This year is a rebuilding year, simply put. By now, you should have accepted that we lost—by 70,000 votes—the Electoral College, which means we lost the presidential election even though we did win the popular vote by some 3 million votes. We can go back and forth over the amount of hacking and influence from a certain foreign rival and said rival’s allegedly pro-transparency allies. It might even become an issue at some point in the next couple years. I’m not going to do that—for me that debate’s over. We lost, for a number of reasons, some of which should be subject to a congressional inquiry that will likely never happen. The do-over for the presidential level is in 2020. The end. So we pick ourselves up and get moving again.
Some things have become obvious though. We’re poorly served by a good deal of the press—so much so that I no longer watch any news except for the weather. Many people don’t bother getting involved at the local level for a variety of reasons. What I’m suggesting is people need to get involved and learn.
Example: Your local government holds public meetings as required by law. Frequently, few from the public show up and increasingly, the local media doesn’t bother sending anyone to report on the meeting (unless there’s a contentious item). So, show up if you can. If you can’t, get the meeting minutes. By local government, I mean your regional planning commissions, your school boards, and your municipal meetings, and more. I’m sure people can think of something. Local government varies from state to state.
Example: Federal rules and regulations are published daily in the Federal Register. Sign up for this service and skim it every day—all rules and regulations changes have open comment periods. Also, I think you’ll get an appreciation for the background apparatus of government, something that will probably keep lumbering on even in the Trump era.
Most states have something similar to the Federal Register as well. Find it and subscribe.
As an aside here, and this is proof that so many don’t know about this, every single proclamation and executive order that President Obama’s made is published in the Register, including proclamations for Christian religious holidays. When the right claims he ignored Christianity as they frequently do they were not only lying, they were counting on you not knowing these things are indeed published daily, and they were counting on the press either not knowing this or caring if they did. One of the best defenses against “fake news” is to go directly to the source.
Example: Every bill introduced goes through Congress.gov. Read it every day. Make email-alerts that let you know when bills are introduced or subscribe to the services they offer. In addition:
The full text of a bill I need is not on Congress.gov yet. What can I do?
Check to see if the bill is available on GPO's FDsys. Since GPO is the source of bills for Congress.gov, a bill may appear sooner on GPO. In the current Congress, a bill or resolution normally will appear under the bill profile Text tab a day or two after it has been introduced on the floor of the House or Senate. Delays can occur when there is a large number of bills to prepare or when a very large bill has to be printed quickly. The system checks for new electronic copies sent from GPO throughout the day and begins the update process as soon as a bill or resolution is received.
Your state legislature likely has its own version of this. I suggest signing up for that too.
And follow everything Kascade Kat suggests in her daily diaries. In fact, she should be your first read of the day. Here’s today’s.
And what should you do with what you learn? I suggest writing about it here. It’s true this site is a national focus type of site, but all politics is local and you never know, someone likeminded near you might just be reading.
The next diary for Transportation Kos will focus on those huge project lists that every state has—and what you can do to learn more about them. Imperative, since there still might be a mostly privatized infrastructure push from the incoming regime. I’m still looking for writers and blog-editors for Transportation Kos so drop me a kosmail if you're interested.
If you have resources or an idea, share ‘em below! Thanks for reading.