Of course, the US election is on most people's minds. When I see dancing in the streets, I can only remind myself of the dancing in 2008 with that "hope and change" slogan.Himmm! History suggests the USA is going to have a very interesting presidential election in 2024.
Not a lot of TDG activity in October. No book sales. No viral visits to the website.
No copies of "Diary of a Future Politician" sent out. My next round of sendouts will include "The Jefferson Insttutte" and "Center for Deliberative Democracy." I have a few other places in mind, but I could replace them with better places. So if you have better ideas, let me know.
It costs about $15 to print and send--and any place is still a long shot. Influential people are too busy to read all the books that come their way.
I have had some interesting TDG discussions with a few people on Medium (www.medium.com). They seem to like my ideas, but cannot take the step of recommending the TDG to their online and real-life social circles.
I have just posted my take on the 2020 presidential election on Medium:
https://medium.com/politically-speaking/dirge-of-political-fortune-telling-2d1e4350a13b
About six years back, I ran into a fellow I had TDG discussions with a fellow on a G+ group: Ben Paine. I eventually bought his book--and he has some interesting ideas on improving democracy. One of Ben's main tenets is a civics test in order to earn the right to vote. He has prepared a 100-question test to this effect. I saw it as simple to pass (I got about 90% without any study) and non-partisan. For sure, passing this test should get a few people thinking about how and why government is structured the way it is--which in turn should lead to better voters. .
Ben's book can be found here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24577100-to-my-countrymen
He does have a website with lots of interesting articles, but I can't find that URL for the moment.
Ben's contact is causing to me to think of a link page on the TDG website. For sure, I have encountered a few thinkers of reshaping democracy. Maybe they need to be gathered togother on one webpage.
I finally got my blog together on my new website. I have put up articles 2015 and prior. Now I just need to post articles i used on various internet forums in the past few years.
Family life is quite busy. My wife went back to work, so I am spending more time with the five-year old. I have not much progress with "Confessions of a Future Politician." But when I get time to write, lots gets done. Right now, I have dealt with my editor's comments on the first draft. Now I need to revise the second draft somewhat. Maybe 10 hours is all that is needed to put this document back to my editor.
Next report in December.
Dave
