I sometimes like to look at the website grants.gov to review how our government is spending our money. It's always a disappointment. One that hit me last night not only as disappointing but a bit ironic was opportunity number SFOP0005045. Here are some exerts from the listing I found interesting:
Today, only a quarter of <redacted> believe that democracy is thriving in <redacted> and half believe that clear and responsive party platforms are crucial.
The name of the country has been redacted since I would believe this statement about the United States. The goal of the funding is to strengthen "public accountability" of the political parties. Novel idea, we should try it.
This goal will be achieved through strengthening engagement and cooperation among political parties, citizen groups, and civil society to enhance mutual trust; enabling political parties to develop responsive issue-based platforms and deliver on promises made during campaigns; allowing citizens to hold political parties accountable for performance, conduct, and use of resources; and building mutual and societal trust among all parties.
Cooperation between political parties, we don't have that! If you include citizen groups and civil society (I think the phrase civil society would exclude most of Hollywood) we certainly don't have cooperation. Holding government accountable for the use of our resources should stop this funding opportunity and the Mueller investigation since he is supposed to be investigating potential Russian manipulation of our election but instead seems to focus more on President Trump's infidelity twelve years ago (more than ten years before he took office).
political parties have become complex institutions that often face internal ideological rivalries, strategic differences, and leadership divisions
Can you believe someone in our government is saying this about another country's government? We should be the poster child for that statement.
A successful project will result in the following objectives:
- Political parties develop governance action plans based on newly-created platforms;
- A mechanism is developed for political parties to hold elected officials (party members or counterparts with whom parties interact) accountable to their party’s platform;
- Engagement and partnerships are deepened with civil society organizations to enable the public to assume the responsibility of holding their elected officials accountable to the promises they make; and,
- Mutual trust is strengthened between and among parties, and with civil society, including media, and the public.
To me items 2. and 4. really stand out. Can you imagine political parties that would really hold their members accountable to the party platform. We would really be able to know what we were getting when we voted. I don't think this eliminates debate but focuses it on how to further the platform of the party. Mutual trusts between parties, I don't see that happening anytime soon not to mention a public that actually trust the media.
You may be wondering now what country it is with problems that are so reflective of our own. The answer will take you back to season 3, episode 10 or 11 of the old TV series Happy Days. In this episode Richie, Potsie, and Ralph have rented a cabin and to try to pick up girls by posing as Tunisian businessmen. Now you know, one of our members of government describe Tunisia as having the same types of problems as our government. The only difference we want to provide $2 million to improve their situation. What an example we set for them.
In case you don't know. Tunisia is in Africa. According to the CIA website Tunisia is a country of 11.4 million people. Ethnically Tunisians are 98% of Arab decent and by religion 99.1% are Sunni Muslim. If it cost $2 million to improve the problems with political parties in a country of only 11.4 million people, almost without ethnic and religious diversity, can you imagine what it would cost here?