The Practical Party

Do Better!

In my fictive headcanon for America’s future, the 2032 elections look different. Back in the 2020s, a whole lot of people who were fed up with the Democrats and Republicans started new parties. One of these is the Practical Party.

Our motto is “Do Better!” Our mascot is a pig building a brick house. Our values are hard work and opportunity. Our politics are about getting things done, not stroking someone’s ego or lining someone’s pockets. Our appeal cuts across class lines because it’s about anyone who is willing to contribute — put in an effort, get off our butts, come together around the stuff we can agree on, and build a strong future.

The Practical Party is proud of America. We are AmeriCANs, not AmeriCAN’Ts.

The Practical Party is willing to do the hard things in order to make life better for our children and grandchildren.

The Practical Party hosts thousands of get-togethers and meetups nationwide, to help each other fix things around the house, clean up each other’s yards, improve our skills, and get to know our neighbors.

The Practical Party gets its members out of the house, off the screens, and meeting in person.

The Practical Party recognizes that most people have something they can contribute, and serves as a matchmaker between those who want to learn a new skill and those who can mentor them. We’re not just “teaching a man to fish,” we’re helping people save money at the grocery store, teaching kids to swim, coaching each other on functional fitness through the lifespan, helping you fill out that scholarship application to go back to school for technical training. We already live in an age of abundance, and the people around us are brimming over with untapped knowledge and skills. We’re helping unlock that potential.

The Practical Party uses in-person gatherings and workdays to build human connections and a can-do attitude.

Those of us who were born here have inherited an amazing country with great, world-renowned institutions and freedoms. It’s time to earn that birthright and ensure that we will leave the country better off than we found it.

The Practical Party is for any American who wants to contribute their time, skills, and effort to sustain and improve America, starting with their own hometown.

While money is a necessary part of running an organization, leaders are recognized as those who show up and work hard for their neighbors and their country, not merely people who send donations.

The Practical Party values action and effort. If you don’t intend to roll up your sleeves and break a sweat (sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally), you won’t enjoy it here. But working together on a common goal is one of the most rewarding experiences humans can have. We’re wired for it.

The Practical Party rewards having skin in the game.

But what does this have to do with elections or governing?

We’ll get there. One of the first priorities is getting Americans to recover our can-do spirit. We need to focus on human-sized, achievable projects and strengthen our connections to families, neighbors, and communities while preparing to tackle institutional and nation-wide problems. One person has more power in their face-to-face relationships than they do when facing a national or global problem. Political demoralization comes from being overwhelmed by a constant assault of media covering things that are too big for us to fix individually, when we could actually be building our confidence and making our nation better by contributing locally in ways that don’t require government action.

Helping each other allows leaders to step forward and be known by those neighbors who could elect them to public office. The Practical Party provides an alternate path for future elected officials to build a constituency without being wealthy businessmen, realtors with billboards, or lawyers. At the local level, partisan ideology is usually forced to take a back seat to facts on the ground. As hard-working volunteer leaders become city council and school board members, they will develop experience serving the public, weighing conflicting interests, and working with budgets. Because they came up through the ranks of their communities, they are more likely to know and represent what their voters want.

Practical agendas:

• Promote people who help others, not just those who beg for attention

• Fiscal discipline

• Ensure that cities, suburbs, and rural areas are safe and orderly

• Streamline small business licensing and professional certification requirements

• Right to repair — maintenance should not be locked into a corporate “vertical”

• Create effectiveness measures for government policies, especially those with known or hidden costs

• Audit the impact of government policies and revoke or improve those where costs are not justified by their effectiveness

• Focus immigration policy on people who share American values and bring something to contribute (If you want to move here and become an American, prove it by your actions)

• Lower the cost of government by promoting voluntary association and strong families

• Rethink government grants in terms of capacity-building for able-bodied, smart people to help their communities, not just bureaucracies that pay top dollar for continuing the status quo

What challenges does the Practical Party face?

Grassroots are great, but they take a long time and may never reach scale.

Getting people to show up for things in person is swimming upstream against a tsunami of glossy entertainments, distractions, and pre-existing activities.

Money, candidates, and people who are experienced in the system (AKA operatives) are necessary for a political party.

Being good at volunteer work doesn’t mean you know shit about economics, labor policy, or foreign policy.

Being an involved neighbor doesn’t mean you’re not misinformed or stupid when it comes to making decisions that affect large numbers of people. (But this is also true of the people running for office now. Being an involved neighbor at least gives you a chance to encounter other ideas.)

Being practical on straightforward, down-to-earth things is great, but the government also has to deal with highly complex things like macroeconomics, environmental safety, and foreign policy. What positions the Practical Party would take on these remain to be seen.

What do you think?

Would you want to join the Practical Party or vote for its candidates? What aspects of its message and methods do you find appealing or distasteful? Is there a place for a party for Americans who “don’t do politics”?

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