{"id":1639,"date":"2026-01-04T09:11:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2026-01-04T09:12:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:12:39","slug":"1639","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/?p=1639","title":{"rendered":"David Brin\u2019s new Contract with America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Brin has proposed a set of government reforms to address the current catastrophe, based on the principle that unless 60% or more of the voting public agree with a given policy it\u2019s counterproductive to incorporate it into your election platform. \u00a0He points to Newt Gingrich\u2019s \u201cContract with America\u201d as the paradigmatic example that got Republicans into power for the first time in decades, and contrasts his proposals with Robert Reich\u2019s policy proposal list which he rightly notes is DOA because it doesn\u2019t pass the 60% rule. \u00a0In fact, he notes that Reich might as well add an eleventh element that proposes giving everyone a pony, or a unicorn.<\/p>\n<p>Brin\u2019s list is thorough and do-able. \u00a0As <a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/jamesmack2\/p\/the-pony-problem?utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web\">this reviewer<\/a> notes, it\u2019s an engineering project: specific actions, with measurable results and mechanisms for accountability. \u00a0Worth reading the review first to understand why Brin\u2019s proposal is useful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Brin has proposed a set of government reforms to address the current catastrophe, based on the principle that unless 60% or more of the voting public agree with a given policy it\u2019s counterproductive to incorporate it into your election platform. \u00a0He points to Newt Gingrich\u2019s \u201cContract with America\u201d as the paradigmatic example that got [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifmbanm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}