The game-theory problem is: unilateral disarmament is a recipe for losing in today's political world. If progressives choose not to use the tools available for them to exercise power, you can be sure that conservatives won't make the same mistake. Could one convince conservatives to give up a supreme court seat? Because that's an entire branch of government (and perhaps the most powerful) that is likely to be controlled by conservatives for the rest of our lifetimes. Likewise, the Senate awards outsized power to rural states; what are the odds that conservatives would agree to a more equal representation? That they would vote for a federal ban on gerrymandering? Historically conservatives have been more strategic at preserving their political power; it's hard to see how we overcome many of the current dysfunctions the US is facing.
Simple, stop wasting money, get rid of licensing requirements, and fire HR departments en banc.
We wasted $xxx millions on BLM. They could have helped the justice system by taking that money and forcing every interaction with the public to be recorded through body cameras. Instead the money is being used on influence studios. How are we going to get rid of bad cops if we cannot identify or categorize them.
Licensing requirements are ridiculous, it causes wastes of time and hiking of wages to meet the ridiculousness. Someone who is in a bad neighborhood looking to go straight would need 500 hours of cosmetology school to weave hair. Why? There is no licensing requirement for aeronautic engineers!
HR departments are full of scared losers. We all know this. They are the people who were not smart enough in high school, got a non real degree, be then entered the corporate work environment. Because they do not have the capability to think, they have to rely on mimicry. That is why when a job needs to be filled, instead of doing a good job, they simply look at what everyone else posts at other firms. Then the HR departments make sure to hire someone with a degree so if things do not work out, HR can say: we did our best. This credentialing keeps good candidates out and causes cribbing to happen. Don’t have a degree, don’t apply. I have had to fight to get non degreed people promoted out of their current position with HR because the candidate was not “one of us.”
Who is we? I think most donators understood what they were donating to and feel fine about it.
Totally with you about the licensing requirements, but the HR thing just seems like a rant. Corporate beurocracies are risk-adverse to a fault, HR's KPIs aren't related to company performance. I think they're trying not to get fired.
Entrenched interests are why things rarely advanced. Look at dentistry we are still drilling teeth like the greeks and making very little progress except on the most advanced procedures.
Dental advancement never gets anywhere because drilling teeth makes money and it sucks so people put it off until they NEED more expensive procedures and that works great.
Dentist that want to really make a difference and use the latest techniques really can't afford it because of the regulatory burden and huge costs associated with everything.
Right. One party is fighting for fairness and democracy, the other for domination and autocracy. But I believe it is still possible to be fair by those who fight for fairness, and to be democratic by those who fight for democracy. And they can still win, eventually. It is called progress and it has been going on for centuries.
I think both major parties have pretty strong authoritarian streaks that they show in different ways. I'm a registered Democrat, and I agree that the authoritarian streak in the Republican party is stronger and more dangerous at the moment. However, I think it's also dangerous to ignore the authoritarian tendencies in the Democratic party.
Good point. If authoritarians could they of course would take over the Democratic Party totally.
As you know Republican Party used to be the one opposing slavery.
It's like Putin is really not against USA. He is only against USA as long as he is not its for-life president. And he loves democracy as longs as he is the only one who can decide what democracy means.
> Historically conservatives have been more strategic at preserving their political power
Only if your recollection of history starts in 1994. When Biden was elected to the Senate, Democrats had almost 10 percentage points greater representation in the House than their share of the House popular vote, a feat the GOP has never matched: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Popular_vote_vs_actual_...
And look at how many Republican Supreme Court appointees went wobbly. The majority that upheld abortion rights in Casey in 1992 consisted of five Republican appointees, with the lone Democrat voting with Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas.
In terms of strategy, the GOP was a complete tire fire until the Gingrich Congress of the 1990s.
