SERIOUS PROPOSAL: DATA-DRIVEN ACCOUNTABILITY
This BAMF (and pretty smokin’ hot meteorologist) Kait Parker shows how it’s done:
Trump does not strike me as the type who dives into data and metrics, it’s just not who he is.
You could imagine his process is something like this:
* Gets an idea for a development or transaction
* Grab some legit experts/operators who crunch the numbers and do the legwork
* Trump then gets a “menu”, he pulls the trigger on a choice and moves onto his next thing
That’s a perfectly fine way to operate (and to be clear I’m speculating about when there’s major $$$ on the line, not like winging a Presidential campaign or a term as President.) It’s just means that the “details” are worked out by other people. Who knows what the reality is, but it sure sounds like there’s a lot “gut” judgement, feeling, intuition (which one cultivates over many years of course.) He’s simply not a data/details guy as an executive/leader, it’s just not his style. If his name is on it, everything is great all the time (ex greatest, tremendous, huge, bigly, etc etc) or if it’s an enemy it’s the worst thing ever (ex. disaster, stupid, losers, etc)
When we hear “Make America Great Again”, that’s a fine slogan but if/when things go to shit, he’ll probably be able to weasel out of it in 2018 & 2020 because there’s no data there. It’s vacuous elevator music & sloganeering (btw see Obama on 'yes we can’) that needs to be backed up with data.
Fuck that. Let’s inflict facts and data and METRICS on these clowns.
The Proposal: Shrinkwrap 2017
When the clowncar comes to Washington (and Tony from Queens gets put in charge of the US Census) we’ll have a bit of a problem: there will be tremendous political/administrative pressure on agencies to paint as rosy a picture as possible (all modern-era administrations are guilty of that practice to some extent. It’ll probably more blatant/Putin-esque than anything we’ve seen in our lifetime during a Trump Administration, however.) But there are some things that you can’t really fudge and there are also many non-governmental institutions gathering data. People don’t just do this because they’re nerds and are eager to publish studies that 17 people on the planet will ever read in their entirety but because actual $$$ depends on those numbers.
What I want to do shrinkwrap EVERY useful metric from January 19 2017 and use it as our zero point.
Our friends now control the Presidency and both houses of Congress with pretty substantial majorities. This is on them, they own it.
Everything from unemployment, cost of a gallon gasoline, health care premiums, health coverage (vs how many people get “emergency room” insurance), new businesses started, poverty rate (there’s probably a zillion ways to measure that), educational attainment, inflation, crime, incarceration, economic growth, etc etc Stuff that changes over time where there’s “good” vs “bad” trend.
Let’s still a get baseline and start collecting real grown-up data. No fake news, no hysterical sources, only legit stuff.
What to do with the numbers?
From that zero point, each quarter we can do a little check-in.
The Numbers are Good
If the numbers are good and he’s generally behaving and doing what we want then quite frankly that’s great! For a while he appears he may be able to intimidate obstructionists/dead-enders in the Congress into doing their jobs, or maybe not. We truly have no idea how this will shake out at this point.
The fact of the matter is that this Clown skirted into the White House and he’s going to be our President. It’s gross, we all know that rah rah, get over it. There’s been enough time for grieving & despair.
Recall what Steve Bannon famously said: "Trump is a “blunt instrument for us [...] I don’t know whether he really gets it or not."
If he can become our blunt instrument by accident, all the better.
The Numbers are Bad
If a lot of metrics are as crappy as they probably will be, then let’s pummel them. We’re currently dealing with opponents who seem to be allergic to facts and generally behave like lying bastards, but we still need to attempt to hold them to their promises.
They’re very vague about what success actually means.
That’s an opening: let’s define it for them.
Ps. There’s one other problem I forgot to mention at the start: I have no idea how to this :D