Tag: civic participation

Taking Ownership

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Yesterday I helped my brother move into his new house (like me, he changed jobs and relocated over the summer). I am looking forward in the next couple of weeks to completing a home sale (this week) and a home purchase (next week) so that he can return the favor (actually, him returning the favor is not as important as me simply having my own space again). While I was there I got talking to my sister-in-law and she mentioned how different it felt moving into this house than it did when they moved into their previous house. They bought a brand-new house last time so they had spent about six months choosing options, colors, fixtures, etc. When they moved into the house it felt like their house already. This time they purchased an existing home and they closed in a relatively short period of time. When they moved in it still felt a little bit foreign to my sister-in-law.

As I have thought about that I have realized that it is universally true that we do not really take ownership of anything until we have invested ourselves in it – not just our money, but time and energy and commitment. The fact that my brother and his family have not done that already is no slight to them, it only illustrates a stage in the process of taking ownership that often gets overshadowed by the later stages when that investment has taken root. Often the period of time between choosing something and owning it is fast enough that we never get a snapshot of the intermediate condition of possession before ownership (actually it is possible to own something before it is in our possession).

I think that can be applied to our citizenship and civic responsibility. The statesman has taken ownership of his country by investing himself in the political process etc. On the other hand, many in our nation simply posess our citizenship without having taken ownership. Even among our politicians there are those who seem to posess their office without taking ownership of their responsibilities and position.

Tags citizenship, civic participation, moving, ownership

General

Incentives to Get Off Welfare

Post author By David
Post date August 13, 2008
38 Comments on Incentives to Get Off Welfare

Another spinoff from the discussion about Equality Under the Law clicked a switch in my brain. Nothing that Anti-PC Infidel says in his post should surprise anyone who has seen the discussion already, but for some reason the following statement made a connection to another issue that I have struggled to resolve for a long time:

This is often combined with the sin of destroying the recipients of {welfare} by encouraging them to be lazy and unproductive, irresponsible and greedy, by putting them on the dole.

I have long wished for some way to make it more difficult to vote for those who do not care to take the time to become informed. The thought struck me that we could make the right to vote contingent on paying at least as much in taxes as we receive in government handouts. This does not directly solve my original conundrum, but it would give incentive to those receiving welfare to find a way to become independent from government handouts if they desire to vote. Essentially, in addition to current requirements for voting, the payment of taxes equal to or in excess of any money received as welfare, food stamps, social security, unemployment benefits, rental assistance, etc. would give each person the right – like a shareholder – to vote in elections. This same rule should probably apply to board members of corporations that receive subsidies from the federal government as well.

I recognize that some will complain that such a plan would favor Republicans since poor people are statistically more likely to vote Democratic, but I would appreciate it if arguments for and against were framed in a way that was independent of party politics.

Tags civic participation, connections, responsibility, taxes, voting

culture National

Who Are You Voting Against?

Post author By David
Post date August 8, 2008
9 Comments on Who Are You Voting Against?

I really wish I could find the article I glanced at yesterday postulating that the presidential race is not looking like a blowout for Obama because the contest has been framed as a referendum on Obama rather than a referendum on Bush and the Republican party.

The thought that struck me is that when an election gets framed as a referendum on a candidate that candidate or party usually loses. I think that the reason that Gore did not receive enough support in 2000 to overcome the Nader voters is that the voters were fatigued by the emotionally charged Clinton presidency. In 2004 the vote got framed as a question of whather Kerry was really presidential or if he was just another politician. I think that 1996 was 2004 with Dole in the place of Kerry.

The exception seems to be 1988 which was a referendum on Reagan in which Bush I won.

What do you think? Is this how the outcome of our elections is decided – by voting against whoever the debate is centered on? (If so I would predict that 2010 will be a bad year to be a Democrat seeking election – regardless of the outcome this year.)

Tags 2008, 2010, civic participation, elections, Obama, questions

culture life National

Established Patterns

After a week on vacation it is nice to have a bit of a fresh perspective on life. We are entering a month where we have to close on our old house in Lehi and our new house in Bountiful so there will be plenty to do. Having taken some time off I am ready to dive deeper into my job and be more productive now that I have basically adjusted to the routine of going to work every day and the new dynamics of working for a large organization (Intermountain has 30,000 employees where the largest company I had worked for before had a little over 300).

My time off also re-focused my efforts here as I consider what I am trying to accomplish. (No, this whole site is not simply a personal brain-dump where I can ramble on about anything that I happen to think.) I am going to pick up with the federalist papers and other founding documents that have disappeared from my postings in the last couple of months and I am also going to be more consistent about sharing the vision and efforts of the Downsize D.C. organization.

The more I have read about Downsize D.C. the more I believe that it fits with my vision of what needs to be done to brighten the future prospects of our nation. Downsize D.C. is dedicated to shrinking the federal government – which I think is necessary – but even for those people who disagree with many of their campaigns (and they campaign for legislation – not for legislators) I would submit that their method of providing information and tools to encourage and support individuals in taking action and being involved and informed is precisely the course to creating a healthier political process and a more empowered electorate.

Maybe I am biased, but I honestly believe that an informed, involved, and empowered electorate will naturally lead us back to a system of limited government rather than the system of unlimited governing bureaucracies that we have created over the last century.

Tags buying, civic participation, government, house, selling

culture

American Citizenship

I really liked this Deseret News profile of a naturalized citizen.

Airman 1st Class Elena Dulger’s face lights up the room when she talks about her first chance to participate in a democratic election.

Dulger, 21, is taking her oath of citizenship today, seven years and one day after meeting her father at JFK International Airport in New York. After becoming an official U.S. citizen, Dulger will get her passport, and she plans on registering to vote.

“A lot of people don’t realize how important (voting) is,” she said. “It is a privilege.”

This is how every American citizen should feel about voting. (I’m not delusional enough to actually believe that we will ever have a time when every citizen actually does feel that way.) I seriously wish we could find a way to limit the right to vote to those people who do recognize the importance of that privilege.

Tags citizenship, civic participation, Deseret News, voting

National

The Best Day to Vote

As a perpetual proponent of incresing voter turnout, I enjoyed considering the story on NPR about Rethinking The Tuesday Vote. I’m not sure when voters would be noticable less busy than Tuesday – especially considering that we would not want the vote to be on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday as each of those days is sacred to one major religion or another. If we ever find an easy way to increase voter turnout that would not cost lots of money we should do it. (I thinkthat changing the day of the week would be easy to implement so long as there is advanced warning.)

Tags civic participation, elections, NPR, voting

National State

The Rule of Law or the Rule of Fear

Post author By David
Post date July 8, 2008
2 Comments on The Rule of Law or the Rule of Fear

I really liked this challenge from Obi wan Liberali related to the current FISA revision bill.

So to my Republican friends, I lay the challenge before you. If you support the FISA bill going before the Senate, justify and defend that support. If you oppose the bill, speak up to your Republican U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett.

Personally I have already contacted my senators, but I would be very interested to hear of someone trying to justify support for the bill.

Tags civic participation, connections, FISA, liberty

State

Depressing News

Despite what some people may think, my outlook on life is not based on how politically active my fellow citizens are. If it was, this report from the Deseret News would have made today really lousy.

Utah now has the nation’s worst voting participation rates.

We should have participation closer to 65% like Minnesota rather than 36%. We should also have more than 58% voter registration (in fact we should have more than the 67% national average).

Tags civic participation, Deseret News

State

Republican Primary – State Treasurer

Post author By David
Post date June 24, 2008
2 Comments on Republican Primary – State Treasurer

Today I am hoping that Republican primary voters show that they can see through party connections to select a candidate who might actually be qualified for the office of State Treasurer by selecting Richard Ellis to represent the party on the November ballot.

There are other races where I have a preference, but no others that I could vote in.

Tags civic participation, parties, primaries, Republican, Treasurer

culture

The Dread Disease Called Ease

Post author By David
Post date April 17, 2008
No Comments on The Dread Disease Called Ease

With the news that WordPress.com is banned in Brazil because of some inappropriate blogging by someone, Lorelle makes this observation:

I think bloggers around the world have become apathetic. Lazy. Uninspired. Dumbed down. Honestly. When the term echo chamber was coined, it was a good label for all the regurgitation of content spread all over the web, drowning individual voices. Self-interest blogging is pervasive. What happened to altruism and using the blog publishing platform to support freedom of speech and bloggers around the world?

What happened to us? Why am I not seeing protests and opinions on this issue all over the web? Why isn’t the banning of three million WordPress.com blogs a big deal? Why aren’t we talking about this instead of the latest iPhone gizmo and useless SEO techniques? Why didn’t people get angry and protest loudly when WordPress.com blogs were banned in Turkey, China, and other countries? WordPress.com continues to be banned in places – why aren’t we talking about this?

. . . I’m asking bloggers around the world to take a stand and let their voices be heard when others can’t.Let not millions of bloggers be blocked and banned for the sake of a couple of idiots. You don’t send an entire city’s population to jail because two people break the law. (Note to Lorelle – in Texas you can do exactly that.)

What really struck me about this observation is that it is not limited to blogging in any way. Because it is so easy to shout out your frustration – using blogs, YouTube, letters to the editor, or any other easy way to blow off steam – many people have settled into inaction when it comes to actually doing thing to make a change about those things that they don’t like.

Inaction on the part of most people to the minor inconveniences of a .05% tax hike are the reason that a few people who stand to gain millions of dollars from that tax hike are able to get the tax raised over the muted objections of the vast majority of people who have nothing to gain from the hike. (I’m not talking about any specific tax hike here, I’m talking about principles of politics and human behavior.)

It’s time to do more than what is easy, blowing off steam in a blog or a letter to the editor, and start doing what is hard but important, attending public hearings and caucus meetings , actually reading the text of bills being considered by our government. Then we have to do more than write a letter to our representatives – we have to talk with our fellow citizens and urge them to action as well. We have to inspire them to action on issues of importance to us – otherwise we deserve whatever government give to us – or takes from us.

Tags citizenship, civic participation