The future of this blog.

"And now you know the REST of the story." – Paul Harvey

Thus far, I have covered many topics. Some of the them have been about current events, and others have been about general political ideas. I will continue to do this as the blog progresses. However, as I've said before, this blog is part and parcel of my life's work: a forthcoming book which will outline my political philosophy and my plan for reforming the American political and social system. The two most important posts, and the ones that make up the base of my ideological approach are the posts on Campaign Finance Reform and on Economy Reform. What follows is the rest of the story.

The devil, as they say, is in the details. I must stress that none of my political ideals that you have read or will read in the future is really new. Rather, this is an amalgamation of other ideas. I am putting together parts of ideas that are often separated by time and geography. Moreover, the broad plan is really just combining these ideas into one big plan; many aspects of which have been attempted, in part at least, in the not so distant past. The flaw of those past efforts has been in the implementation. The government is a huge machine and, like a boulder rolling down hill, a small adjustment will only bring big changes if given the chance to affect that change in the long term. With House races every 2 years, Presidential every 4 (and a 2 term limit), and Senate races every 6; there is just not enough time for these small adjustments to turn into changes that elected officials can run for re-election on. Sadly, that is what elected officials are counting on.

The status quo in Washington has been to do everything possible to make it look like progress is occurring without rocking the boat too much in reality. The politicians can run on the "change" that has occurred, but with the high turnover of ideas and the changing tide of ideology, no real change will occur. Thus, real change requires something else. Rather than a small change, or a series of small changes, we need to implement something drastic. We need a reformation: total change.

Unfortunately, as stated above, the system itself is adverse to change and is not capable of it. Thus, the system itself must be changed to accomplish the goals, and that is why the change must come along the lines outlined here.

First, we must be sure that the system is working for the people’s best interest. Until the money is taken out of politics, none of what I've outlined or will outline in the future will be possible. Instead of one special interest group confronting a single issue, all of these groups will be confronting one issue together.

Sweeping reforms like I will outline in the future will have many enemies. These reforms will cut deeply into the pocketbooks and power of many people and organizations. When they feel that the status quo is in danger, they will fight it. In their efforts to fight it, they will use all the resources they have. Their resources are vast and those are not odds that the people, even united, can defeat. Thus, campaign finance reform is the first step in the process. Without it, the rest of the reform cannot be accomplished.

Once the system is capable of the reform, we then need to wake-up the populous and fund the reformational changes that need to be made. Generally, when people are worried about feeding themselves and their families, keeping a roof over their heads, and taking care of the basic necessities; the greater issues of the republic are not important. That is where the economic reforms become essential. We must make the citizenry economically secure and then their lives can be made better. We must also make the funds available for the reforms, which may be costly, without exacerbating the deficit and debt problems we are all ready facing.

Thus, we come to the next steps, and the ones I will address going forward. As this blog continues, I will outline the largest proposed change of federal policy in a century. I want to be clear: although I will discuss them over time, they must be implemented together. That drastic change cannot be ignored or dismissed by elected leaders or the federal bureaucracy (I'll cover the way the bureaucracy can ignore policy changes and keep "the boulder running downhill" despite our best efforts and intentions as well). If this effort is tied with a movement to reduce red tape and revamp the federal code, it will make permanent the improvements we need. I look forward to sharing this plan with you in the coming weeks and months.

© Robert Cheek, 2011, 2013