribute to their campaigns?
Theoretically, most of these candidates have talked to a lot of people and have ideas for how to make things better. However, I’ve been around for awhile, and no one has ever asked me what I would really like to vote for.
Suddenly, that seems interesting. Yes, we have a big country and a lot of folks to listen to … however, with all the technology we have, with all its thousands of “influencers,” couldn’t we find a way to listen to real people? I don’t mean polling where life complexity is boiled down into a black or white “yes” or “no.” I mean a process where everyone gets to be heard and to hear what others are saying.
It’s all too likely that we have the better part of four years to figure out where we’re going. Why not push the envelope a bit and figure out what we truly want in our system of government? We’re going to need to reinvent ourselves after the trump tsunami subsides … why not build a system that’s truly “of the people, by the people, for the people?”
With this many people, there are going to have to be massive compromises, however, we should understand what we’re compromising and why.
— Pollyanna, over and out for now.
What most worries you about where we are in this political landscape?
Some of this makes sense to me some I am not sure about because I know nothin about such things
ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC WISHLIST, while understandable, should at this point be the cart and not the horse.
Most Americans are not policy junkies -- the majority pay scant attention to issues, legislation and detailed priorities, esp. swing voters. Many vote on one or two issues and no more (pro-life or a woman's right to choose, gun rights or eliminating gun violence, etc.).
We will win in 2026 and 2028 if we have a smart, sympathetic messenger with broad appeal (like Obama or Buttigieg); someone who can speak credibly to women and men, all races (even white people!), and knows how to talk about kitchen table issues and present commonsense solutions.
THEN we work on our wishlist, or have this person focus on 3-5 of them and not a dozen.