Play both sides at the same time
Many political writers are trying to earn internet shekels on two general themes:
First, some of them write about the foolishness of the MAGA movement and its leader. If I speculate on their motivations, they believe their writings will influence a few members of the movement to forsake their leader. Or maybe encourage other people outside that movement to fight harder.
We know how well that strategy has worked in the past eight years, don’t we?
Second, some of these writers know what the Democratic Party did wrong to lose the election. These writers believe the higher ups in the party will eventually read their articles and realize the errors of their ways. This party will change to be a party for the people
We know how well that strategy worked in the past eight years, don’t we?
Since we didn’t seem to get what we wanted, what should we do next?
For many of us, the answer is to johnwayne our preferred approaches to improve democracy. When the going gets tough, just push harder. That makes so much sense, right?
Maybe I should remind you of Albert Einstein’s famous quote:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
If this quote has relevance in “improving democracy,” then maybe putting in this extra effort just might not be what we should be doing.
Another approach
Maybe we could build a new democracy. You know, a democracy for the people. I have invented that democracy. Its biggest feature is that it has no political parties. We will learn how to make societal decisions without political parties.
But for most of you, building a new democracy sounds like a complete waste of time. The current milieu of politicians and vested interests would never allow us to build this democracy.
Which is a good reason why we should build it.
But here’s the kicker. Building this new democracy would only take you 10 hours a month. You and three neighbors get together to write your own local TDG constitution, writing 50 or so clauses. Then have some email discussion about the clauses that you decided on or are still striving for some resolution. Then meet two weeks later to have some face-to-face discussion.
I estimate about 10 hours a month, for six months. This constitution will be the starting line for Tiered Democratic Governance.
You hard-working political writers
I suspect many of you political writers on Medium are giving 20 hours a month to their anti-R or fix-the-D-party rants. You could dedicate 10 of those hours to building the TDG. Then you could spend the other 10 hours doing what you did before.
So you will be playing both sides of the fence: the usual ways we plebes are allowed to participate in current democracy AND building a new democracy.
If the usual ways eventually find the result we are looking for, you can still take credit for your involvement.
If the TDG eventually replaces western democracy, you can also still take credit.
The business world calls this approach “hedging your bets.” Or maybe better said, “Planning for two possible outcomes.”
Conclusion
You could hedge our bets with improving democracy. The TDG only takes 10 hours a month. You can give the rest of your free time to work the approach you believe will still work. If it doesn’t work, then you have a Plan B.
Published on Medium 2025
