It's also your choice whether to open this email...
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Hi Friend,

 

Look at that, it’s already May.


For some of us, May will bring opening steps to re-establish our regular
patterns. For others, it will bring more shelter in place, and a continuation
of the “safer at home” practices. 


As the adage goes, April showers bring May flowers, so here’s hope for
brighter times ahead. 


Here are three things to read this week:

A dysfunctional government is going to govern dysfunctionally
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As millions of Americans and their businesses continue to suffer amidst the
nationwide lockdown, the Paycheck Protection Program -- a government loan
program designed to give small loans to businesses during the pandemic -- has
run dry, even when thousands of businesses have yet to apply. At the same time,
it’s emerging that large, stockholder-owned corporations were among those who
received loans.


As former Senate candidate Dave Dodson points out
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, the problem with the PPP isn’t one party or one leader. Instead, what we see
now is a system that’s working exactly as it was designed to. If we want to
change the outcomes we see from our political system, we have to change the
incentives that govern it. (That sounds familiar!
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As Dodson argues, “Had the small businessperson a voice in allocating $2
trillion in taxpayer money, organizations which employ 59 percent of the
workforce might have gotten more than 17 percent of the funds." 



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Vote at home IS critical infrastructure
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Because we will never stop beating the drum on vote at home, here’s an article
from two fellows at the Hoover Institution, who argue that states must prepare
for vote at home elections ahead of November. (Sounds familiar
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states begin to re-open, citizens and elected officials alike are going to be
lulled into a sense of normalcy and false confidence that the worst of
coronavirus is behind us. Yet most projections show that without proper social
distancing, this won’t be true.


“If there’s one thing this pandemic has taught us by now, it’s that
preparation is everything,” argueco-authors Valentin Bolotnyy and Larry Diamond
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. “The stakes are too high and the prospect of a second wave of COVID-19
infections this fall is too great to bet our democracy on a lucky break.
Vote-by-mail must now be considered part of our democracy’s critical
infrastructure — and we must give states the financial and technical assistance
to ensure that it can function as such.”



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Coronavirus presents two paths: unity or division
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The human experience is a lot like the mythical phoenix: out of the ashes of a
terrible fire, a new life can emerge, and with it, new opportunities. A new
longread fromauthors Ashley Quarcoo and Rachel Kleinfeld argue
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that the great unsettling caused by coronavirus may actually be the catalyst
to a more unified and less polarized world. 


Let me be clear: coronavirus is a terrible disease that is causing physical,
emotional, and economic hardship for millions of people around the world. Yet,
as the authors point out, again and again, humans have shown to become more
resilient and more cohesive following great tragedy. Already, we’re seeing
signs. A poll from YouGov and More in Common found that 90 percent of Americans
feel “we are all in this together,” an enormous increase from the year before. 


Yet this unity isn’t certain: historically, tragedy has also led to increases
in xenophobia and racism. Already, we’re seeing signs of this as well. If we
want America to come out of this crisis stronger, and ensure that the last two
months in quarantine haven’t been for naught, we must choose the path of unity,
and not lose the feeling of togetherness that we have. For the future of our
country, we must trust one another. 



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Brett
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Brett Maney
Senior Communications Manager
Unite America
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