Why none of it works.

[Swift]

I recently downloaded an app called Countable, that someone (maybe Geonuc) had mentioned (maybe on Facebook).

It sends you information on bills going through Congress. I don't know if it is every single one, but there are lots of them; nothing very trivial (like declaring National Cheesecake Day), but they certainly range from small to big issues. For each of these bills you can vote Yeah or Nay and it will send an e-mail to your reps with how you feel about it. And for each bill you can post your own thoughts on the app about it (and read other people's, which you can LIKE or not), you can read a summary of the bill, and even the entire bill if you like.

At first glance it seems like a really good idea. But it got me thinking about a fundamental problem with our political system.

For the couple of days I've had this app, I've put in my votes about bills. Some of them I know the issue, for some it isn't clear or I don't know much about it, so I'll read the summary and a couple of the posted thoughts. Some of them I just look at who is sponsoring it and go "oh... it must be bad". Some I'll just skip and not vote on.

Now, maybe I'm being a bad citizen by not carefully studying each one, but hey, it isn't my job, I got other things to do with my time, and Rep Joyce (my congress-critter) is a Republican party-line guy, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

I may just delete the app. The constant reminders about new bills getting posted is getting annoying.

But it got me thinking... Many (most?) of these issues are not black and white (I'm talking about the broader issues, not the particular bills). A lot of them are actually pretty complex and if humans are going to try to improve them, it probably requires a lot of finesse and balance to deal with these subtle complexities.

And our political system is completely incapable of dealing with such things. Most people have neither the skills nor the interest to do the work required to think all of these things through. We don't carefully balance all these things - we give it about 140 characters and make a decision.

Some of the problem is that those of us who see the world as various shades of gray, who don't see these things as black or white, and who understand that the solutions are at best difficult and are sometimes impossible, don't run for office, and if they do, they don't win. Voters don't want leaders who are "indecisive", we want people who are bold and have all the answers. And the people who do run, who are bold and have all the answers, are too clueless to know how clueless they are.

Now, this isn't anything new. But in the old days, much of politics did seem to be compromise, of our representatives coming at things from opposing sides and having their staff and the career people at the appropriate agency work out something in the middle that at least most of us could swallow, and had at least some thought put to the complexities of the issue.

But with today's partisanship, with the systematic dismantling and fleeing of the experienced bureaucracy in DC (and I don't mean bureaucracy in a bad way), we are filling DC and the Internet and the world with people who only look at things as black and white.

And this is to a great extent coming from all sides of the political spectrum. I see as much lack of nuance, of statesmanship, and compromise from the left as a I do from the right.

What's the solution? I have no clue; I don't think there is one. But I already told you I'm a gray kind of guy.

[geonuc]

What you describe is the reason we have representative democracy. You select someone you trust to deal with the issues full time and you just evaluate the results every election cycle.

Works great, until it doesn't.

I don't think it was me that mentioned Countable. I've not heard of it. Or if I had, I forgot. That happens a lot these days.

[Cyborg Girl]

I think that was me who mentioned it. Thanks for confusing me with geonuc though, that's kind of high praise.

[vendic]

It's hard enough to pin a politician down on an issue when it is black and white. I don't mean that they are in the grey, I think they are playing both sides so people can read into it and see what they want to see.

[Tarragon]

Politics tends to become black and white when religion gets involved, since religion promotes certainty over probability. Unlike science, which was big in the Apollo Era, the shift to the Moral Majority by the GOP started driving every thing to their particular interpretation of the Bible and vision of reality. This happened in the 1850s-60s too, with different sects declaring opposing sides on the slavery issue.

We're starting to see sectarian differences now, with some Christian pastors supporting Trump and some opposing him. I don't know if it's intuition or analysis or luck that he's focused on the Muslims instead of Christian sectarianism. But, if Pence ever gets his hands on the reigns, through influence or succession, you might see a larger sectarian divide emerge in American Christendom.

Not to turn this into a religion thread. Just explaining the intractable behavior. Another reason is Big Money and Media. There was a time when the Parties were shepherding cats, who were relatively independent. Now, with the cost of Media for elections, they need Big Money, which has a big say in what they want, which tends to bring the candidates into line.

But yeah, laws are complicated. People want to get back to a simpler life - like they remember from childhood, or the 1950s. There's a risk they'll crash the economy and destroy the environment, and then things will be real simple.

[Cyborg Girl]

So, FWIW, Countable has a website that provides the same services as the app:

https://www.countable.us

Friendlier, usable from a desktop/laptop, doesn't run down anyone's battery or cut your comments short.

[Swift]

So, FWIW, Countable has a website that provides the same services as the app:

https://www.countable.us

Friendlier, usable from a desktop/laptop, doesn't run down anyone's battery or cut your comments short.

Thanks GJ, I was getting tired of the app. I'll take a look at that.

[Cyborg Girl]

You're welcome!

Also re the app, the notifications turn out to be what kills battery life. They can all be disabled in the settings section.

'Course I'm not sure how effective this is all going to be... The developers seem to already trying to make it into a social media thing around politics (urgh), so it may favor parasitism off social stuff over actual utility. And there seem to be a lot of Trumpists present.