Systems, Elections & Power
American voters know our nation’s systems produce intolerable outcomes. On Tuesday, the majority voted for a man who promised to break and fix the systems. Nearly as many voted for a woman who promised to improve them with new policies and programs.
Neither option works. We who work in community need to respond to this moment by engaging and learning with our neighbors how to share power and transform the systems that shape our communities and our nation.
Daniel McCarthy argues in a New York Times column that decades of broken trust by powerful people within those systems – economic, housing, safety, security, justice, health, education etc. -- drove voters to choose the break and fix option.
Systems cannot be fixed, even by authoritarians. Every authoritarian (whether running a nation, company or a household) is eventually overwhelmed by the complexity of our world.
Nor do system outcomes meaningfully improve with only new policies, programs or money. Intolerable health, income, housing and safety outcomes in our nation have persisted despite innumerable waves of “new.” Voters betrayed by decades of “new,” opted for disruption.
Those working in our communities to transform civic systems should recognize this choice because we know systems are changed by disrupting the power dynamics that hold the intolerable status quo in place. The incumbent dynamics embed great power with deeply entrenched institutions that confuse hosting focus groups and advisory councils (or, worst of all, creating more institutions) with sharing power with those directly affected by their policies and practices.
The 2024 election rejected the status quo power dynamic that voters knew to be unresponsive and uncaring. The only choice available to the “reject” voter was a more concentrated power dynamic. Concentrated power can change systems, but its inevitable outcome is only more concentrated power.
The writers of the U.S. Constitution created a government rooted in shared power and we’ve been on a learning journey ever since to put that idea into practice. It’s been a maddeningly slow, grief-filled journey – especially for those denied their inalienable power by that founding document. It’s also been a magical, inspiring journey. Yet, over several decades it’s been an increasingly frustrating journey for every individual who perceives their power as eroding due to seismic shifts in culture, technology and the environment. Fear of loss is a mighty motivator.
Our best path forward, as our founders showed us, is sharing power.
Sharing power creates new relationships. Those relationships help us to understand each other and our opportunities better. Sharing power enables us to learn, decide, experiment and move forward together. Our first response to the voters’ rejection of the status quo should be to build stronger bonds with those who share our interests and bridges with others. We should show up with our minds only certain of one thing: Together we can build a more vibrant, resilient community for ourselves and our neighbors. Sharing power is difficult. We’ve been trained our whole lives to hoard or consolidate power, not share it. I’ve had the privilege to learn from dozens of leaders committed to sharing power to move their communities forward. Here are a few examples.
As we build relationships and strengthen trust in our communities, those on the outside will struggle to pull us apart and use division to consolidate their power. We will share and spread our lessons, and slowly but surely move down the path of building a more perfect union.
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The light is love. Choose love. Share power.
