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Hello, I hope that 2023 is going great for you thus far! My kids have been sick so there’s been more family time than usual.

The new Congress is off to a rocky start, as Kevin McCarthy went through 14 unsuccessful votes to eventually claim the Speaker’s mantle. You can’t understate how bad this is; 20 Republicans refused to back him, resulting in a leaderless environment and hundreds of members reduced to futile voting for days on end. It’s a vivid picture of a divided country that struggles with basic tasks like organizing itself.

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It’s also a direct outgrowth of our rigid two-party system – in other democracies different groups come together to settle on leadership decisions. “Coalition governing is used in virtually all other leading western democracies” is how David Jolly put it. Here, you would hope that moderate Republicans and Democrats might come together and settle on a compromise. But no one wants to cross party lines.

Said Mark Cuban: “Is there a better commercial for Ranked Choice Voting than what is going on with the Speaker’s vote in the House? The current system, from primary to general to speaker voting, empowers the extremists at the expense of constituents. Time to change.” He’s right on all counts.

McCarthy managed to eke out a win by conceding the store and giving himself some future problems. It bodes poorly for the legislative environment for the next 2 years as one can easily imagine 6 recalcitrant Republicans holding up meaningful legislation and Dems not wanting to lend any assistance.

This week on the podcast ([link removed]) I interview Eric Liu, the founder and CEO of Citizen University. Eric is the author of numerous books, including most recently “Become America: Civic Sermons on Love, Responsibility and Democracy.” He spent years in Democratic politics as a speechwriter for Bill Clinton and an Obama appointee. Citizen University is about empowering citizens to take charge of what is happening in their community through greater engagement – very aligned with Forward. Among its programs are Civic Saturdays, which gather people together to reflect on what they can to do better their community.

Civic Saturdays take the form of a traditional religious gathering: people stand and sing, read from different works, bring pocket Constitutions, and are led by a sermon. Citizen University has trained hundreds of people in its civic seminary to lead local gatherings.

I thought this was the coolest thing in the world; there is a lot missing in many Americans’ lives in terms of connection and community. What an innovative way to fill the need.

Eric’s work doesn’t stop there. His org also runs civic “collaboratories” to spur projects around the country, youth programs and more.

“Small acts. Small compromises. Small stands. Small choices that turn large tides. That’s what ever nation’s culture is made of,” Eric writes. “The arguments in American politics are stupid in many ways: they’re stuck in a decaying two-party institutional framework: they fail to challenge foundational assumptions about capitalism or government: they center on symbolic proxy skirmishes instead of naming the underlying change: they focus excessively on style and surface.” Eric’s antidote is an army of engaged and empowered citizens improving their own communities and local governance. Substance instead of spectacle.

Talking to Eric, it was like the other end of the spectrum from what’s going on in Washington D.C. Can the people of this country take our futures into our own hands? He’s definitely right that that’s where leadership will come from. This week is the latest reminder that our elected leaders aren’t going to save us. We’re going to have to do it ourselves.

Check out Citizen University here ([link removed]) for a host of tools; for Eric’s books click here ([link removed]) . If you want to join us in fixing American politics, check out the Forward Party ([link removed]) today!
Andrew Yang
Founder, Forward Party
forwardparty.com ([link removed])
andrewyang.com ([link removed])

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