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Latest — May 8, 2026

10ish Minutes for a Healthier Democracy

It’s springtime, when a young person’s fancy turns to thoughts of love and some of America’s fancy turns to thoughts of primaries. Some is the hardest working word in that sentence. Nearly 80% of folks who are eligible to vote in primaries don’t. Which gives the

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The Key Thing Most People Get Wrong About Politicians

While it is true that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, a politician by any other name than their own would likely ignore you. And by name, what I’m really talking about is title. The overwhelming majority of folks get politicians’ titles wonderfully and sometimes

The First Question to Ask When Making Good Change

You can learn a lot about humanity when you answer the phones in Congress. You learn how frustrated people are. How angry and lonely they are. How powerless they feel. But there’s one particular thing that’s stayed with me from being a junior staffer in Congress taking hours

Clues to Understanding Politicians

I’ve been doing a bit of dog training. And what I’ve come to realize is it’s really human training. After my shaggy mutt and I do a session together, we both need a snack and a nap. If I had to boil dog training down to three

A Secret Strategy for Making Good Change

When I worked in Congress, the meeting requests that came into our office were nearly always for time with the Congressman. The buck stops with the politician, so of course that’s who you should meet with, right? But here’s a fun little secret nobody tells you: meeting with

One Way to Change a Broken Status Quo

I once saw a terrific sign at a cash register: “If you’re afraid of change, leave it here.” A few months back, I was talking with a friend who was pulling together a group of colleagues to tackle a wicked problem in their field. The nagging issue, my friend

One Way to Get a Politician to Yes

Let’s kick today off with a (not trick) question: What gets politicians elected? Perhaps you’re thinking lots of moolah, special interests, really good hair, social media smarts, doing many, many very, very long podcasts. And sure, those can all have impact. But they are strategies; they are how

An Unsung Factor that Gets Politicians Re-Elected

It was personal to me, my friend said over lunch one day. When I called the Senator’s office for help, they didn’t ask my party or who I voted for. They just asked the need-to-know questions and then got to work trying to get my family home from

Nearly Everything I Know About How to Improve Democracy

Former President Jimmy Carter working on a Habitat for Humanity house in Philly. Source ***Hello friends! I’ve been on travel this week, so here’s a favorite from the archives for you. Wishing you a wonderful weekend of it! Let’s say I give you a toolbox with a

Are Your Politicians Show Ponies or Work Horses?

There is an old Sufi teaching story that goes like this: "You think that because you understand ‘one' that you must therefore understand ‘two' because one and one make two. But you forget that you must also understand ‘and.'" The ancient Sufis really presaged how