Did you miss me?
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Hi Friend,

 

Can you believe it? We’re back! After a quick break (... and a violent
insurrection, an impeachment, AND an inauguration) we’re back with Three Things
Thursday, our weekly breakdown of things that matters in the world of reform. 

 

It’s been a tumultuous few weeks (in which we’ve done a bit of reflection and
reckoning
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with ourselves) and there are probably three hundred things we could talk about
this week, but I’ll try to limit myself. 

 

Here are three things you should read: 

New year, new season for reform.
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It’s a new year, and across the country, elected officials are taking up the
mantle of reform. Of course, in addition to reform, there’s a host of other big
ticket items to deal with, including ongoing discussion about how to best
handle the pandemic — both for their state, and themselves. 

 

In Virginia, where the General Assembly kicked off earlier this month, session
will look a little bit different than it has in years past. For instance,
legislators aren’t even meeting in the capitol building. Instead, to abide by
social distancing requirements, senators are meeting down the road in the
Science Museum of Virginia (where they can distance more easily). Meanwhile,
delegates will be meeting over Zoom. 


The setting may look a bit different, but the legislative priorities remain.
Over onUnite Virginia, read more
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these legislators need to accomplish during their session. We’ll be watching,
and we encourage you to stay up to date too. Make sure tosign up for updates
from Unite Virginia <[link removed]>.



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Remember, bad incentives drive bad outcomes.
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If you’re looking for a fresh inspiration and call to action for your reform
resolutions in the new year, look no further. Unite America board member
Katherine Gehl, author ofThe Politics Industry <[link removed]>, gave
a TEDx talk over the holidays that outlines the simple, nonpartisan reforms
that have the power to switch the incentives of our political system. 

 

As Gehl puts it, the trouble with Washington and our politics today isn’t that
it’s broken — rather, politics are fixed. “Most of the rules in politics are
designed and continuously fine-tuned by and for the benefit of private,
gain-seeking organizations,” Gehl argues.

 

The rules of the game create incentives. The incentives, in turn, drive the
behaviors of politicians and those around them. If we want elected officials
who act independently to represent us, we have to change the way we elect them.

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Let’s end on a good note.
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Not sure if you heard, but there was an inauguration yesterday. After much
chaos and the threat of violence, America witnessed another peaceful transfer
of power, as has happened for over two hundred years in our nation’s history.
There’s a lot that could be said about the speeches, the ceremony, or the
historic nature of what was accomplished, but the best articulation may come
from the 22-year old poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, whose poem “The Hill We Climb

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” captured the zeitgeist. 

 

“If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade, but
in all the bridges we've made.That is the promise to glade the hill we climb.
If only we dare it's because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It's the past we step into and how we repair it.”

 

In the last few weeks, we have overcome divisions unlike any our generation
has ever known. The American project demands we keep building and keep
repairing. And so we climb and repair. 



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Happy to be back with you!

 

Brett
__
Brett Maney
Senior Communications Manager
Unite America
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