During a prime time speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Elizabeth Warren brought the crowd to its feet with electric excitement when she declared, “People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: They're right. The system is rigged." During the 2016 election, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump built campaigns based on the same theme. Clearly, concern about “the system” is widespread.
But when people discuss the system, they usually only talk about the government and the economy and how those two institutions overlap. The premise of this booklet is that the System is more complicated than that. It involves all of our major institutions, our culture, and ourselves as individuals. Gaining a clearer understanding of those realities will help us change the System fundamentally.
Our greatest division is top-versus-bottom, not left-versus-right. Most Republicans, Democrats, and Independents agree on many proposed changes in national policy that would move us in the right direction. Despite that widespread agreement, the American people are fragmented and we have gridlock in Congress. If we unite, we can persuade Washington to respect the will of the people.
We need a strong focus on Washington because national policy is key. The federal government has available resources to facilitate dramatic improvements in the nation’s quality of life.
When a good first draft of that booklet is complete, my associates and I may convene a workshop with a panel of community leaders to discuss and evaluate it. At the workshop, we may divide the audience into small groups and ask them to agree on written suggestions for changes to the booklet. The full workshop may then consider those suggestions. After incorporating that feedback, we may convene a larger public event with prominent speakers to further improve the booklet.
At some point, the workshop may also convene additional events to discuss and evaluate related work, such as:
- The Movement for Black Lives Platform, by the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table
- Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, by Sarah Jaffe
- Breaking Through Power: It's Easier Than We Think, by Ralph Nader
If interest emerges, I would prefer to collaborate with others as co-equal authors, perhaps by using wiki software that would enable multiple authors to participate. That partnership could post online both supplementary resource material and documentation of points made in the booklet. Until then, with input from others, I’ll make the final edits.
Build A Purple Revolution: Transform the System is not presented as the final word or as a blueprint for action. Rather it offers a framework and some specific ideas that others may find useful. As more people become involved in the writing, hopefully it will be improved. Perhaps it will prompt someone or some team to start from scratch and compose an alternative proposal that is similar yet wiser, perhaps extracting ideas from Build A Purple Revolution: Transform the System.
Regardless, I’d love to share alternative proposals concerning that booklet’s focus: What is “the system” and how can the American people change national policies to transform it? Please bring any such proposals to my attention.
In the meantime, I’d appreciate your assistance with this project, which is being composed online as Google Docs. At present, the contents are:
- Preface
- A Purple Strategy
- A Scenario
- A Vision
- The System
- Principles
- Problems
- Steps
- Other Proposals
- Wade Hudson and Associates
The homepage for the set of documents is at https://goo.gl/PNSRmy, which includes links to content that has been written. Feel free to email me your feedback, comment directly on the documents, or download them and send me your comments as an attachment. Please bear in mind that we want the booklet to be as brief as possible, while including essential material.
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I've recently posted the following on Wade's Wire:
- Calling Out Racism (guest post), by Steven Shults
- The Unconnected (excerpts), by George Packer
- How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul, (excerpts), by Matt Stoller
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