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Building Your Policymaking Muscle

A collection of 35 issues

One Question that Explains Most of Politics

I once read that a good story starts from one of two driving questions: Why is this happening? One Hundred Years of Solitude kicks off with Colonel Aureliano Buendía standing before a firing squad. We've got to know why. Why isn't this happening? The play Waiting

Why August is a Great Time to Reach Out to Your Member of Congress

"A golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive." Safe to say Emily Brontë wasn't writing about August in Washington, D.C. However full of life the Hill might be, the

How to Shape a Politician's Thinking

It is true that things are pretty grim out there. It's also true that one guaranteed way to make them worse is if we all walk off the field. So should this note find you hiding way down under the covers, I get it; we're allowed

The Power We're Leaving on the Table

I returned home from Wichita. But my baggage did not. Hours were spent with hold muzak and kind, fairly powerless customer service agents. What I needed was someone on the inside. Someone with the heft to get the train moving. The thing with American democracy is that we get to

What To Do About Congress, In Three Steps

Let's say you're not well pleased about what's been shaking out in Congress. And let's say you want to do something about it. What should you do? First: Focus on where you have influence I might be piss and vinegar about the

How to Go On Offense When the Powerful Want Us On Defense

"This will be our reply to violence," wrote New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein after President Kennedy was assassinated, "to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." The night before, Mr. Bernstein had led the Philharmonic in Mahler’s Second Symphony, known

How to Stop Giving the Powerful More Power + Build Up Our Own Instead

Years ago, I knew a woman who worked at a muscle magazine. She told me that before photoshoots, some bodybuilders would inject a kind of filler into their muscles to temporarily make them look bigger. It's very dangerous, and very effective. It creates the appearance of strength, though

How Good Policy Will Be Made This Year

The first sunrise of 2000, I was on a ferry off the coast of Maine and a guy proposed to a girl on the bow as the new century's light broke around us. I'm thinking today of that earnest morning air that held 100 new years

How to Make a Real Impact This Election

Whenever I see a spray of political signs, I always look for the names I don't recognize. And the reason is simple: those are likely the races where I can have the most impact. There's a good chance that these are signs for local races – school

Making Good Change No Matter the Election Outcome

My favorite annual seed catalog just arrived in the mailbox, signaling the start of autumn. It comes on that wonderful old newsprint that leaves ink residue on your fingertips. The page of peach trees has instructions for grilling peaches; the page of shrubs has encouraging reminders not to give up