Party

Our culture used to chug along slowly enough that we could switch every few years between letting the people on the left paddle and then the people on the right. But we’re moving too quickly for that now. No matter which side is paddling we just end up spinning in circles.

We need a new kind of political party, something built for the 21st century.

A political party that isn’t fixated religiously on a single ideology.

A political party that doesn’t claim to have all the answers.

A political party that doesn’t expect you to wear a certain color hat and dislike people who wear different color hats.

A political party that knows we need both progressive and conservative forces steering our culture. Because change can be chaotic and tradition can be tyrannical.

A political party that will happily throw away any belief, idea or program that’s no longer working.

A political party that doesn't believe it has a monopoly on truth and goodness. Because if your tribe believes it has a monopoly on truth, your tribe has become a cult and you should get out if you still can.

A political party that isn't afraid to make mistakes or to acknowledge when other people are doing something right.

A political party that depolarizes complex issues rather than splitting us apart for political gain.

A political party with a sense of humor.

A political party that will steelman any argument before debating it.

A political party that genuinely embraces a diversity of ideas.

A political party that anyone from any other party can join. In other words, a trojan horse, a meta-party that doesn't have to 'win' to change the shape of politics.

Maybe party is the wrong word. A platform. A toolkit for injecting sanity back into the political process.

We live in an overwhelmingly complex technological culture yet most politicians and citizens are technologically and culturally illiterate. That sounds harsh but it’s true. We are fighting to the death over things that most of us don't know anything about.

Maybe that’s where we need to start.

A political party that trains its politicians like NASA trains its astronauts.

That sounds crazy right? But why? Fortune 500 companies are now treating their top executives like pro athletes. So why not politicians?

No one in their right mind would let a billionaire celebrity command a space station. A country is more complex than a space station. And yet there's now a line up of billionaire celebrities on both sides of the political divide who think they should take a stab at being president. And there are crowds of people are cheering them on.

Politics is the only profession that doesn’t require any specific training or experience. Maybe we should change that.