The Immediate And Unconditional Decentralization Of Power

Neighbor- Since I started campaigning in January the opening line of my pitch has more or less coalesced around "I'm running for mayor because the government got corrupt." Responses run the gamut from "but you're just a baby" to "Honey, the government's been corrupt." The solutions people put forth (when at all) are a little more varied with some folks outright denying corruption and others choosing to die on the <a href = https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1 target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HR1</a> mountain. To me, anything short of the immediate and unconditional decentralization of power is just putting lipstick on a pig. The pipe dream of sending happy representatives off to City Hall, Albany, and Washington to fight for our best interests while we all work hard at home has been thoroughly debunked by 100s of years of history. The model I point to that is closest to where I want to take New York is Switzerland. Not only are they one of the oldest democracies but they have by far the largest use of direct democracy on Earth accounting for half of all national referenda. <a href = https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/switzerland target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Transparency International</a> consistently ranks the Swiss government among the least corrupt in the world along with many many other strong economic, quality of life, and happiness indicators. While they have their issues like with a 2009 referendum that banned the construction of minarets and a banking system with less than stellar clientele at times, on the whole their government is resilient and designed to respect the will of the public. I just dropped part eight <a href = "https://iraseidman.com/post/sfm-position-paper-8" target = "_blank" rel = "noopener">WAKE UP!</a> in the series <i>decentralize</i>, 5/23 I'll be on the boardwalk in Coney Island 10am-5pm, and Wednesday I'll be in the belly of the beast campaigning on the UES 4-10pm. For those who have expressed interest in volunteering feel free to respond and we can figure out a time for you to come out to one of my events or a way to just plain spread the word. In decentralized power, Ira Seidman https://www.decentralizenyc.com/