Since this country is proud of its democracy maybe a good thing to do is learn a few basic skills that will preserve the democracy that we all say we love…..they are much needed skills as we watch the republic slide into disarray.

This is probably not going to happen because most Americans think they know all there is about the Constitution, the very foundation of this nation.

If you truly love the democracy this country has to have and use all the techniques at our disposal…..if not then the slide that started back in 2010 will eventually eat away at the foundations of this country until we are left with nothing….nothing good.

These simple skills will help this democracy survive and thanx to the site courterpunch.org these skills are easily learned and used….even for the thickest dolts out there…..

As primaries roll out around the country, we’re tracking voter turnout. Raised on Schoolhouse Rock’s cartoon civics lessons, I know that being a good American means voting.

Those 1970’s cartoons weren’t wrong. Voting is the most fundamental act of democratic citizenship. That’s why it has been fiercely contested throughout our history.

But now we’re in the 21^st century, deluged by information, increasingly divided, with few models of bipartisanship.

Democracy now requires much more than voting. What should a 21^st century Schoolhouse Rocks teach?

Finding information

Most fundamentally, we need to be skilled seekers of information. In this era of deepfakes, bots, and fragmenting media platforms, the ability to access and evaluate information is key. Algorithms push us ever more deeply into one point of view. To address multifaceted 21^st century issues, we need deliberately to seek a variety of information, including backstories about controversial events, from differing sources to construct the whole picture.

Understanding our own biases

We must process information skillfully, getting around our inherent neurobiological biases. For example, we naturally lap up information that confirms what we already think but ignore information that challenges our world view. We also are wired for double standards: we attribute another person’s bad behavior to their personality (“she’s late because she’s disrespectful”) while giving ourselves a pass for the same behavior (“I’m late because traffic was bad”). Understanding these natural biases lets us challenge ourselves to explore issues more fully.

Having conversations – not arguments – across divides

Understanding biases promotes a third democratic skill: truly talking with one another. Research, including my own, shows that liberals and conservatives alike often experience cross-divide conversations as an assault on their values. Yet most people also believe these conversations are important and would like to have them to feel connected and informed.

Constructive conversations require listening and asking good questions. Political scientist Andrew Dobson describes listening as our “democratic deficit.” We rarely listen closely to the other side. This undermines our ability to create policy which is seen as a legitimate outcome of democratic debate. Nor do we ask enough genuinely curious questions to learn why others think what they do to help find common ground. As Steve Benjamin, former head of the National Conference of Mayors, noted, “We all suffer from some degree of experiential blindness and need to become experts at learning about others’ perspectives.”

Having complicated relationships

Perhaps the most important – and most difficult — 21^st century citizenship skill is maintaining relationships with people who think differently. For a democracy to function, we need not only a robust marketplace of ideas, but also the ability to work together for policy that meets widespread needs. A conservative interviewee in my study remarked, “Everybody is so comfortable being polarized – they are not happy unless they’re mad.”

It’s challenging to hold conflicting feelings about people, appreciating their good qualities while disagreeing on politics. But perhaps we make it harder than it is.

Research shows we overestimate both how much the other party dislikes us as well as how much they disagree with us about policy. Asking genuinely curious questions and remembering what we appreciate just might help us find that we have more in common than we think. Our 21^st century democracy needs us to develop these skills.

Learn these skills and use them…..it will not be easy but survival is essential for this country.

Next Question.

How many amendments are there to the Constitution?

(I pause here for the dash to the Google machine)

27 and can you name them?

Do not hurt yourself I can help you out…..

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The First Amendment lays out five basic freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the freedom to petition the government.

hese rights were important to establish because they ensured that individuals could think, speak, and act without fear of being punished for disagreeing with the government. 

In addition to being arguably one of the most important amendments, the First Amendment is still very much at the center of America’s political discourse today — from questioning whether or not Twitter bots have First Amendment rights to whether or not the White House banning a CNN reporter violates the Constitution.

https://www.insider.com/what-are-all-the-amendments-us-constitution-meaning-history-2018-11#the-first-amendment-famously-protects-freedom-of-speech-1

Learn this stuff!

You must choose….does the republic survive as a democracy or will it divide itself along ignorant useless biased lines.

It is your decision….choose wisely.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”