The PolyPartisan

I had a very interesting conversation with my sister tonight about some disturbing changes that are taking place at a very low level of government: public school districts.  I’m a bit drafty on the details, but one example that she cited was a new restriction against providing “home made” food for special events in elementary school classrooms, with a provision encouraging “manufactured” food instead.

The real rationale at play is almost irrelevant to the liberty issue with which I am concerned.  While “distribution of baked goods” is not a specifically protected right under the constitution, it’s an erosion of liberty that has the possibility of tremendous significance.

I have been somewhat disconcerted by the shift from Liberty to Safety in public schools in the almost decade since I graduated.  For example, when I went to school, student IDs were checked at dances and similar events; I’m pretty sure I used mine once freshman year, and subsequently had a small ceremonial burning of them with my friends the day of issue each September.  But a few years later they were issued with lanyards and became a required permanent display.  Security has clamped down supposedly in response to 9/11, to the point that even as an active duty military member in uniform, I was not allowed to “walk the halls” without a faculty escort to retrieve my brother; visiting teachers and old friends had been ruled right out.  Not every school is quite like that; I visited with a friend at a neighboring district and we wandered freely after signing in with regular ID like at any government building.

This culinary restriction is alarming principally because it impinges upon the expressive rights of parents to share their culture and talents, but also because it threatens the continuation of traditional culture and good nutrition in exchange for the inappropriate promotion of corporate interests.  You cannot cook a low fat, low sugar apple bran cake for your son or daughter’s birthday or holiday, but you can distribute Snickers bars and Twinkies.  How is this healthy?

Additionally, this could effectively banish the concept of “home ec” and inevitably would if it hasn’t already.

All this detail to lead into my followup question to my sister: what are we doing about it?

What is the root cause of this problem, or the broader issue that it reveals?

The rule has been put in place primarily out of the relatively new extremist attitude of sterilization out of fear.  Administrators are sweeping through schools for any weakness to litigation or offense, because some element of our culture has either taken the idea of “political correctness” too far, or has allowed the fear of direct or vicarious liability to overwhelm common sense.  In other words, traditional values have been shoved aside in favor of corporate and legalistic expediency, or the value of government has changed from “For and by the people” to “managing assets and risks.” The corporatization of government and culture.

When I asked her why people haven’t banded together to fight this, my sister exasperatedly griped that the parents, in general, just don’t seem to care enough.

In the common perception, it’s easier to tolerate or work around an unjust policy than to take action to fix it.

This is why democracy is broken.  At the most basic level.  Because most of us just don’t care enough to do something.

In response to this, I encouraged her to work on starting a specifically targeted movement.  Simply put, I don’t want to, because I want to focus on Poly, rather than getting involved directly with any specific party.  But it seems to me that there is a need out there for a Sensible Parents party, or by some similar name, with a specific goal of organizing to help exasperated parents defeat unjust school regulations.  A reboot of the PTA.

The basic problems Polypartisan is designed to address are not unique to the congress.  In fact, the partisan bickering, ideological agendas, and constituent apathy that plague the congress are occuring at every level of our national, state, and even local governments.  This tells me that our crisis is not merely a problem in the legislative body, but throughout the culture.

I am stating, therefore, a revision of our goals.  In addition to our direct electoral goal of reshaping Congress itself, we need to educate the American people of the nature of democracy, the purpose of republic, and the power of involvement.

Lets fix the whole thing.

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Today’s volunteer need: Community organizers willing to identify and remedy unjust local laws and policies that hurt our children’s cultural, social, and health needs at school and at large.

I know I haven’t posted in a while, and I apologize to any who’ve been anxious for an update.

So far, the project is actually going pretty well.  We haven’t picked up any real party connections yet, but I can finally say “We” with some meaning.  A few new people have come on board, and I’d like to welcome the first people to join the project.  Steve will be heading up the graphic design needs, so we should have a logo, some printed matter, and an improved site design soon.  Marc Lefton, who created adholes.com, has come on board as our new Social Marketing Director, which will be a crucial position when we start reaching out over Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Adholes, and other similar sites.  Steve Woolsey, an up and coming musician and a new marketing professional in Buffalo, will be our new Art Director/Graphic Designer.  Additionally, Dan Mahoney of Gushi Systems has graciously offered hosting and technical services for our web system, and we should be switching from GoDaddy to Gushi in the next month or so, hopefully as the new site design hits.

The past few weeks, it seems like I’ve talked with everyone I’ve met about the Polypartisan concept.  I’m learning a lot about what needs to be done and what obstacles will be faced.  I have come to feel that the largest obstacles to true polypartisan or apartisan (without parties) representation are doubt, fear, and lack of understanding.

Doubt is perhaps the largest obstacle we will have to address, and make no mistake, it has served to hold America bound to the bipartisan system for many years.  The basic principle is that voters don’t believe that their vote for an alternate option will be effective.  There is an element of truth to this, but it is a social construct and a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It is the collective doubt itself that makes the votes ineffective, and it ties directly to fear.  If our voters don’t know that their vote for a third party candidate will result in that candidates election, we’ll see a kind of “Bradley effect” as they change their minds in the voting booth to defect to a major party in following with their doubt and fear.

Fear represents an overwhelming obstacle in a number of ways, but the greatest is the worry that, “If I vote for a third party candidate, I’ll be throwing my [Democrat/Republican] vote away, and the election can tip to the [Republican/Democrat] instead because of me.”  The so-called Nader Effect, based on the hypothesis that, if most of Ralph Nader’s votes had instead gone to Al Gore in 2000, then Al Gore would have won.  This is a real phenomenon, and we should not dismiss it.  It is a natural consequence of “first past the post” voting systems, and I maintain that we should eventually strive to replace FPTP with instant runoff or proportional representation.  (The Constitution does mandate FPTP, but only for the President and Vice President, and even those have a complex system of exceptions; conversely, other systems are often employed in America for local elections.)

Fear not- There’s Hope!  Still your Doubts- Have Faith!  Indeed, recent political elections have shown that Hope and Faith can overcome fear and doubt.  Hope that the future can be better.  Faith that with our efforts, it will.  It will only work if we believe it works: if a voter is confident that their third party vote will make a difference, not only will they follow through with the vote, but they will feel confident and involved because of it.  And when that candidate wins, and does a great job as a Representative, those voters will be more motivated to volunteer and help get the message out.

The key to all this is understanding.  Faith and Hope will only come about through knowledge and understanding of the issues and concepts.  The central role of this campaign is to educate people about the possibilities and values we stand for.  We need to disseminate these ideas, not just to our potential voters in our targeted districts, but to everyone.  I’m only expecting about 2% of the country at large to be eligible to vote for our candidates in 2010, but everyone you meet is a potential volunteer.  There is so much opportunity for involvement.  I’m really excited about the start we are getting, and even though we’re just a few people so far, that means a lot.  I can’t overemphasize that what we are planning to do has never been done before, and will be done against overwhelming odds and powerful opposition.  So every person who gets involved will play a crucial role.

Just a quick reminder about urgent jobs that still need people:

• Researchers to identify parties, party contacts, and candidates
• Researchers to compile data about parties, assigning issue categories and “rating” positions
• Writers to expound upon these ideas and share them outside of this site
• Representatives to make contact with parties and candidates
• An attorney to ensure our compliance with election and lobbying laws, to help file any necessary registrations, and to defend against legal attacks.
• An organizational professional to help determine the organizations structure and legal status.

Many more tasks will be needed as we move forward, and hopefully things will get extremely busy.  If you think you may want to get involved down the line, even if not yet, please don’t hesitate to contact me anyway, even if just to help me gauge the level of interest out there.

(By the way, there is no money at this point, and until our economic and legal status is established, there can be none except that of my solitary and meager personal income.  Ergo, the last two bullets are rather crucial.)

I’m watching CNN right now, and there’s a discussion going on about why the major parties are failing to attract voters who are within their policy/position umbrellas.  For instance, why aren’t social conservatives getting out to vote for Republicans?  Why aren’t liberals getting out to vote for Democrats?

The answer is so simple and obvious as to be painful.

Voters aren’t on board with the major parties because the major parties don’t represent most voters.  After all, only around 2/3 of registered voters felt close enough to a major party to register with it, and many of those did so on account of only a few issues out of many.  It got me thinking about the nature of the process, and how strange it is that for something as important as your representative in Congress, you usually get two choices.

Two choices?

We paint ideologies along spectra.  It’s rare for someone to be entirely on one pole, and most people gravitate toward the center.  Not only that, but we don’t all simply fall into two categories.  Again, why are social conservatives expected to be fiscal conservatives and support perpetual warfare?  Why are civil rights activists expected to be socialists?  For that matter, why am I forced to choose which of my moral values are to be represented by my political representatives?  I’m not trying to imply that we should each be represented by someone who is just like us in every way, but I think that more than two choices are in order.

Choosing between two extremes, with no option in the middle, and no “line item” control, is not democracy.

It’s not even a true republic.  It’s something less than that; it’s the Cliff’s notes, True/False high school exam version.  We are smarter than that, even the average voter.  We can do better, even if just by adding more choices.

Today I talked to a lot of voters.  Something that I’m learning as I interact with a wider and wider slice of the electorate is that most people want democracy.  Most people want different views, including moderate views, to be represented in government.  And if you ask them about it, most people like the idea of limiting the power of parties- although the issue is strangely distant from the forefront.

Looking at the state of our government today, the state of disconnect that many voters still have even after an election with unprecedented involvement, and the new technologies that enable us to communicate in new ways, there has never been a better time for this movement to happen.

We can definitely do it.  We can definitely change the face of American politics.

All it takes is the effort and confidence to do it.

As you start to talk to people about canging government, keep the numbers in mind.  Most people don’t realize just how powerful their influence can be.  Most people are surprised to learn that Congressmen can be elected by as few as 80,000 voters.  They’re more surprised that a group that would fit in a single large stadium (less than 200,000) can achieve congressional representation.  One woman remarked to me upon learning that, “Maybe I should run!”  And maybe she should.

I’m not suggesting we underestimate.  200,000, the number we need to guaranty victory, is still a huge number.  Because for every vote we achieve, we’ll need to make at least 5 voter contacts- that means over a million voter contacts, per race.  But each volunteer can achieve several voters, so we need to look at the steps we’ll have to take.  We’re at step one right now, which is just identifying the parties and helping to get them on board.  (Actually, I am at step zero- designing the movement and convincing my readers to help.).

This is the beginning of a long and exciting race.