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Power Knowledge

A collection of 43 issues

Useful Things to Know About Our Politicians

When Lyndon Johnson first became a Senator, he spent hours sitting in the Senate chamber watching the floor action. The Texan – who would go on to become one of history’s most powerful Senate Majority Leaders, who would muscle through the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, the creation

The Secret Sauce to Changing Policy

While Michigan Congressman John Dingell might not be a big name in most households, his work touched nearly every person in this country. The Dearborn-area legislator got some of the most high impact legislation of the late 20th and early 21st century across the finish line, including Medicare, the Clean

How to Shape a Politician's Thinking

It is true that things are pretty grim out there. It's also true that one guaranteed way to make them worse is if we all walk off the field. So should this note find you hiding way down under the covers, I get it; we're allowed

One of the Most Overlooked Powers Our Politicians Have

When it comes to policy and politics, there's another 'p' word that shapes nearly everything: power. And there's one vital measure of power that easily gets overlooked, but has outsized influence: the power to get stuff done. Specifically, the power to take a flimsy

A Powerful Approach to News Consumption

Every day, millions upon billions upon maybe trillions of words are published (and herein are 600 more - just doing my part). If each word were a water droplet, we're getting Niagara Falls rained on us all the time. And mighty though we are, we aren't

For When We Don't Know What to Pay Attention To

When the mail comes, it's easily clear what's junk and what's to be read. The window washing flyers and hearing aid discounts (a mailing list I somehow got added to when I turned 21) go into recycling. The handwritten notes, the health insurance notifications

A Few Essential Words to Understand this Moment

If there's one thing politicians love it's getting elected. And if there are two things politicians love they are getting elected and then talking about what they're doing in elected office with words that make zero sense to the people who elected them. Words

How to Go On Offense When the Powerful Want Us On Defense

"This will be our reply to violence," wrote New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein after President Kennedy was assassinated, "to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." The night before, Mr. Bernstein had led the Philharmonic in Mahler’s Second Symphony, known

A Gentle Guide For Hard Times

This is a noisy season, isn't it? Rapidly accumulating headlines on top of posts on top of podcasts on top of people at the gym saying, "Can you believe that they're going to..." We couldn't be blamed in this young year for

Which Politicians We Should Pay Attention to Right Now

"Folks come to Washington to do one of two things, " Senator Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor one December day. "To make a point. Or to make a difference." The politicians who're in Congress to make a point might be making the finest