Ron Massey, PhD

Educating Voters On Political Issues

JOIN MY JOURNEY

OF LEARNING AND DOING

SPECIFIC ACTIONS

THAT MAKE OUR VOTES

AND POLITICAL ACTIVITY

MORE POWERFUL.

go to the Blog at: PowerToMyVotes.Com

inspired and motivated instead of disgusted with politics

For the past six years I've been distressed over American politics. A few years ago I began telling myself, "You only have one vote. Stop obsessing over the bad news. Just vote. Forget politics. Get on with your life."

In mid 2021 I saw a book with a compelling title: Politics Is For Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change.

Author Dr. Eitan Hersh is a professor of political science at Tufts University. His PhD is from Harvard. I first got the book from our local library and after reading it bought my own copy because it was and continues to be VERY inspiring.

SO, WHAT IS POLITICAL HOBBYISM ?

It is consuming political news many hours each week for it's emotional effects, excitement, and drama.
It is watching politics, but not doing any actual political work-- the kind of work which gets voters voting for the best politician to promote the voter's issues.
It is usually voting for only the president but probably not for any state or local offices.

Dr. Hersh presents research showing that political hobbyism does not make a person more politically engaged and effective. Hobbyism tends to make them less effective because it burns time and churns up emotions but doesn't result in the hobbyist educating other voters on the issues or helping to insure they actually do vote.

Research on voting finds that people know they should vote but often do not.

Hersh writes that he was a political hobbyist. In fact, this interest led him to pursuing a political science career. Later, when he learned what successful, politically engaged persons did with their time and energy, he successfully used their methods and did acquire political power.

SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS POLITICAL POWER ?

It is the number of votes a person can cause to be cast. There many ways to influence potential voters to actually vote.
In some situations, a person with political power knows how many of the voters he influences will cast their vote in the preferred direction.
The political work goes on in the years and months before an election.

In Politics Is For Power, the reader will find fascinating stories of average men and women who gained political power to help the voters whom they served. They sought and achieved political influence.

Display about Selfless Courage

Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park

Display reads "Selfless Courage"

HOW WILL WE KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE AND WHAT TO DO

WHO TO BELIEVE ABOUT WHAT

We want our vote and political activities to have more effect on politicians' votes in Congress. Opinions exist in minds but not in concrete reality. A vote is a real event that is countable and has effects in concrete reality. For example, who is elected. Or, a law passed in Congress. We have to keep focused on what we want and our strategy for getting it. We want OUR votes to impact POLITICIAN'S votes in Congress. Their votes are the evidence of what they are really trying to do.

Being focused on the whole voting process and being very goal oriented increases the chance of success, and that feels good!

To reach this goal, I and we must upgrade our knowledge of how government and politics should operate. Government by itself is the easiest to understand. The basic machinery can be put in a diagram and names added to each officeholder slot. On the other hand, politics is frustratingly hard to understand. We will spend much time looking into this in future blogs.

Our democracy has been generally successful. Overall it should function as follows:

Our chosen congressmen know what most groups of citizens want and need.
Realistically, it’s very hard to make citizens equally happy about anything.
But everyone would at least like to be able to have a place to live, medical care, transportation, and a salary that will mostly pay the bills.
And the congressmen hear us, discuss and argue in Congress, and finally pass a somewhat reasonable but imperfect bill.

But now, meet Dr. Robert Reich: He’s an economist professor of vast experience and excellent credentials, enough so that several presidential administrations have used him as a policy advisor.

You have probably heard someone say, "I can't find a job paying enough to cover rent and transportation." Or, when hearing of a businessman earning more than $300,000 you may have thought and felt "The rich are getting richer and are poor getting poorer."

Here are some recommendations from Dr. Reich's 2020 book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It.

"Think systematically. Most people's incomes haven't risen for four decades and they are becoming less economically secure." (Reich, p 9)
"First, forget politics as you've come to see it, as electoral contests between Democrats and Republicans. Think power. The underlying contest is between a small minority who have gained power over the system and the vast majority who have little or none." (Reich, p 7)
"Don't assume that we're locked in a battle between capitalism and socialism. We already have socialism--for the very rich. Most Americans are subject to harsh capitalism." (Reich, p7).
Focus on the “systemic changes that have caused the wealth and power of a few to dramatically increase during the last forty years at the expense of the many.” (Reich, p 8)

Here are good reasons to believe in the correctness and importance of Dr. Reich's statements:

His academic and workplace credentials (look them up on Wikipedia) are superb.
The most authoritative newspapers and magazines publish his articles.
Many well respected politicians and commentators see and believe the same things: gross income inequality problem; adult children unable to leave home because they can’t find a job with a living wage.
In the 1960s and 70s Detroit autoworkers earned good wages. Then politicians reduced the power of labor unions to the point they had no bargaining power.
Our own observations fit with what Reich talks about. For example, Here is one of my observations: There are lots of "digital assistants" and chat bots to serve us. But they can't listen and decipher a whole sentence. Customer service is mostly chat bots and digital assistants.There are lots of job openings for chat boxes and robots but fewer office jobs for real humans. I think this qualifies for "harsh capitalism." Machines and technology are replacing skilled human labor. There are fewer good jobs for regular citizens.

AND WHAT TO DO NEXT

In the next couple blogs we will explore more from Dr. Reich.
I hope to publish a blog every week to ten days.
This past week I visited a party headquarters. I explained my wanting to get actively involved in facilitating voting and that I want to learn what happens on the ground floor of politics.
From the recent books I've already read and studied, I will be selecting topics to focus on in upcoming blogs.

I'm excited and look forward to the future of this blog. Helping voters vote.

Congressional Lies, Distortion, False Narratives, and Polarization

More than ever, politicians and news media are pumping out all the drama they can find to feed their voter base and attract viewers.

We viewers want political news. Drama sells news. We get some information, sound bites, videos, spoken and also nonverbal opinions. And when a politicians and news channels give us what we want, then everyone has participated in something significant. Addictive drama.

This vast amount of drama, however, has not brought positive political change. The US Congress has now remained deadlocked for a long time now.

Ron Massey, PhD

Educating Voters On Political Issues

WELCOME

I 'm just one citizen wanting more influence to help our America.

During Trump's impeachment, a famous person said about America, "We're better than this."

I have the time and inspiration to contribute to the political process.

inspired and motivated instead of disgusted with politics

HOW WILL WE KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE AND WHAT TO DO

Congressional Lies, Distortion, False Narratives, and Polarization

Ron Massey, PhD

Educating Voters On Political Issues

Subscribe to the Blog

WELCOME

I 'm just one citizen wanting more influence to help our America.

During Trump's impeachment, a famous person said about America, "We're better than this."

I have the time and inspiration to contribute to the political process.

inspired and motivated instead of disgusted with politics

HOW WILL WE KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE AND WHAT TO DO

Congressional Lies, Distortion, False Narratives, and Polarization

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