As Americans, let’s all stop accepting the most extreme and angry explanations for what’s happening.
An Abusive Relationship
African-Americans are tired of the often abusive relationship they have with the country that they love.
Starting a Revolution By Conversation
The social and public conversations about the issues that matter in the United States and elsewhere lacked two important ingredients – civility and discourse. We need a revolution by conversation. Our very survival depends on it.
A St. Patrick’s Day Salute to the Irish Citizens’ Assembly
During the week of St. Patrick’s Day, my website, BuildingANewReality.com, features Ireland’s pioneering use of citizens’ assemblies and sortition to do democracy differently—employing a randomly selected sample of Irish citizens to deliberate and propose a new law on abortion.
Are We (Collectively) Stupid?
Is humanity stupid? Can we collectively make clever decisions? Or is there no hope? Take fourteen minutes and watch this video, the second of his two Tedx Talks.
How Should We Live Together?
Can we do democracy differently? Brett Hennig, founder of the Sortition Foundation and author of The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy not only thinks so, but he is helping to demonstrate how sortition, random selection of representatives, can improve how we choose our decision-makers and do democracy differently.
Can Citizens’ Assemblies Repair Our Broken Democracy?
The state of modern politics in the western world is in disarray. There is a better way.
Reason 8 for a U.S. National Citizens’ Assembly on Gun Violence
This series, by BANR founder, Ted Wachtel, applies the concept of citizens’ assemblies to an urgent need that the U.S. Congress avoids — gun violence and how to prevent it. Wachtel identifies the reasons legislators can’t do it and why a diverse group of citizens can. No longer theoretical, in the last few years citizens’ assemblies […]
Reason 7 for a U.S. National Citizens’ Assembly on Gun Violence
This series, by BANR founder, Ted Wachtel, applies the concept of citizens’ assemblies to an urgent need that the U.S. Congress avoids — gun violence and how to prevent it. Wachtel identifies the reasons legislators can’t do it and why a diverse group of citizens can. No longer theoretical, in the last few years citizens’ assemblies […]
Reason 6 for a U.S. National Citizens’ Assembly on Gun Violence
“The voters arrived from all over the country: nine of them named John, 10 who’d come from mobile homes, four who lived in South Dakota. Twenty-seven considered themselves extremely conservative; 30 said they were extremely liberal. Twenty-one were out of work and looking for it. Two came with service dogs.”
