When I worked in Industry I was involved in rolling out a Statistical Production Control System for the department I worked in. I was very interested in being involved because, with a modest science background, I have always liked numbers. That overstates it a bit. I like good numbers, accurate numbers, numbers that can be verified. Good solid reliable numbers.
During the rollout of Statistical Production Control System I immediately ran into conflict with some of the management team. They liked charts and graphs. They wanted to see results. They especially wanted to see results that confirmed their preconceived notion of what, both, the problem and the solution was. I thought a better initial method would be to concentrate on getting the best possible data before trying to interpret what it means.
Ignoring the reliability of your input data to arrive at a pre-determined answer can only be done for one of two possible reasons, incompetence, or deception. The first reason speaks for itself and while damaging at least it is not malicious. To falsify science or analysis for your own purposes I think is especially damaging. By using the cover of reason to create perverted results for personal reasons you have not only presented false and misleading solutions but also the entire process of analysis has been badly used.
I was reminded of this when considering what actions an individual could take to try an counter the current political climate of partisan paralysis. I have been thinking how each of us has our own unique worldview, a way that we make sense of the world around us. It is shaped by our life experiences, our faith (or lack thereof), and countless other aspects of how we receive and process information. This is what I call an Ideological Filter. It is how we decide what we agree with, what we support, and how we think the world should work.
Read the rest of… Scott Land: Ideological Filters — Their Correct Use
Some 2012 candidates give out pies. Others label their speech location “the best place in the country”. All of them eat corn dogs and insist they’re not regular politicians. The cheese is getting thick in the presidential campaign.
So this week in on CNN’s “American Sauce” podcast they asked, “Can we take any of these politicians seriously?”
CNN looked to a recovering politician to answer this age-old question. Actually, The Recovering Politician.
1. Fix the political redistricting system once and for all – States across this nation are currently going through the process of redrawing State Representative and State Senate lines. In the end members from both parties and appointed party loyalists will not be able to agree on a map and the court system will be prompted to step in. This process takes place every ten years and is truly outdated and way too political. Why not save time and take the human element out of the process? In an age where people do almost everything electronically why are nonpartisan computers not setting these lines? Start the new process with a checkerboard pattern covering the whole state. Then the computer will adjust the squares based on population so every Representative and Senator represents the same amount of people. A grid with large and small squares that has nothing to do with which neighborhood has nicer houses, who votes the most, where a golf course is located, or what school district is where will decide rational districts once and for all. It is an absolute joke and truly unfair to the citizens of this nation for political gerrymandering to continue to go on in 2011. How great would you feel at the start of an election cycle if whether you would have a Republican, Democrat, or Independent elected official was not in a sense predetermined? Leave this up to computers and not partisan individuals who are protecting themselves and their party when drawing geographically ridiculous political district lines. Isn’t this about fair democratic representation? Instead of backroom bickering and fighting over half of a small suburban neighborhood or which urban corridor is more important, we should be asking is there an app for that!
2. Blanket primaries – Shouldn’t the goal of any election to be to elect the best candidate regardless of political party or persuasion? Some states have already implemented top-two, non-partisan blanket primaries with success. The city of Kansas City, Missouri currently does this with its Mayoral election. Just last winter this system resulted in the two most qualified candidates for the job reaching the general election. Basically, this election method puts all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, on the same ballot in the primary. The top two voters then face off in a general election to be held usually in the next one to three months after the primary election. I can’t count the number of times Republicans came up to me and said they were sorry they couldn’t vote for me because I wasn’t on their primary ballot. This system would also stop candidates from running so far to the right or left to win the votes of party primary voters. We all know voter turnout is low in primaries. Most Americans are sick of voting for extreme candidate 1 or extreme candidate 2 in general elections. They want common sense solutions and are tired of partisan rhetoric. It doesn’t have to be a nonpartisan election; candidates can voice their party affiliation, but why not just have the two best candidates face off in the general election based on the issues of the day and ideas. Blanket primaries will solve many of our general election malaise.
3. Get rid of term limits – Many states and voters have implemented term limits for elected officials such as legislators. In Missouri, State Representatives can serve four two-year terms and State Senators can serve two four-year terms. The reasoning, legislators become fat and happy, become too close to lobbyists, and run out of creative ideas and motivation. The problem is that just the opposite has happened. Legislators are running for reelection before they even find the bathroom in the capitol, they are forced to think about their next elected position they will run for up the ladder, lobbyists begin to have more influence on the process because there are so many new people every two years, and legislators are so wet behind the ears they have no idea how to effectively legislate. Would you tell your family doctor or specialist that you could only see them for a limited amount of time even though they are great at what they do? Would you tell an amazing teacher that after 8 years they could no longer teach in your community? Would you tell a successful small business owner, sorry buddy I have to shut down your incredible entrepreneurial endeavor? Lastly, would you tell a world-class athlete that they could no longer dominate a sport and bring a smile to a fan’s face because they can only play for awhile? I want the best people running and holding political office. For some reason I think you would agree. Elections are held every few years where people can elect or vote individuals out of office. We saw a Republican “Tea Party” tidal wave in 2010 where many incumbents were voted out of office. The pendulum could and probably will swing back and many of these same individuals will be put back into elected office in 2012, 2014, or sometime down the road. This is the great thing about the process; we don’t need arbitrary numbers of years to police the system. I want the best people running my community, my state, and my country. If someone is doing a good job or excelling at their job let them face the voters not time.
Read the rest of… Jason Grill: Five & a Half Steps to Fix American Politics
Implement term limits: 4 terms for Congress, 3 for US Senators and same for KY State House and Senate, starting ASAP or in 2015.
Remove the influence of money from elections by going to public financing.
If Murdoch or Soros or some corporation or PAC want to contribute to a candidate, they must contribute to the public pool and designate which candidate they want to support, and only the amount that the other candidate raises is allowed to be released to their choice. If any money from their contribution is left over at the end of the campaign, they can choose to leave it in the pool for the next race, but it goes into a blind pool to be doled out evenly by the public pool board or they can get what’s left back, interest free.
Supreme Court be damned on this one. I understand their individual free speech argument, but it is hurting the public good which trumps. The last 6 months highlights this point better in any time in recent history.
But for those of you good doers out there, we have a reward. This week’s posts on The Recovering Politician will be dedicated to the proposition of making our political system a better one. Fixing Politics will be our mantra.
Two particular qualifications:
1. We will be hearing from a number of our readers who offer challenging, outside-of-the-box ideas to make American democracy stronger. You may love ’em or you may hate ’em, but remember, these views, as always represent those of the writer only and not the management at the RP.
2. We’d really love to hear from you as well. We are hoping the comments section will be filled with your reactions to the articles posted. And hopefully some new ideas as well.
So please enjoy, and better yet, help participate during Fixing Politics Week. Who knows? Maybe one of your ideas will be adopted by our powerful readership and set the country on the right course. Or more likely, will at least give some of us more confidence that we are living in a truly participatory democracy.
The RP’s appearance on Fox and Friends this morning was the stuff of legendary scandal. Unlike most cable TV talk show debates, there was no screaming, no storming off the set, not even any projectile vomiting to entertain the disappointed audience.
In fact, the three panelists: the RP, Santita Jackson (Jesse’s daughter and a popular Chicago radio host), and Dylan Glenn (a former GOP Congressional candidate in Georgia) seemed to agree on every major issue, particularly that hyper-partisanship and rigid ideology are destroying American politics.
So if you can stand rational discussion without angry recriminations, go ahead and watch the clip below. (And if it inspires you to join the No Labels movement that the RP promotes and whose message the other panelists echo, click here.)
Much to the great chagrin of all of us at the RP Nation, the RP is breaking his sacred vow of no-politics-week, and will appear on Fox News’ Fox and Friends talk show tomorrow (Friday) morning at 7:15 AM EDT.
The RP will be participating in a roundtable that will discuss a recent Media Research Center report which found that “in the first half of this year, NBC, ABC and CBS morning and evening news shows attached the term ‘conservative’ to a presidential contender 62 times, while during the same period in the presidential race in 2007, ‘liberal’ came up only three times.”
Tune in tomorrow as the RP enters the lions’ den for the first time in 23 years. And to prepare yourself, check out video of the last time the RP appeared on a contentious cable TV talk show (disguised as Justin Bieber — years before the Beebs was born):
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Aug 15, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
If there’s anything that unites Americans more during this summer of our discontent, it is that we all hate politics. Politics have moved beyond simple ugly sport; politics almost brought our country to its economic knees.
That’s why starting today, and going through this Friday, we are challenging the rest of the country to join us in a Politics-Free Week. For seven full days during the doldrums of August, we’ll take on the latest controversies in sports, film, fashion, parenting — anything but politics.
If you needed yet another reason to hate politics…
A political firestorm erupted in the tiny rural hamlet of Fancy Farm, Kentucky, last weekend when a scandalous speech delivered by Governor Steve Beshear received universal approbation from political insiders and the capital press corps.
One wag opined that the governor “may have stepped onto a political land mine.”
Another mocked Beshear’s “bizarre choice of oratory on the state’s biggest political stage.”
Maybe this brief of hiatus will recharge us for an ugly fall filled with supercommittees and presidential campaign bickering. Maybe it will provide us a slight window of sanity to remember what is truly important.
Or maybe, just maybe, we’ll be like George Costanza, in that episode of Seinfeld in which he takes a temporary vow of abstinence, and his previously sex-obsessed brain opens up to deep social, cultural and scientific awareness.
Check in often during this week of political abstinence. See how your politically-obsessed mind can open up to new possibilities. While we can’t promise a Costanza-like transformation, at least you’ll get some temporary relief. And maybe you won’t hate politics so much when Labor Day rolls around.
Oh, and consistent with this theme, our Weekly Web Gems will not focus on “The Politics of…” the various subject matter categories. Instead, with a salute to my cousin, Steve (or should I say Maurice?), we will concentrate on the much more important subject of “The Pompatus of…” love and other subjects.
Our second installment of RPTV’s Great Debates features a regular here at The Recovering Politician, former Atlanta Deputy Mayor and contributing RP Lisa Borders debating our newest team member, GOP pollster, rising political star and Friend of RP Kristen Soltis.
Speaking of music, below the debate video you can find links to the No Labels theme song that Lisa co-wrote with the rap star Akon, as well as the music video of “The Frustrations,” featuring Kristen on lead vocals.
(Oh, and by the way, since the RPettes weren’t around to help the RP figure out how to Skype properly, there’s no video of Lisa, only her disassembled voice. This is not a Newsweekian attempt to demean a powerful female leader, just simple incompetence on the RP’s part. We have provided a picture of Lisa below to allow you to pretend that you can watch her on the video.)
I was reminded of this when considering what actions an individual could take to try an counter the current political climate of partisan paralysis. I have been thinking how each of us has our own unique worldview, a way that we make sense of the world around us. It is shaped by our life experiences, our faith (or lack thereof), and countless other aspects of how we receive and process information. This is what I call an Ideological Filter. It is how we decide what we agree with, what we support, and how we think the world should work. 
