I’m thinking about writing a new book and/or starting a new organization, and I’m curious about how you folks would respond to the following mini-manifesto. Comments would be appreciated. ( Read more... )
I'd be intrigued to the extent it attempted to find common ground with large numbers of Americans.
For example, I'm a libertarian. I'm very mistrustful of government, and think it needs lots of checks and balances to keep it from mistreating people. I also might disagree about whether government is the right tool to do something, at least without checks and balances with teeth sharp enough to prevent corruption (e.g. strong transparency requirements). But I might totally agree with you on what things society as a whole should try to do. And I absolutely would agree with you that if government must do those things, they should be done effectively and competently, and should be paid for with taxes and not debt, even if that means raising taxes substantially.
So you would probably find lots of common ground with me, but only if you stepped back and looked for it. I suspect Americans agree on more than they disagree on, by a long shot. If someone on the left were to attempt to reach out to me and speak in a language I understood like that, I would definitely read it.
These are some of the qualms I've been struggling with myself these last few weeks, as I've been exploring this idea and trying to decide whether I want to move forward with it. Checks and balances, absolutely. I'm also quite concerned about the inefficiencies and lack of accountability that seems to me endemic to large organizations, however they are funded. Managing people well is challenging, as I know viscerally from my attempts to do it. And managing a *lot* of people is even more challenging. Add to that the difficulties of firing people from many government positions, and there's a real problem. I understand why civil service laws want to protect the people who are actually doing the work from the winds of political fortune, and it would be worse to have everyone who knows something be laid off whenever there's a new administration. But government jobs as sinecures ...
I'd like to find the common ground with you, and with people who think like you. I too suspect that most Americans agree on far more than they disagree on, if they can find language that enables them to understand each other. Would you be willing to help me with this? Maybe get together and talk sometime? Maybe read drafts when I have them? I'd love to really have these conversations with you, both because I value your perspective and opinion as an individual, and because I want to be able to communicate with as many people as possible. I'm hoping that talking with lots of people will help me both refine my own thinking and develop language that works to communicate.
For example, I'm a libertarian. I'm very mistrustful of government, and think it needs lots of checks and balances to keep it from mistreating people. I also might disagree about whether government is the right tool to do something, at least without checks and balances with teeth sharp enough to prevent corruption (e.g. strong transparency requirements). But I might totally agree with you on what things society as a whole should try to do. And I absolutely would agree with you that if government must do those things, they should be done effectively and competently, and should be paid for with taxes and not debt, even if that means raising taxes substantially.
So you would probably find lots of common ground with me, but only if you stepped back and looked for it. I suspect Americans agree on more than they disagree on, by a long shot. If someone on the left were to attempt to reach out to me and speak in a language I understood like that, I would definitely read it.
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I'd like to find the common ground with you, and with people who think like you. I too suspect that most Americans agree on far more than they disagree on, if they can find language that enables them to understand each other. Would you be willing to help me with this? Maybe get together and talk sometime? Maybe read drafts when I have them? I'd love to really have these conversations with you, both because I value your perspective and opinion as an individual, and because I want to be able to communicate with as many people as possible. I'm hoping that talking with lots of people will help me both refine my own thinking and develop language that works to communicate.
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