Our real Independence Day

The odd thing about my last few posts is that I'm not terribly interested in health care--it became important only because its sucking up so much of our GDP that it has become a drain on what I care most passionately about-- ensuring our nation offers the greatest depth, breadth, and parity of opportunity of any--by as large a margin as possible. This is, in my opinion, the most important issue simply because no matter how efficient we get, everything still costs money. And it's that unmatchable opportunity that draws the best, brightest, and most driven to build their enterprises here, and make the ones we have better.

Today is actually our 233rd anniversary, not the fourth. That's just the day we celebrate it. I remember when America was a very deeply loved nation. When I felt incredibly lucky to have been born an American. Other nations seemed like propeller planes while America was a jetliner. I remember thinking, or being taught/indoctrinated to find the reason for this in our constitution and form of government. The sociopolitical landscape that our nation established was just a lot easier to build robust enterprises on.

At least in theory. In practice it looked more like an old boy network. Perhaps in a room with bigger windows. I've always tried to put my finger on why our government is so gimcracky. I think the weak link is actually us. The founding fathers created some great roles. But they did a piss poor job of working out how to fill them in my opinion.

The basic idea is good--let the people decide. But it seems to go straight downhill from there in practice. With so many issues to understand to even comprehend the proposed alternative strategies to our problems we're left with little but the gut feeling we get watching the people we elect to guide us act out roles. Amidst a din of spin from pundits.

Of all the things I can think of that would enable our nation, and ourselves, to once again leap frog the rest of the world in the race to create the most personally liberating and empowering society it is a minor change in the way we vote that seems to offer the most bang for the buck. I'll try to explain one way I think we might vet leadership far more effectively tomorrow.