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America's defining political struggle of the 21st century will not be between liberalism and conservatism.

The battle will be between civically enlightened liberals, moderates and conservatives who want America to be a civic democracy -- and liberals, moderates and conservatives who have a vested interest in our nation remaining a crony democracy.

It will be the former who prevail.

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Last update: May 22, 2013

A Civic Primer on the Holy Grail
of
Representative Democracy
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Your current level of civic enlightenment:

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The language of civic democracy

crony democracy: a primitive form of democracy characterized by a national legislature dominated and controlled by PAPs (politically ambitious politicians) and PHPs (power hungry politicians) who rely heavily on three forms of cronyism -- political cronyism, special interest cronyism and corporate cronyism -- to maintain their grip on power and insure their repeated re-election.

crony: 1. self-serving; easily corruptible; untrustworthy. 2. motivated by political ambition or powerlust; 3. of or relating to crony democracy.

cronyized: the catch-all term used to describe legislation, policies, etc. that are inefficient, ineffective, corrupt, etc. because of acts of cronyism by PAPs/PAPs and PHPs/PHPs during the formulation of said legislation, policies, etc. (e.g., cronyized tax code, cronyized financial system, cronyized public education system,...).

civic democracy: an enlightened form of democracy characterized by a national legislature controlled by CMRs (civic-minded representatives) -- i.e., representatives who have no political aspirations and only serve in the legislature a few years as a "one-time [civic] duty."

optimized: the catch-all term used to describe legislation, policies, etc. that will achieve (or operate at) the maximum possible efficiency and effectiveness, and minimum possible corruption -- because of the complete absence of cronyism and influence peddling by CMRs/CMRs during the formulation of said legislation, etc. (e.g., optimized tax code, optimized financial system, optimized public education system,...).

optimized Democratic solutions, policies, reforms, legislation optimized Republican solutions, policies, reforms, legislation

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combative democracy: a primitive democracy in which the defining trait of national politics is the struggle for power (largely for power's sake) by PAPs and PHPs who use "civically unenlightened" voters as the means to that end.

cooperative democracy: an enlightened democracy in which the defining trait of national politics is the pursuit of shared ANI objectives by "civically enlightened" voters who use CMRs as a means to that end.

civic zeitgeist: the view held by society that its most capable, most experienced and accomplished but least politically ambitious citizens, if "drafted" by their community, have a civic duty to run and, if elected, serve a few years in the national legislature.

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By definition, America is a crony/combative democracy since both parties in Congress are dominated and controlled by "career" PAPs and PHPs who have demonstrated time and again a willingness to say and do just about anything to stay in office -- no matter the economic, financial, fiscal or societal consequences to their nation.

Ideally, America would be a civic/cooperative democracy, meaning the parties in Congress would be controlled by representative democracy's version of philosopher kings and queens: CMRs.
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The national election process would be dominated largely by civic-minded candidates (CMCs) who, because of society's civic zeitgeist, either: 1) felt morally compelled to run for Congress, or 2) were "drafted" by their communities and agreed to run -- and, if elected, served "a certain number of years as a one-time duty."

The ideal CMC: an intelligent, well educated, highly capable and accomplished individual who:

1. isn't a politician and doesn't want to be a politician,
2. has achieved the American Dream,
3. believes in the credo: to whom much has been given, much is expected.

America's electorate has a severely limited, even primitive, understanding of what their votes are capable of accomplishing -- for one reason: our language lacks the political terms and concepts whose sole function is to enable voters to "see," procedurally, how they can use the power of the ballot box to achieve their shared apolitical, non-ideological (ANI) objectives. This paucity of terms explains why voters believe the primary purpose of national elections is for "the people" to choose between two different political-ideological approaches to "solving" America's problems -- based on which approach the voters think will have the best chance of "curing" our nation's many economic, fiscal and financial ills:   Democratic: solutions, policies, reforms, legislation OR Republican: solutions, policies, reforms, legislation . The net effect of "seeing" the national election process through our current lens: for the duration of the entire election cycle, most liberal, moderate and conservative voters divide themselves (intellectually, attitudinally and emotionally) into two opposing "political" camps of roughly equal size: democrat vs. republican, with each side treating the other side's policies, legislation, etc. as the disease, and their own the cure. result: America operates as a crony/combative democracy FYI: what each side actually sees, but lacks the language which makes it glaringly obvious, are the cronyized solutions, legislation, etc. fashioned by the other side's PAPs and PHPs. .. . The "language" of civic democracy will vastly expand every voter's understanding of the myriad -- and very specific -- ANI objectives that national elections can be used to achieve.   cronyized: Dem./Rep. solutions, policies, reforms, legislation OR optimized: Dem./Rep. solutions, policies, reforms, legislation cronyized tax code OR optimized tax code cronyized free market system OR optimized free market system cronyized public education system OR optimized public education system     cronyized fed. gov. OR optimized fed. gov. PAPs/PHPs PAPs/PHPs OR CMRs/CMRs CRONY DEMOCRACY OR CIVIC DEMOCRACY . The net effect of seeing the democratic process through the lens of cooperative democracy: for the duration of the primary process, the broad mainstream of liberal, moderate and conservative voters DO NOT separate into two camps -- they unite (intellectually, attitudinally and emotionally) against PAPs/PHPs and PAPs/PHPs, and for CMCs/CMCs (civic-minded candidates). result: America becomes a civic/cooperative democracy

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Once in office, the most important domestic/economic priority for both parties' CMRs would NOT be ideological or political -- it would be technical: turning our society's common ANI objectives into reality.

• We don't pay auto mechanics to trash our vehicles and make them undrivable -- we pay them to make our cars and trucks operate at their maximum efficiency and power.
• We don't pay computer experts to make our computers more vulnerable to viruses, run more slowly and crash more often -- we pay them to do the exact opposite.
• We don't pay doctors to make us sicker, financial advisors to make us poorer, fitness trainers to make us weaker,...

Yet, when we elect PAPs and PHPs to "represent" us in Congress, we are hiring people who are the world's foremost experts at creating problems where none existed, making our existing problems worse, destroying the things we value most in the process -- then successfully convincing 50% + 1 of the voters that the "other" party did it.

The language of civic democracy will provide the means of ending that self-destructive practice because it will provide our society with something we have never had: a process for both attracting and electing representatives to Congress who are the world's foremost experts at passing ANI-based reforms, legislation, etc..
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Expanded Abstract
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.   "All truth passes through three stages:   First, it is ridiculed;   Second, it is violently opposed;   and Third, it is accepted as self-evident."   Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860 (attrib) .

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democracy: a form of government in which all power rests in the hands of the people.

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Not just a compelling case, but an overwhelmingly compelling case can be made that:

The good news for voters: accomplishing just one civic objective -- filling Congress with representatives who don't have a politically ambitious or power hungry bone in their body -- will make the achievement of nearly every ANI objective not just possible, but inevitable.

While that civic goal seems far-fetched, the mother-of-all fantasies -- something only a naive or simple-minded person would consider a "rational" course of action for America's voters -- naive or not, it should be placed at the top of our voters' to-do list (via a national civic education campaign) -- and for a reason even someone who isn't naive or simple-minded should be able to grasp:

It is precisely because democratic, independent and republican voters have never used their collective votes strategically that both the U.S. House and Senate are filled with professional "servants" of the people who spend almost all of their time in Congress trying to figure out how to appease, reward, bribe or hoodwink:

• the most ideologically extreme elements in their party
• their party's clique of special interest groups and political cronies
• a handful of relatively small but politically powerful constituency groups

...in order to achieve their common objective: a long career in Congress.

In theory, a reasonably rational person should reach the same conclusion that both logic and common sense do: the single-minded focus of our voters should be filling Congress with civic-minded Democratic and Republican representatives whose first and greatest priority is working together to achieve the above ANI objectives.

Yet that's not what our voters are doing -- not even remotely -- because as already pointed out, they don't know how to use their collective power strategically. And, unfortunately, the bad news for them is that few if any of the liberal, moderate and conservative analysts and commentators in the Washington establishment** (i.e., the folks largely responsible for informing/shaping society's political views, attitudes and opinions) are going to be even remotely interested in "teaching" our voters how.

** national media, think tanks, talk radio, cable news, etc.

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In fact, just the opposite. Concepts like ANI objectives, cooperative democracy, CMR, etc. undermine the liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican narrative our Rush Limbaughs on the right and Rachael Maddows on the left have mastered (and earn a fabulous living talking about). So it is in their personal interest to reject any transformative or paradigm changing (read: establishment disrupting, status quo undermining) solution to the problem of America's "dysfunctional (and middle-class-destroying) Congress" as far-fetched; something only naive or simple-minded people would take seriously -- even though 90% or more of Americans, if they could wave a magic wand and transform America into a civic democracy, would do so.
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Such convoluted reasoning by America's best and brightest thinkers -- i.e., treating logic and common sense as far-fetched naivete* (instead of using it to dictate a free society's course of action) -- underscores the American people's political predicament. One so vexing that in order to fully grasp its ramifications it must be explained via an analogy:

Imagine that America's 140 million voters collectively possess a medical device with a single button on it. If just a small but critical mass of them push the button, the device will cure every major disease in America: cancer, heart disease, leukemia, etc., and solve every major health issue: obesity, alcoholism, drug addition, etc. -- quickly, effectively, and permanently.

Although this amazing device works perfectly, our voters aren't using it -- because they don't know it exists.

In a very real sense, that's the nature of the problem America's voters have: they collectively possess the single most powerful political "device" a free people in a free society can possibly possess -- it's called an optimized voting strategy -- and it's capable of literally transforming their nation's:

-	cronyized and dysfunctional federal government into an optimized federal government,
	...quickly, completely and, in many cases, permanently.

The only problem: they don't know this civic tool exists.

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The obvious solution is to introduce a lexicon of new political terms and concepts into our nation's political vernacular (the language of civic democracy) which will greatly expand the American people's understanding of democracy, particularly in terms of how voters can use an optimized voting strategy to achieve their common ANI objectives.

Once our society is as familiar with these new terms and concepts as they are terms like democrat, republican, liberal and conservative, for the first time in our nation's history the broad mainstream of America's voters will possess the political language which will allow them,

• not the ideological extremists on the left and right,
• not the national media's professional political junkies,
• not Washington's ruling elite,
• not Congress's political elites,

...to control the political argument.

When that happens, in relatively short order, political power in Congress will cease to be wielded by entrenched, unaccountable PAPs and PHPs -- and America will once again become what our founders had intended: a nation of the people, by the people, for the people.

aside: in this (naive) person's view, that occasion will be used by future historians to mark the beginning of the end of America's existence as a "cronyized" democracy, and the dawn of a new era --

...the era of civic democracy.

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The question is: why?

Why is the natural inclination, particularly of our most engaged (and presumably most informed) voters, to blame a political party or ideology for America's problems rather than the actual causative factors and causative motives:

More importantly, who should we be dragging over hot coals for the fact that our voters even think in such terms in the first place?

One group: our political theorists (going all the way back to Aristotle).

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Notwithstanding their many contributions, our early political thinkers, particularly America's founders, are to blame because, while they were well aware of:

1. the grave danger posed by the aforementioned germs, viruses and bacteria
2. how easily too many voters could be swayed by the vacuous rhetoric, demagoguery and charm of politically ambitious "politicians"

...they failed to invent the terms and concepts that would guarantee that a nation's voters were always acutely aware of -- and single-mindedly vigilant against -- those germs, viruses, etc., particularly political ambition and powerlust.

Why they didn't is a matter best explained by historians. But in the case of political ambition and powerlust, the odds are that while Aristotle, Thomas Jefferson, et al., clearly understood that in a democracy those civic character flaws are at the root of all government caused evil -- i.e., crippling debt, out-of-control spending, political corruption, crony capitalism, etc. -- it either never occurred to them, or they simply concluded that there was no realistic way a free society's voters could screen potential candidates for them.

If so, this would explain why particularly our founders:
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What does all of this mean in practical terms? Only that, had our early thinkers simply made an effort to instruct a democracy's voters on how to master what could be called the "mechanics" of self-governance, they would have been providing every free society's voters, particularly the most rational and pragmatic, with the means of keeping their legislatures permanently stocked with a steady supply of civic-minded representatives (CMRs) -- i.e., legislators who didn't have a politically ambitious or power hungry bone in their body (and therefore didn't think like politicians, connive like politicians, cronyize legislation like politicians, etc.).

Unfortunately, our brightest political minds didn't go down that road, with the result that, in the case of our founders, their focus was confined to constructing a precisely worded constitution and system of checks and balances (our three branches of government) in hopes that, buttressed by an "informed" electorate, it would be difficult for their soon to be created federal government to ever take on the characteristics and mannerisms of a non-democratic regime: unaccountable, self-serving, driven by powerlust, etc..

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aside: to be fair to Aristotle, Jefferson, et al., there are no doubt many good reasons why none of them ever came up with a 1-2 page "How to Practice Democracy Correctly" instruction guide for voters.

In hindsight, it's safe to say that if our Constitution's framers had pursued both approaches with equal intellectual vigor, our nation's citizens would not now be grappling with a Congress that was blatantly self-serving, corrupted by power, rampant with cronyism, paralyzed by gridlock, etc., etc., etc. (this list too is endless) -- because our nation's democratic, independent and republican voters wouldn't currently be keeping Congress filled to capacity with a steady supply of blatantly self-serving PAPs and PHPs.

You can also bet that if our founders could go back and create those terms and concepts -- and that civic zeitgeist -- they would (in a heartbeat).

Sadly, they can't. But there's nothing stopping today's political scientists and thinkers from creating them, or writing that instruction guide, or beginning their exploration of a vast new frontier in the field of political science: the study of civic democracy.

Nothing, that is, other than institutional ossification, intellectual timidity, hubris and/or an abysmal lack of vision.

There's also nothing stopping our nation's best and brightest from adopting a "better late than never" attitude, then supporting a national effort to turn America into a nation of civically informed and enlightened citizens.
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To be sure, at first blush, your natural impulse will be to treat civic democracy as a highly desirable but utopian concept, i.e., wishful thinking, unachievable, etc.. But, frankly, that's only because the idea of America's voters practicing democracy correctly is still new to you.

If so, it will probably help if you view this issue through the eyes of a historian before deciding if, minimally, the most rational and pragmatic members of our technologically advanced, social media savvy society can be convinced to stop practicing the unenlightened form of democracy:

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I pose those questions to you because, in deciding to either support a national education effort -- or not support it -- your most difficult challenge will be to not allow yourself to be so preoccupied with how "utopian" or outside-the-box the concept of civic democracy seems that you overlook the much larger and far more relevant reality:

just like you, 99% of the American people, if they could wave a magic wand and turn America into an enlightened democracy, would do so.

(And like our founders, they would do it in a heartbeat.)

 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it is the only things that ever has."
Margaret Mead

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In closing, I wrote this letter based on the assumption that readers, if they were civically informed/enlightened, would reach the same three conclusions I did: 1. Becoming an enlightened democracy is a highly desirable objective. 2. An overwhelming majority of America's voters will support our nation becoming an enlightened democracy. 3. A magic wand isn't needed to make it happen. The first step in the transformation -- turning America into a nation of civically informed/enlightened citizens (like you now are) -- can be easily accomplished the same way all of us became informed about other important national issues: women's breast cancer AIDS awareness drinking and driving texting and driving smoking cigarettes etc. ...via a national awareness and education campaign. The campaign will be provocative and highly controversial, but imminently doable (and, ultimately, successful). The only hard part -- especially for those of you who are part of the "establishment" -- will be making the decision to provide financial support for an education effort as momentous as this one will be. . In summation: Q: Why should America's best and brightest provide the start-up funding for a major national civic awareness campaign? A: America is a democracy, which means her voters have the power to choose which kind of democracy they want to be.   The kind that will continue to be profoundly less prosperous, civil, mature, informed, decent and just than it is capable of being, no matter which party controls the House, Senate or presidency. OR The kind that will be profoundly more prosperous, civil, mature, informed, decent, just -- and purposeful -- than it has ever been, no matter which party controls the House, Senate or presidency. But they don't know how to use their power to make that choice. That's why. If you want to see our society take a giant leap forward in the way a free people practice democracy, and would like to offer your thoughts or suggestions, or help set the process into motion (in any way large or small), you can contact me at montie@ThinkCIVIC.com. If you want to see a national awareness campaign started but simply wish to help fund its creation, you can do so here. 100% of the monies received will be used to fund the campaign's development, operating and advertising costs. est. ~5%: development/operating, ~95%: advertising note: at this point in the process your contribution is not tax deductible. You can also help by forwarding this letter to friends and colleagues, or anyone you believe might support -- intellectually, philosophically or morally -- the idea of our society practicing the enlightened form of democracy. Montie Rainey ThinkCIVIC.com . . What follows are: A few rudimentary thoughts and observations about civic democracy. They are not meant to be definitive, just thought provoking; enough, hopefully, to get your intellectual (and civic) juices flowing.  The broad outlines of the education campaign's objectives and strategy for achieving them.

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WHEN AMERICA BECOMES A CIVIC DEMOCRACY

When civic-based terms and concepts become part of our society's political vernacular, and a civic zeitgeist takes root in our nation's collective psyche:

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Without the terms and concepts of civic democracy, nothing will change.

With them, voters will be able to "see" the transformative power of their primary vote with stunning clarity.

Then everything will change.

The language of civic democracy will make it possible for a:

middle-aged, married, staunchly conservative, evangelical, pro-life, heterosexual, white, republican, male voter...

and a:

young, unmarried, staunchly liberal, atheist, pro-choice, gay, non-white, democratic, female voter...

to disagree profoundly with each other's views and lifestyle,
yet still see themselves as civic allies in pursuit of their
common ANI objectives:

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About ideological solutions vs. civic solutions
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There are many ways to describe the difference between civic solutions and ideological solutions. For example, liberal solutions (defined as any legislation passed by the Democratic PAPs and PHPs in Congress) make liberal voters and Democratic special interest groups happy -- even though the "liberal" legislation never actually solves anything.

Conservative solutions (defined as any legislation passed by the Republican PAPs and PHPs in Congress) make conservative voters and Republican special interest groups happy -- even though the "conservative" legislation never actually solves anything.

Civic solutions (defined as any legislation passed by either or both party's CMRs in Congress) make liberal, moderate and conservative voters happy because the legislation actually solves the problem(s) the legislation was intended to solve -- often times so effectively and completely that, for all intent and purposes, the problems are solved permanently (another inconceivable concept for our society to wrap their brains around).

aside: this means that a Congress controlled by CMRs will quickly end up with a huge amount of free time on their hands.

_______ _______________ _______.
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Here's a good way to illustrate both the beauty and potential of optimized reforms and solutions:

Imagine that America's voters decided to bypass the PAPs and PHPs in Congress and simply hire two groups of Americans -- a group of computer geeks fresh out of college and a group of retirees drawn from every socioeconomic walk of life -- to team up and give our federal government an extreme civic makeover -- i.e., optimize our tax code, public education system, welfare system, immigration policy, etc..

The question is: could they do it?

Answer: Yes.

Our geeks would bring to the table the ability to program a version of IBM's Watson to cull through thousands of years of data -- economic, financial, fiscal, tax, etc. -- from hundreds of civilizations, nations, nation-states, etc. in order to find the absolute best features with which to use for fashioning optimized solutions.

Our retired Americans would bring to the table an even more important set of skills: common sense, pragmatism, life experience and wisdom.

Together, these two groups would be able to quickly accomplish what our Congress's "professional" politicians couldn't do if their lives depended on it.

Moreover, all of the optimized solutions would enjoy widespread public support across both the social-economic and political-ideological spectrums.

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note: for more about the concept of optimization, jump down to design objectives for an optimized tax code

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"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change
something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
Buckminster Fuller

Using the power of media to give birth to a new national civic zeitgeist.

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The campaign will rely heavily on civic service ads which will be similar in look and feel to other issue oriented ads -- e.g., MADD, women's breast cancer awareness, texting while driving, anti-smoking, anti-drug, etc..

A key (and highly controversial) feature of the campaign: some of these 15-, 30- and 60 second civic lessons will be designed to push the issue of civic democracy onto the radar screens of organizations and media that appeal and/or cater to young pre-voters (MTV generation and younger).

The goal here will be to tap into the energy and passions of our society's most gung ho, "anything's possible" group, and turn them into avid pro-civic democracy supporters.

More generally, the education effort will focus the public's attention on the staggering price our whole society has already paid (see MOUNTAIN OF EVIDENCE below), and the even greater amount of needless economic hardship the American people will have to endure moving forward if our voters aren't able to stop electing PACs in the primaries.

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Beating our ideological swords into civic plowshares

Another objective of the campaign will be to correct a number of misconceptions held by different socioeconomic and political groups, particularly liberal supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement and conservative supporters of the tea party movement.

For example, both of these groups of concerned citizens will learn that you don't need to have a Democrat controlled Congress implementing liberal policies to achieve most of liberalism's social and economic justice ends -- or a Republican controlled Congress implementing conservative policies to achieve most of conservatism's less government, greater freedom ends.

The non-ideological means by which most of both sets of ends can be achieved are the same because most of both ends are a natural by-product of:

1. ethical, selfless governance,
2. our elected representatives' unwavering fealty to their fiduciary obligations and responsibilities,
3. policies, legislation and reforms rooted in pragmatism and common sense -- i.e., optimized solutions.

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Deciding to help introduce the language of civic democracy into our society,
or not,
is about deciding to help our society adapt and our nation prosper,
or not.

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Money in politics and a lack of leadership in Congress
may be problems -- but they are not THE PROBLEM

The general consensus is that America's problems are intractable because:
1) Congress is dysfunctional, 2) our political process is broken, and 3) no one has the slightest idea of how to fix 1 and 2.

Even the best that our best thinkers can offer is the two most overused bromides in modern day political analysis:

Since the cure for civic ignorance is civic knowledge, the introduction of a new adage into society: civic knowledge is civic power seems especially appropriate at this moment in our nation's history since both are precisely what America's democratic, independent and republican voters desperately need to escape the civic nightmare they have managed to trap themselves (and their children and grandchildren's generation) in.

Clearly, some of you (for your own self-serving reasons) are perfectly happy to see our electorate remain in the civic Dark Ages -- civically uninformed, misinformed or ill-informed -- and therefore easily pitted against each other, election cycle after election cycle, by Congress's "professional" servants of the people.

However, for the vast majority of you, hopefully, the question isn't -- should voters stop practicing the unenlightened form of democracy and start practicing the enlightened form? It's -- if shown how, will enough eventually do so to effect our nation's transition to a civic democracy?

The obvious answer is that there is only one way to find out: introduce the language and concepts of civic democracy into our society and see what happens.

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If the civic knowledge falls on deaf ears, we're no worse off. Congress will remain dysfunctional, our national politics will remain broken, America will continue clinging to the precipice, and we will still have our bromides.

But, should it take root, our society will have everything it needs to take the next evolutionary step in the way a free people practice democracy.

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Bad news for America's Ideology Industrial Complex:

Seeing the zero-sum struggle between liberalism and
conservativism through a civic lens.
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Not only does the absence of civic-based terms and concepts explain the general public's primitive understanding of democracy, it accounts for the fact that their political views have been formed (or malformed) on the basis of only two theories which are used to explain why strong, prosperous, high employment nations (like America was) remain strong, prosperous, high employment nations -- vs. -- gradually become indebted, impoverished, high unemployment nations (like America now is).

Here's the ultimate civic irony: as we all know, each theory has its group of passionate believers who, together, drive essentially all of national politics:

1. Conservatives -- e.g., tea party supporters, conservative media/opinion industry, the Koch Brothers, etc. -- who:
   • are convinced that Theory #1 is correct,
   • see their ideological battle as a moral crusade and themselves as the good guys.
     
     
2. Liberals/progressives -- e.g., the Hollywood left, liberal media/opinion industry, George Soros, etc. -- who:
   • are convinced that Theory #2 is correct,
   • see their ideological battle as a moral crusade and themselves as the good guys.

The irony: both sides are the good guys even though both theories are wrong.

• the factors that determine the maximum possible health and strength of a nation's economic engine are technical-economic -- not ideological -- in the same way the factors that determine the maximum power and operating efficiency of a car's engine are technical-mechanical -- not ideological.

  aside: it is the fact that such things as our tax code, public education system, health care system, welfare system, etc. can be optimally reformed via a purely technical process that makes the concept of optimization possible.
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• the factors responsible for producing:
  • optimized fiscal policies,
  • balanced budgets,
  • accountable government,
  • optimized government programs...

  all of which, collectively, determine a nation's economic, fiscal, financial and societal health and strength -- are moral- ethical/fiduciary -- not ideological.

What all of this means is that everyone from the Hollywood left to the tea party right is spending an absolutely mind boggling amount of their passion, energy and money fighting against the "other" side's ideology rather than both sides' PAPs and PHPs.

Talk about the ultimate civic irony!!

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Design objectives for an "optimized" tax code.
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America's 72,000 page tax code is "...the most complex and
corrupt in the industrialized world." Fareed Zakaria

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1. What would our nation's tax code look like if it were optimized?
2. Would principled liberal, moderate and conservative voters support it?

The best way to answer both questions is with a thought experiment:

Assume that several groups of randomly selected Americans are assembled in separate rooms and assigned the task of coming up with the design objectives for a tax code that will:

1. Optimize our free market engine -- i.e., create the optimum conditions for:
   • sustained, muscular economic growth
   • new job creation
2. Generate maximum government revenue at any given tax load on GDP (18%, 19%, 20%,...).

.FYI: what a 72,000 page tax code looks like.

USA Today called it a "monstrosity of complexity" when it was only a 54,000 page monster.

Given the size of our tax code, you can imagine what 170,000+ pages of federal regulations look like.

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The ultimate civic solution: Make civic love, then political war.
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El-Erian's earlier quote best expresses the broad consensus that our economy and nation will be able to quickly return to health and strength as soon as Congress passes a package of common sense reforms (tax, entitlement, regulatory, etc.). Reforms that reasonable men and women -- whether computer geeks, retirees or the chronically unemployed -- would have no problem supporting, and would have enacted a long time ago.

Unfortunately, Congress isn't dominated by reasonable men and women -- it's dominated by politicians whose first and greatest concern is their political career. Real reforms haven't been passed for decades because doing so would:

• ruffle the feathers of too many special interests, corporate interests, constituency groups, etc. -- and upsetting that status quo applecart is something PAPs and PHPs are loath to do.
  
  
• lead to drastic reductions in our PHP's political "power".
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Given that harsh reality, logic dictates that if you truly want to see our nation's problems solved, many of them quickly and permanently, then, whether liberal, moderate or conservative, your course of action couldn't be clearer:

Support a national awareness and education campaign which will make a powerful and compelling case to our society that our nation's grand experiment of electing politically ambitious "politicians" to Congress has proven to be such a horrendous failure, it should be seen for what it is:

a monumentally costly learning experience

...then tossed in the trash bin of history.

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