An Indictment & Invitation to the 535 Members of the House and Senate

The Grand Bargain Project team wants to share with everyone on Capitol Hill a simple procedural change designed to spur you to start acting in your constituents’ best interests.

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To put this in context, Pew Research reports that the U.S. stands alone as a country where 53% of citizens see most citizens as “morally bad.” Social media may have accelerated this trend. But Capitol Hill has clearly been Ground Zero for political dysfunction, contempt for opposing views, and intentional stirring of public outrage.

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No lawmaker has to my knowledge taken responsibility for any of this. The dozens I’ve met have all offered the same excuses for failing to improve Americans’ lives enough for most to notice:

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• The other party

• Dysfunctions of your own party

• Outdated norms and procedures on The Hill

• Day-to-day demands of the job

• Unrelenting need to raise money for the next election​

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Each lawmaker gave these excuses in response to a YouGov poll in which 83% of voters shown the above-cited procedural change - and 38 other major political and economic reforms - wanted Congress to make the entire package “a priority.”

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Hence this letter. The five excuses apparently represent your colleagues wanting the title of Senator or Representative without really earning it.

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Yet I too have coasted on early success - until at age 46, when the universe put a boot in my ass to say that it did not exist for my amusement, forcing me to start learning how to resolve society’s conflicts. This cause still fuels me.

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So, to each member of the House and Senate, my team now offers you an opportunity to - at long last - do the right thing at this moment of extreme crisis for America, for humanity, for posterity, for our rights “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

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On Thursday, the House recesses until Labor Day, leaving us all subject to the whims, hatreds, manifest stupidity and insatiable lust for power of Donald J. Trump.

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If any of the 535 of you want to turn your chamber into a problem-solving institution, please join me on the Capitol Hill steps to reveal the one change that will do the job.

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These slides include the new procedure, the rest of the Grand Bargain, the YouGov data, and evidence that - without these changes - Trump’s havoc will continue unabated until U.S. democracy perishes this year, on your watch.

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This note is especially addressed to lawmakers now breaking ranks with their own party to do right by the American people: 

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• Representative Tom Massie

• Representative Maria Salazar

• Senator Thom Tillis

• Senator Lisa Murkowski

• Senator Rand Paul

• Senator Bill Cassidy

• Any other lawmaker who believes they belong on this list

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I’m available to any federal lawmaker, governor, authentic leader or genuine journalist to answer any questions.

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Sol Erdman
Founder & CEO, Center for Collaborative Democracy
Organizers of the Grand Bargain Project