The Day a Flame Went Out
This weekend, I’m beginning the journey of writing my next nonfiction book. The idea has been simmering for a while: […]
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We Should Decide Politics in the Ballot Box, Not the Jury Box
In the past few months, Knox County, Tennessee, has been embroiled in a controversy that’s become all too familiar in
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Why I Revised The Art of the Compromise (And a Free Sneak Peek)
Some books age like wine. Others age like yogurt. When I first published The Art of the Compromise, I was
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When the Rule of Law Depends on Your Jersey
Politicians love to preach about “the rule of law.” But funny thing—nobody seems to mean it when it applies to
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Majority Rules: Why Party Primaries Need Smarter Voting, Not Just Closed Doors
Executive Summary This whitepaper advocates for integrating Approval Voting (AV) into closed primary systems as a necessary reform to improve
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When Sunshine Blinds: The Hidden Costs of Tennessee’s Transparency Laws
In Tennessee, “sunshine” isn’t just a weather report—it’s a legal regime. The Open Meetings Act demands that elected officials do
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The Man Who Ran Knox County: Chris Caldwell’s Quiet Grip on Power
In Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s masterful biography The Man Who Ran Washington, we meet James A. Baker III—not through
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The Last Donut (for Now): Reflections from the First Democracy-Fueled Discussion Series
Well folks, the final donut has been devoured, the last coffee poured, and the inaugural Donuts for Democracy discussion series
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Democracy Doesn’t Work Without a Shared Language (2/3): IP, XML, and the Grammar of Governance
How a shared language lets democracy scale Before the Internet became the Internet, it was a patchwork of isolated networks.
Too Many to Represent: A Structural Fix for a Cognitive Crisis
Late in the summer of 1787, as the Constitutional Convention strained toward consensus, one thing united even its most fractious
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