A friendly playbook for good change
The world is before us and we need not take it or leave it as it was when we came in. James Baldwin
Welcome! I'm Caitie, a writer, former Congressional staffer, Mainer born and bred. Policy is for Lovers is a playbook for good policy change that comes to your inbox Friday mornings.
No hot takes, punditry, or blood pressure-raising campaign coverage. Just a friendly evergreen roadmap on how public policy works so we can help make it work better, with a particular focus on Congress.
Why Public Policy Matters
A whole lot is shaped by public policy.
- Food and drug policy shapes what can be in our ice cream, toothpaste, aspirin
- Patent policy shapes how much we pay for medications
- Labor policy shapes if we get paid parental or family medical leave
- Subsidy policies - or lack thereof - shape why corn and sugar are so cheap and childcare and assisted living are so expensive
To say nothing of guns, reproductive rights, healthcare, emissions, and other marquee issues.
The world's cruelties (plus some of its kindnesses) are not inevitable or immutable. They are shaped in no small part by public policy.
And here's the upshot:
Anything Shaped by Policy Can Be Reshaped By Policy - If We Know How
The downside is that the folks who get that are the ones who are already at the top of the food chain. Which is how we end up with a whole lot of public policy that benefits the powerful, not the people.
But when more people know how public policy is made, we get more policy that benefits the people, not the powerful. Policy is for Lovers exists to give we the people practical tools to build the kind of public policy we want to live under.
A Bit About Caitie Whelan (Whale-IN)
Caitie (she/her) is a civic strategist who trains good folks and organizations on how public policy is made so they can help make better policy. She was a staffer in Congress for six years, starting in the Senate and ending as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor for a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. She served as Communications Director for the Maine Democratic Party and did communications and operations for one of President Biden's global climate initiatives. Caitie co-founded a school in India with a community of lower caste musicians and ran her own creative writing and teaching venture. She graduated from Brown University where she is a member of the Brown Alumni Association Board of Governors. She is a Truman Scholar for Public Service and Founding Chair of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Maine Chapter's Public Policy Team. Contact her here.