For far too long much of what passes for the Democratic response to the abuses of MAGA and republican misrule has been a lot of complaining, virtue signaling and waiting on the perfect alignment of candidate, electorate and election results to save us via better governance. If we end up arguing amongst ourselves in search of a perfect solution, then the situation becomes even more fruitless!
Meanwhile, the republicans, to their credit, win battle after battle on the way to winning the war. The perfect is never an enemy of the functional over on that side of the aisle.
Politicians are not going to save us. A politician may be a useful tool to accomplish what we want to accomplish but they are, almost by definition, not the leaders that will show the way. Some may show such tendencies, some might even feign some intent to provide leadership, but, with rare exceptions, they got where they are by operating in the existing electoral environment.
And what is that environment currently? Money equals speech. The more money, the more speech that happens. Repetition and marketing moves an electorate.
I have been dissatisfied, of course, with the influence money has on our politics. The solution, it seems to me, is obvious: get the money out of politics.
Our elective representatives, however, will never deliver this solution to the country for the reason listed above. The Swamp has treated them just fine, thank you very much.
What is a thoughtful and patriotic American to do?
Well, first, everything we can do in our own lives and budgets to starve the businesses that are funding MAGA. A key step in getting out of an abusive relationship, is getting out! We must stop empowering our abusers by funding our abuse.
But that’s not enough and leaves me at the point I’ve reached over the last few weeks. I’m just one person, I can do just so much. I operate in my silo and have no sense of a larger and more meaningful impact from my solitary actions. Collective action is what will get attention and change outcomes, but I feel always in the dark about which collective efforts are working.
Over the last 10 years or so I have been amazed at the proliferation of apps that have been developed to help people change their behavior. How many of us have lost weight, practiced meditation, saved money and more via the positive feedback and encouragement an app?
As I look around at ways to track and measure the impact of my single action in the context of a larger collective undertaking. I have found nothing.
I really like the Goods Unite Us app as a way to educate my economic decisions, but it lacks any such way of providing positive feedback for decisions made. Perhaps there is something out there that I’ve overlooked.
So, all that is a lengthy explanation for why I think we, as the loyal opposition in this society, need the development of an online tool that would help us, collectively, see that we are having an impact.
Web app development is far beyond my core competencies. Perhaps there are some here that might give the idea some thought and explain what’s possible and what’s not.
What to measure, and how, seem to be the key items to be focused on. From my perspective, though, that’s not as important as the visibility in to how our individual actions are contributing to a larger effort.
Any approach that helps to starve the abusers of the tool they use to abuse us should be explored.
So, DK community, is this a viable idea?
