From my experience, the first few months of this wikia have been a nightmare. We don't have a focus. We don't have a plan. We don't know what we're trying to accomplish, exactly. All we know is that we must change politics from broadcast, where people tell us what to think, to participation, where we explain and explore what and why we think. I think we need to get back to basics.
Campaigns[]
A campaign is an effort to make a change. From whatever side of whatever issue, people come together who think about an issue in a similar way, form a group and attempt to make a change. Whether it is supporting a specific candidate, a referendum or initiative, or a piece of legislation.
So far, few campaigns have really started operating on this site or on Wikia. We have had some candidates come to post their views, and Dick Clark has done a great job on his page. There have been some efforts on behalf of Constitution party supporters to collect some information, but that seems to have been put on hold. The lone wikia set up outside of Campaigns for a candidate, Hammer 2006, has one contributor. Me. The candidate has not had the time, and nobody on his campaign staff has done anything either.
These are all independent or third party candidates. We have the 2008 Presidential election coming up, and we should be doing outreach to the major party candidates. But my impression is that this won't get their support. Why? Because we don't have either of two things that they are looking for. Money, or voters.
Issues[]
Issues have also been a nightmare. Whether we are arguing for days and weeks about categories, or bouncing articles back and forth between two different names, I've just about had it with the entire concept. We've had some good forum discussions, but they get long really quickly, and if all we do is talk back and forth we might as well be a blog.
Unless there is a campaign associated with an issue, I'm really wondering if that issue belongs here. If there is some group trying to legalize Marijuana, establish Same-sex marriage either within a state or decriminalize "Minor Attracted Adults", that's another story. I'd like to come to this site to find out who these groups are and what I can do to either help their efforts or find a group in opposition to their campaign so I can help them instead. Just arguing back and forth is too distracting, and it is doing nothing to attract new people to contribute.
I'd love to see entries about groups pushing for Immigration Reform. What do these groups want, who is involved with them, and what are their specific ideas? Who has a different view, and what are their ideas instead? That is where our real potential is.
I'll be honest about my reason. The United States is being completely polarized along the lines of political ideology, with the rest of the world watching and suffering as a result. Whether you call it Democrats v. Republicans, Liberals v. Conservatives, Community v. Empire doesn't matter. Our national media is pushing that polarization by twisting facts and not letting both sides be heard in the debate. People on both sides of any argument, and I'll count myself as guilty of this, believe that the other side of the argument is fundamentally wrong in their very moral value set. We're no longer trying to find compromise, we're nearly all saying that it's this way or no way. This polarization will continue to grow until something major changes. If this site wants to be part of the change, we have to find a way to break through the spin and we have to be willing to present both sides of an argument and try to understand the other side.
Infrastructure[]
I'm very proud of the work that we have done to build the infrastructure of the Voter Guides and Electoral Calendar. I think this is the most important section, because we all need to know who we are voting for. But I see this being hindered by our limited numbers and the polarization that broadcast politics has created.
We started putting together a list of pages that we should have for each campaign. With the current Tabs template, we can have up to eight for each, plus a perspectives section. What can we do to actually start building these types of pages for campaigns? I think that would attract people more than anything else.
We do need a revolution in the US. We need a revolution of thinking. I don't want to be part of a second civil war. Because there is no more Mason-Dixon line. Now the divisions in my home country go down the middle of every street and even down the middle of dining room tables, putting parents against children, brother against sister. We can't allow this to continue. We must not. I will not. Chadlupkes 16:30, 20 September 2006 (UTC)