How can we save the Second Republic (built on the Constitution)? Or if it’s too late for that, how can we build a Third Republic on our experiences — perhaps a better one? Here are links to 140 posts giving specific help to those interested in joining this movement.
Contents
Click on the link to go to that section of the page.
- The urgent need to reform American politics.
- How to reform American politics.
- Other pages with posts about American politics.
- Large issues in the reform of America.
- Making Americans less gullible, so we see our world more clearly.
- Unifying progressives & populists to win again.
- Building an organization.
- Operational issues.
- About protests.
- About inspiration, the first step to reforming America.
- Other posts about reforming America.
- Using art as a tool to revitalize America.
- Using anger as a tool to revitalize America.
- Reforming the Constitution: futile or dangerous?
- Warnings.
- About a new regime for America.
- Comments from readers.
(1) About the collapse of the Republic
- Important: A 4th of July reminder that America is ours to keep – or to lose!
- For America to prosper it must first burn.
- Origins of what may become the 3rd American Republic (a plutocracy).
- Can we love the Constitution without knowing what it says?
- Our institutions are hollow because we don’t love them.
- Let’s recall the lost meaning of Independence Day.
- America isn’t falling like the Roman Empire. It’s worse.
- The Republic’s foes reveal themselves. They are many & strong.
- We have forgotten who we are. Let’s remember, and win.
- How our presidents became elected Kings.
(2) How to reform American politics.
For every article proposing ways to make radical changes in America’s political system, there are a thousand articles describing our problems. It’s become entertainment, like baseball. Cheer our team! Thrill at tales of the bad guys’ dastardly deeds! More fun to read than discussing the years of difficult work needed to reform America, or the technical details of political tactics.
The FM website takes a different approach, asking only that you get involved in the movement to reform America’s politics. Rather than ask you to share our values and goals, we ask you to work for yours. These posts will help you to do so.
I have faith that more citizen involvement will make a better and stronger America. I don’t ask you to share that faith. I ask you only to have faith in yourself, and to see yourself as crew of America — not its passengers. Here are two summaries of my recommendations:
- How you can start the campaign to reform America.
- New political leaders offer hope & change. They show us what we need for victory.
- What if Samuel Adams tried to start the Revolution by blogging? — Describing our situation; pointing to a way forward.
- Enough analysis! America is broken. Here are some ways to fix it.
- Can we organize the political reform of America? Our past shows how.
- The 1% are changing America. It’s our move.
- Resolve to begin the reform of America in 2017!
- Summary: The danger facing America, the names of the guilty, and our best hope for reform.
- Let’s use the New Year to start the reform of America.
- Let’s make 2019 great by seeking leaders instead of heroes.
- The bizarre but easy next step to fixing America.
(3) Reference pages linking other posts about American politics
- Posts about politics in America.
- How can we stop the quiet coup now in progress?
- Posts about seeing America clearly, in the mirror.
(4) Large issues in the reform of America
- Five steps to fixing America — Things you can do as an individual.
- The project to reform America: a matter for science or a matter of will?
- Realism about the prospects for reform in America.
- Politics in modern America: A users’ guide for journalists and reformers.
- A picture of America, showing a path to political reform.
- Important: Videos that show the key truth: only together are we strong.
- Wolfgang Streeck explains how to reform capitalism for a better 21st century.
- Robert Reich’s program to save the Left after a decade of defeats.
- Our Right & Left have lost their way. Saul Alinsky points to a better politics.
- Andrew Bacevich looks at America’s political rot and describes solutions.
- Inspiration. The missing element that can reform America.
- The bizarre but easy next step to fixing America – a new perspective on our situation.
- See our strange politics. It’s the first step to change.
(5) Making Americans less gullible
We must see our world more clearly.
- Important: Marx was right. Social class explains American politics.
- Describing the problem: Politics in modern America: A users’ guide for journalists and reformers.
- We cannot agree on simple facts and so cannot reform America.
- Our minds are addled, the result of skillful and expensive propaganda.
- Important advice: Learning skepticism, an essential skill for citizenship in 21st century America. About “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”.
- A nation lit only by propaganda.
- The secret, simple tool that persuades Americans. That molds our opinions.
- Remembering is the first step to learning. Living in the now is ignorance.
- The missing but essential key to building a better America – Clear sight about our condition.
- Swear allegiance to the truth as a step to reforming America.
- We live in an age of ignorance, but can decide to fix this – today.
- American politics is a fun parade of lies, for which we pay dearly.
- Ways to deal with those guilty of causing the fake news epidemic.
- The secret source of fake news. Its discovery will change America.
- A new year’s gift: two tools to help discover truth in the news.
- We can’t reform America without a new news media.
(6) Unifying progressives & populists to win again
(7) Building an organization
- A third try: The First Step to reforming America — Organizing.
- The sure route to reforming America — Organizing.
- We’re at the very early days of organizing. Have realistic expectations.
- Some basics about political organizing in the 21st century. — Building a big organization.
- How to recruit people to the cause of reforming America.
- How can we arouse a passion to reform America in the hearts of our neighbors?
- Is grassroots organizing a snare or magic bullet for the reform of America?
- What if the Founders’ generation read the news as we do?
- Samuel Adams started the Revolution because he didn’t have Twitter.
(8) Operational issues in the project to reform America
- The bad news about reforming America: time is our enemy.
- Why the 1% is winning, and we are not.
- We are alone in the defense of the Republic.
- Who can we trust to defend our liberty? Will our culture’s rot spread to the military?
(9) About protests
- How to stage effective protests in the 21st century.
- Occupy Wall Street, another futile peasants’ protest.
- Lessons from the failure of Occupy Wall Street, its lasting legacy.
- Occupy & Tea Party are alike, both saving America through cosplay.
- How do protests like the TP and OWS differ from effective political action?
- The Million Vet March, a typical peasants’ protest. Does it portend more serious protests in our future?
- The protesters at Ferguson might have won, but choose to lose.
- Will the Ferguson protest force development of African-American leaders?
- Why America has militarized its police and crushes protests.
- The protests in NYC repeat those in Ferguson, and probably will end the same – as wins for the 1%.
- Why don’t political protests work? What are the larger lessons from our repeated failures?
- Thoreau reminds us about one of the few tools we have to control the government — About civil disobedience.
- About this new era of protests by the Left.
- Fear the rise of political violence in America. We can still stop it.
- Stories of the Left & Right about the Berkeley riot reveal much about us.
- The Berkeley riot was a scene from Lord of the Flies, not a political event.
- Hidden and painful truths about the NFL protests.
- Martin Luther King Jr. warns us about political violence.
(10) About inspiration, the first step to reforming America
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- Can we reignite the spirit of America?
- Should we despair, giving up on America?
- We want heroes, not leaders. When that changes it will become possible to reform America.
- Lessons from the New Eden galaxy about reforming America.
- Are our film heroes leading us to the future, or signaling despair?
- Is this the dawn of a new age? Two journalists see the first step to reforming America.
- Pirate Bay points the way to a new political reform movement.
- We watch “The Winter Soldier”, then see similar actions in our news. Can it inspire us to act?
- Why don’t our dreams of a better world inspire us to act?
- Enough analysis! America is broken. Here are some ways to fix it.
- Can we organize the political reform of America? Our past shows how.
- We like superheroes because we’re weak. Let’s use other myths to become strong.
- Where we can find the inspiration to fix America?
- Why the Right is losing. A classic film shows them how to win.
(11) Other posts about reforming America
- Understand our problem before you prescribe a cure for America. We’ve gone mad.
- In “Network”, Howard Beale asks us to get mad and do something. He’s still waiting.
- The missing but essential key to building a better America — Clear sight about our condition.
- Attention Americans: the Revolution has begun. You must choose a side.
- America slides to the right, faster. Why? What you can do about it!
- Enough analysis! America is broken. Here are some ways to fix it.
- Can we organize the political reform of America? Our past shows how.
- Becoming better informed won’t help. Here’s a small easy step towards political change.
- How “The Dictator’s Handbook” can help us reform America.
- A simple solution to the political violence afflicting America.
- How “The Dictator’s Handbook” can help us reform America.
(12) Using art as a tool to revitalize America
- A great artist died today. We can gain inspiration from his words. — About the Man in the Mirror.
- Watch “High Noon” to see why we don’t reform America’s politics.
- The New America needs a new national anthem! Here’s my nomination.
- Music to accompany a Revolution.
- Listen to hear the state of America (and its cure) explained in song.
- The third step to reforming America, with music.
- Writing a good slogan is a key to reforming America — “Set fire to the rain”.
- Forgotten what political reform looks like? See this reminder by Taylor Swift.
- Katy Perry shows us America. We should listen to her.
(13) Using anger as a tool to revitalize America
- Now is the time for America to get angry.
- Re-envisioning the FM website, becoming soldiers in the war for American’s future.
- Vital reading for America: two stories that might help arouse us to action.
- The Idiocies of “Oversight” and “Accountability”.
- In “Network”, Howard Beale asks us to get mad and do something. He’s still waiting.
- A simple thing you can do to start the reform of America: get angry.
- How can we arouse a passion to reform America in the hearts of our neighbors?
- Should we risk using anger to arouse America?
- Amnesia and anger: one is the problem, the other the cure.
- The best response to Campaign 2016: anger.
(14) Reforming the Constitution: futile or dangerous?
- Is it time to take the drastic step of calling a Constitutional Convention?
- Could a new Constitutional Convention help reform America? Is it worth the risk?
- Can Constitutional amendments save the Republic?
- After 230 years, the Constitution needs fixing.
(15) Warnings.
- The guilty ones responsible for the loss of our liberties.
- Can we love the Constitution without knowing what it says?
- Important: A 4th of July reminder that America is ours to keep – or to lose!
- The danger facing America, the names of the guilty, and our best hope for reform.
- Let’s act now so that America doesn’t end from this pitiful, even disgraceful, cause.
- The secret reason for America’s white-hot political rhetoric.
(16) About a new regime for America
- What comes after the Constitution? Can we see the outline of a “Mark 3” version of the USA?
- The Coming of a New American Republic – by James V. DeLong.
- A third American regime will arise from the ashes of the present one.
- Lewis Lapham explains why America needs a Third Republic.
- We’ve worked through all 5 stages of grief for the Republic. Now, on to The New America!
- A new, dark picture of America’s future.
- After Independence Day, look to America after the Republic.
- This is why we’re weak. Here’s how we can become strong.
- America has grown old. Eventually something new will rise from its pyre.
(17) Comments from readers: many voices urging surrender
- About taking responsibility, the first step — Everything starts with this.
- About our choices are elections, revolt, or passivity.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the presidency, to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country.
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps of pre-determined outcomes. There would no longer be a handful of ‘battleground’ states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just ‘spectators’ and ignored after the conventions.
The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of Electoral College votes—that is, enough to elect a President (270 of 538). The candidate receiving the most popular votes from all 50 states (and DC) would get all the 270+ electoral votes of the enacting states.
The bill has passed 33 state legislative chambers in 22 rural, small, medium, large, red, blue, and purple states with 250 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions with 165 electoral votes – 61% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
NationalPopularVote.com
se,
Why not just hope for magic beans? We don’t have any organization capable of passing such a bill. The missing element is not nifty ideas about cures, but organizing people for the long trek to political reform. Perhaps at some point down the road such massive changes might be necessary.
On the other hand, I wonder if a nation capable of passing such a bill might not need it. That’s not to say it’s not a good idea, or that it wouldn’t help. But it’s part of winning, not a path to it. It lies in the post-victory phase — the pursuit phase. The phase we’re in now, as the 1% consolidates its power following decades of victories.
Since its introduction in 2006, The National Popular Vote bill has been endorsed by organizations such as the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, FairVote, Sierra Club, NAACP, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, ACLU, the National Latino Congreso, Asian American Action Fund, DEMOS, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, and the Brennan Center for Justice.
National Popular Vote Inc. is a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation whose specific purpose is to study, analyze and educate the public regarding its proposal to implement a nationwide popular election of the President of the United States.
More than 2,110 state legislators (in 50 states) have sponsored and/or cast recorded votes in favor of the National Popular Vote bill.
The bill has passed 33 state legislative chambers in 22 rural, small, medium, large, Democratic, Republican and purple states with 250 electoral votes, including one house in Arkansas (6), Maine (4), Michigan (16), Nevada (6), New Mexico (5), North Carolina (15), and Oklahoma (7), and both houses in Colorado (9).
The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions with 165 electoral votes – 61% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
SE,
You are obviously not going to read the post, and are ignoring my comments — and so have no idea what I’m saying. Hence there is no point to continuing this conversation.
Hi. FYI, I just got here upon clicking a link on TechDirt. I’ve no idea what I’m about to see.
However, based on what I see so far, shouldn’t your first act be to secede from the union? Take your ball and go home. Starve the beast. Save the world by refusing to play.
Keeling,
Is this spam? The FM website gets a thousand per day in the trap (after Akismet blocks the most obvious spam), and its sometimes difficult to tell what’s real.
If not, can you explain? I don’t understand what you’re attempting to say.
Er. You think what I wrote is spam/UCE?
How’s about I be charitable and assume I’m replying to a bot that just wants to try to prove I’m not a spambot before it posts my comment. There are better (and devoid of insult) ways of confirming unknown prospective posts. We await Webmind’s arrival to save us from the spam scourge (or you could learn to understand the net – it’s really all just bits).
So, care to answer the question: “shouldn’t your first act be to secede from the union?”
Have fun! It’s a moral imperative.
Tqkwp,
(1) Don’t take everything so personally. Your comment was cryptic, with no obvious relevance to this post, in the general form of spam (that’s not a criticism, spam is designed to look appropriate without having any visible relationship to the post).
(2) “shouldn’t your first act be to secede from the union?”
That doesn’t make sense on several levels. First a trivial point: “secede” is to withdraw formally from membership in a political union. Texas can secede. People can surrender their citizenship, switching to another nation. Second, why is this a relevant question to this post? Why should someone’s “first act” be to switch nationalities?
(3) “It’s a moral imperative”
Why? This is too cryptic. You need to give readers a bit more information so they can understand your message.
“Don’t take everything so personally.”
I’ve always hated that expression. I’ve never had any idea how to do that.
Me: “shouldn’t your first act be to secede from the union?”
FM: “Why should someone’s “first act” be to switch nationalities?”
Switch, no. Resign from, yes. Refuse to be party to a tyrant’s regime, yes. Refuse to support a tyrant’s regime, yes.
Me: “It’s a moral imperative”
FM: Why? This is too cryptic.
“Have fun! It’s a moral imperative.” Don’t edit my words. Yes, as a living, breathing, only going to live once human being, to have fun is a moral imperative. Suck it up. :-)
tqkwp,
You’re still not making any sense. I’ll try once more.
“Switch, no. Resign from, yes.”
So you surrender your US citizenship and become stateless? Aside from the practical difficulties (passport?), you become a kind of parasite — benefiting from nations run by their people, while you refuse the responsibilities of citizenship. Have you done that? I suspect not.
‘Refuse to be party to a tyrant’s regime”
The US is a “tyrant’s regime”? Dramatize much? That’s silly.
“Don’t edit my words.”
I reply to direct quotes to avoid confusion. Quoting is not editing.
‘to have fun is a moral imperative. Suck it up. :-)”
Sounds like you’re a troll: “a person who starts arguments by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages.”
Back to the original: confederation.
Mary,
“Back to the original: confederation.”
First, the Articles of Confederation did not work well, which is why the Founders wrote the Constitution.
Second, our problem is that we have become too apathetic – and will not work the political machinery the Founders bequeathed us. That so many people believe that a new law or new Constitution will change that is a demonstration of that problem.
The Founders said that only a love of liberty and self-government would make the Republic work. We had that for two centuries, but appear to have lost it. How to rekindle that spirit is the task of our time.