adding to your routine
as the election nears, that civic engagement thing again
Happy Monday to all! While we are in the middle of August, Saturday night’s rain drove out the humidity so Annapolis yesterday and today has been delightfully comfortable. It was also another splendid sunrise.
Today’s column results from my determination to expand our civil, measured national (and global) conversations about the issues we confront on this beautiful blue dot in the solar system. My message is straightforward, responding to a question I frequently receive.
What can I do as Joel or Juanita on the street?
It’s actually quite simple: hold those asking for your vote to a higher standard in telling you what each candidate intends to deliver and how. Don’t merely vote because you like the color of someone’s eyes or heard that the candidate loves Australian sheep dogs.
We must become better consumers of campaign material while pushing the candidates to provide some fidelity to their visions.
Perhaps we have always short changed policy in favor of personality in democracies but think about what you want this country to look like when the candidate’s term is over. In strategy, we call that asking about the endstate. What do you want the end to look like?
Sure, some policies require more than two, four or even six years but have an idea where you want us to go rather than ignoring that part. Know how and why you want the country, your kids’s or grandchildren’s lives, or business opportunities to evolve through deliberate, concerted action rather than unintended consequences.
We have given candidates an pass, I would argue, for far too long on what each intends to do. Make them tell us and do it beginning today. They will listen when they have to.
FPOTUS Trump talks for hours about grievance. In Milwaukee last month, his political coronation event sort of alluded to grandiose policy aspirations (sometimes contradictory, depending who was talking) but that is not the same as concrete steps he intends to implement goals. He says he can give tax breaks to a number of constituents yet the debt, already unwieldy, will skyrocket: is that the outcome you desire? Hold him to explaining how he will reach those ends, mindful of political checks and balances preventing many policy actions. How does he intend to work with the opposition? He didn’t even work with his “allies” when Republicans held all the major bodies between 2017 and 2019 so how would he do it if he had all of the legislative bodies or a split Congress? Ask some why questions. How would Republicans address that challenge with an emphasis on asking for some detail, by reading literature or asking person.
Veep Harris has had her three weeks to unveil her campaign so how would she govern? What specific steps is she advocating for a four year term? What is she describing as her actions to achieve those specifics? How practical do they sound to you? What ramifications of her proposals do you agree with or find inconsistent with your preferences? Why? Is she in sync with those proposing to govern along with her, either as Dems or Republicans? What would she do about the debt in some concrete terms? Does she envision a world with different foreign policy trends? If so, why and how? Think about those topics you believe need addressing, prioritize them, then seek some understanding of her vision on these questions.
We have spent too many years since Vietnam and the Watergate debacles opposing candidates rather than talking about governing which is why we pay them to go into whatever office we elect them. Yet, how often do we think about policy? Instead, we too often kvetch about what isn’t working as if they hadn’t given us malarky from the campaign. If it sounds too good to be true, why isn’t it? What is the secret sauce the candidate—of any and all parties—is planning to use? Has she or he governed before? If so, where? How did it go and why?
How about you becoming integral to the political process by supporting candidates advocating and working towards policies we desire?
What is the vision each of us has and have we communicated that to others?
Civic engagement provides us a lot more voice than we too often assume. Sure, money is vital in politics but “big money”, usually a throw away term, often fails to sway you and me the voter towards the side with the most money.
I again urge you to become involved in whatever capacity you can as a citizen at any level in our policy process, by November and beyond. Every day we abdicate registering our preferences is a day closer to losing the opportunity for influencing the system.
Democracy is a muscle we need exercise frequently. Start today so it becomes as much our routine as brushing or teeth or eating lunch. It doesn’t have to be all consuming but civic engagement and democratic participation need be routine in our lives.
Thank you for your time. I welcome your rebuttals, suggestions, amplifications, or concerns because Actions create Consequences.
Thank you for being a daily reader, a subscriber, or merely someone sent in this direction by a friend. I see no hierarchy to civic engagement but crave hearing from others while seeing them become involved in our precious system.
Be well and be safe. FIN