Fulcrum strategy? What does physics have to do with politics?

Happy Laborl Day weekend!  Thanks and prayers to all our workers, union members, employees and contractors.  We deeply appreciate the entire labor force here which drives our prosperity in the USA.

Welcome to part 7 of our ongoing 12 part series where I can share with you what we envision our state and country can look like through our work with Represent Us!

In case you are joining us for the first time here’s what we’ve covered so far in our series:

1. Vision:

“good candidates –> good governance –> good society”

2. Message:

“Country over Party”
“People over Politics”
“Common-sense people campaigning for common-sense politics.”

3. Mission:

“Fix the System”

4. Strategy:

FIX” the system by getting out the “VOTE

5. The “F” in FIX stands for “Fight corruption via the Anti-Corruption Act”

6. The “I” in FIX stands for “Incentivize collaboration amongst our politicians”

7. The “X” in FIX stands for “X-ecute our Fulcrum strategy”

8. The “V” in VOTE stands for “Vocalize our message”

9. The “O” in VOTE stands for “Obtain political leverage”

10. The “T” in VOTE stands for “Triangulate our politicians”

11.  The “E” in Vote stands for “Enact enduring, model legislation”

12.  The end of our series is just the beginning!

Last week we learned about 3 specific ways we could “incentivize collaboration:”

    • Advocate for congressional rules changes such as those in NoLabels “Break the Gridlock” pledge
    • Create awareness by asking people to sign Unite America’s “Unity 2020” pledge amongst our Presidential contenders
    • Emulate and support organizations like Millennial Action Project (MAP) who are specifically building bipartisan caucuses at the state and federal levels

We have seen nice progress with each of these within the past 12 months!  “Break the Gridlock” helped drive key improvements to the House rules for this current Congress.  Over 12,000 people have signed the Unity 2020 pledge now.  MAP has built the Future Caucus here in our WI State Assembly and they have hosted numerous bi-partisan events on resolving key issues of our time.


Today we will focus on the “X” in FIX which stands for:

X = X-ecute the “Fulcrum Strategy”

So, if you’re like me, you probably vaguely remember what a fulcrum is back from your high school physics days.  The fulcrum is essentially the point around which a teeter-totter, well, tips, teeters and totters.

Fulcrum Image
                               Physics is FUN! Do you remember what a “Fulcrum” is?

The fulcrum is a fantastic illustration of what Unite America is trying to do as it can “tip” the balance of power in our current political system.  In short, here’s how it works:

      1. Elect ~4-5 independent-minded “country over party” candidates (who are willing to stand up to party leadership for the good of the people) in any fairly evenly distributed (between Rs & Ds) political house (no one party has more than a 3 seat advantage).

      2. Those 4-5 candidates will form a “fulcrum” which denies either party a majority and thus control of that political house.

      3. If either major party wants to pass any legislation they will have to do their best to persuade these 4-5 independent-minded leaders to vote their way – which usually forces compromise towards the middle – exactly what we need in our gridlocked political system today!

Of course, a video is a much better format to convey this information so please watch this 1 minute 12 second video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WItIAyMNZYE&t=9s

Our unique “Fulcrum strategy” explained in just over a minute!

The real power comes in denying either major party the majority in the political house.  Now, committee leadership and committee membership must be decided TOGETHER – not just by the party in control.  Rules of how that political body operates must be decided TOGETHER – not just by the party in control.  Legislators, if they want to report any progress to their constituents in terms of passing laws, must be worked on TOGETHER – not forced upon everyone else by the party in control.

Also, hyper-partisan extremes will give way to compromise and negotiation more in line with the middle (which represents the majority of Americans!) and we will begin to take back our political system and steer our country towards a more balanced and unified approach to governance.

Now, some of you may be saying that this is unrealistic and unattainable.  However, we actually have one state in our union which is actually doing this:

Alaska

They not only created a multi-partisan “fulcrum” – they created a multi-partisan majority just in the 2018 elections!  To see how they did it and how it works check out this article below:

https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/02/18/multi-partisan-house-majority-takes-shape/

Granted, Alaskans have a strong independent streak given where they live.  They can be heavily influenced by the Republicans because of all the oil there.  They can be heavily influenced by the Democrats because of their unique environment and the need to protect it.  Independently they are the only state to have a unique “oil dividend” where every Alaskan receives an annual check from the government created from the excess profits generated by the oil industry.  Nearly every Alaskan loves this and it has been a great boon for their economy!

So, it will be interesting to see how their state level assembly moves with their “fulcrum” going forward.  Their success can give us a taste here in Wisconsin of how things might work when we, some day, elect the “country over party” candidates required to form our own fulcrum!


I trust you can now see why it is imperative for us must to elect independent-minded, “country over party” leaders.  Ending gridlock, combating hyper-partisanship and bringing goodwill and courteousness back to our broken political system are huge motivators for us.  That is why we list

“X-ecute our Fulcrum Strategy”

as a vital element of our long-term “Fix the System” strategy.

Now, we just have to get more people on board and share with them the need for change and our plan to succeed.This is why, in next week’s newsletter, we’ll dive into the “V” in our strategy and go further into how we’ll “Vocalize our message” to get the word out about what we are fighting for.


THIS WEEK’S ACTIONS

ACTION 
We are currently seeking a volunteer Chief Marketing Officer.  If you know of any folks with marketing “chops” (or have some of your own!) who might find inspiration in Represent Us’ mission to “fix our  broken political system” please respond to this e-mail and let us know!


Stay cool, stay centered, stay united,

Rich Eng

p.s.  If you want to get more deeply involved and be part of one of our teams to start strategically driving the policy changes that can help restore our republic, deliver our democracy and “fix the system,” please ask to join our closed Slack group, RepresentUsWI.slack.com, and we will reach out to you.


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