Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Democracy

  • Some meandering thoughts on “elections have consequences.”

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    8 min read

    There’s a phrase that seems sensible. We say that elections have consequences, which is only half true, and deceptively not.

  • Politics or Partisan?

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    1 min read

    Many people get these words confused. And misunderstanding what politics actually is is deadly for democracy.

  • You Can’t Make Me

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    4 min read

    The problem with the phrase, you can’t make me, is not whether it’s true. The problem is that the very idea is fundamentally unjust.

  • Democracy Thrives on Immediacy

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    4 min read

    One of our oldest sayings is “time heals all wounds”. That regardless of what has happened, a scab will form eventually. Of course, we have misguided expectations. We hear the word heal and we assume all will go back to normal. But there is no “normal”. There is progress and there is stasis, but no normal.…

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  • Puritans: why Wall Street wasn’t occupied sooner

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    3 min read

    or #OccupyWallStreet and our fear of protests A favorite line over the last two weeks has been: I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Of course it did, but the media doesn’t really like protests.  It is surprising since the news is all about sensationalism and big displays of strangeness and upsetting the status quo.  It’s…

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