I don’t think the metaphor works very well, but thanks for trying LOL. I’m sure it was fun to write.
In terms of metastability, you don’t need physical sciences to understand some realities of the US political landscape when a little common sense and a layperson’s sense of history will do. This is the realm of CULTURE, not physical sciences, and cultures change very slowly, over time. Yes, certainly driven by crises which have always naturally emerged in all societies and in all times, but even then the “change” process is mysterious.
After all, if the American Civil War did not cause a fundamental shift in many of our basic political institutions, what will? Lincoln won with less than 40 percent of the popular vote – did that lead to an effort for a national popular vote and get rid of the electoral college? No. Efforts to abolish the barbaric institution of slavery passed the US House many times in the first half of the 19th century, and was always stonewalled in the Senate. After the Civil War, did that lead to a drive to fundamentally reorganize or abolish or lessen the powers of the Senate? No. The former slaves enjoyed a new day for civil rights for approximately 11 years following the Civil War, at which point the tragedies of United States v. Cruikshank, the KKK/White League, Jim Crow and everything that came after, kicked in, tragically ending this nation's first significant attempt at racial equality. The SOUTH won the Civil War, not the NORTH, despite what the history books say.
Lee, some of us have been doing this for a few decades, and the “imminent change” that we always thought was just around the corner in fact was around a lot of corners LOL. And even more corners beyond that. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Though sometimes we run it at a sprinting pace!
I never agreed very often with what Milton Friedman said, but for political reformers he once wrote one of the wisest things I’ve ever read. I pass it on to you to think about:
“Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically in evitable.”
That’s what I see our role is here, Lee. Developing alternatives to the status quo, and keeping them alive and available until....fill in the blank, who knows what the catalyst for fundamental change ultimately will be. That’s what we have been doing with ranked choice voting all these years -- developing an alternative. Maybe you can do the same thing with fusion – which is kind of in a moribund state at this point – and open list PR. But to do that, you and your allies are going to have to learn to think like organizers to build your alternative. You need to get some real ‘wins’ under your belt. Writing and talking about proportional representation generically is not going to take you very far.
Here’s an idea: many East Coast cities, and I believe some southern ones as well, still have partisan elections (unlike the Midwest, Mountain and Western cities, all of which use nonpartisan elections). Why not target a half-dozen of these cities for educational campaigns geared around the specifics of each city and make the case in each city for open list PR? That would mean framing open list PR as "the solution" in that very local context of each city. Reform follows the calculus of "problem-solution" – in each city what specific "problem" are you solving, that open list PR is the unique solution for? And then see which of those cities become ripe for moving forward, at which point the educational campaign would transition into a political campaign.
You might find it helpful to establish something like a charter review commission in those cities, as Portland OR did, since that can sometimes be the right vehicle for bringing all political sides to the table for the type of important conversation that is capable of resulting in real reform.
I think this is doable, and it will help introduce open list PR in a real and tangible way that writing another op-ed for the Washington Post or another Substack musing will never do. I hope you will give this some serious thought. All the best.
I think of it as a disclimax. But, whatever. It's truly hard to get a handle on how screwed up we are. And probably screwed to boot. Living on borrowed time . . .
I don’t think the metaphor works very well, but thanks for trying LOL. I’m sure it was fun to write.
In terms of metastability, you don’t need physical sciences to understand some realities of the US political landscape when a little common sense and a layperson’s sense of history will do. This is the realm of CULTURE, not physical sciences, and cultures change very slowly, over time. Yes, certainly driven by crises which have always naturally emerged in all societies and in all times, but even then the “change” process is mysterious.
After all, if the American Civil War did not cause a fundamental shift in many of our basic political institutions, what will? Lincoln won with less than 40 percent of the popular vote – did that lead to an effort for a national popular vote and get rid of the electoral college? No. Efforts to abolish the barbaric institution of slavery passed the US House many times in the first half of the 19th century, and was always stonewalled in the Senate. After the Civil War, did that lead to a drive to fundamentally reorganize or abolish or lessen the powers of the Senate? No. The former slaves enjoyed a new day for civil rights for approximately 11 years following the Civil War, at which point the tragedies of United States v. Cruikshank, the KKK/White League, Jim Crow and everything that came after, kicked in, tragically ending this nation's first significant attempt at racial equality. The SOUTH won the Civil War, not the NORTH, despite what the history books say.
Lee, some of us have been doing this for a few decades, and the “imminent change” that we always thought was just around the corner in fact was around a lot of corners LOL. And even more corners beyond that. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Though sometimes we run it at a sprinting pace!
I never agreed very often with what Milton Friedman said, but for political reformers he once wrote one of the wisest things I’ve ever read. I pass it on to you to think about:
“Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically in evitable.”
That’s what I see our role is here, Lee. Developing alternatives to the status quo, and keeping them alive and available until....fill in the blank, who knows what the catalyst for fundamental change ultimately will be. That’s what we have been doing with ranked choice voting all these years -- developing an alternative. Maybe you can do the same thing with fusion – which is kind of in a moribund state at this point – and open list PR. But to do that, you and your allies are going to have to learn to think like organizers to build your alternative. You need to get some real ‘wins’ under your belt. Writing and talking about proportional representation generically is not going to take you very far.
Here’s an idea: many East Coast cities, and I believe some southern ones as well, still have partisan elections (unlike the Midwest, Mountain and Western cities, all of which use nonpartisan elections). Why not target a half-dozen of these cities for educational campaigns geared around the specifics of each city and make the case in each city for open list PR? That would mean framing open list PR as "the solution" in that very local context of each city. Reform follows the calculus of "problem-solution" – in each city what specific "problem" are you solving, that open list PR is the unique solution for? And then see which of those cities become ripe for moving forward, at which point the educational campaign would transition into a political campaign.
You might find it helpful to establish something like a charter review commission in those cities, as Portland OR did, since that can sometimes be the right vehicle for bringing all political sides to the table for the type of important conversation that is capable of resulting in real reform.
I think this is doable, and it will help introduce open list PR in a real and tangible way that writing another op-ed for the Washington Post or another Substack musing will never do. I hope you will give this some serious thought. All the best.
I think of it as a disclimax. But, whatever. It's truly hard to get a handle on how screwed up we are. And probably screwed to boot. Living on borrowed time . . .