Tales Of Our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water
Get An ‘Innovation Nation’ On TV To Showcase Political Change
My wife and I enjoy a Saturday morning TV show titled “Innovation Nation” hosted by Mo Rocca. It comes from The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., and The Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation.
On the first Saturday of the new year, the show told about the invention of the can opener 48 years after the invention of canned food. We also learned about fleets of drones that lay out giant colored pictures in the night sky. A third piece was on the early days of aerial barnstorming. Not bad for a half-hour show!
As the show ended, an idea popped out of the blue. It struck me that “Innovation Nation” gave me a keener grasp of the hard road of ongoing progress—past, present, and future—than I ever got through the TV channels of political talk shows, left, right, or center. And all the while I had been entertained more and annoyed less.
I gripe to my wife about political talk shows of all brands, which are an embarrassment to American innovation. My wife says I should tell someone besides her. She is right, of course.
Gradually, “innovation” in politics has shrunk to urging “Vote our party in;” “Vote the other party out.” Just look: One party promises more regulation; the other party promises less regulation. Neither party looks for regulation that uses smart tools (digital tools) to inspect, surveil, verify, and report better, faster, and cheaper. Innovative uses of smart tools make daily news in other fields.
Our country was certainly a political innovation from its inception. As with all innovations, no invention is perfect from Day One. Yet, where the basic concept has great value, steady improvements are made over time. Improvements in motor cars are easily seen in succeeding models in a museum. All of us are used to seeing trusty innovation in cars, aircraft, and space journeys. Failed tries are also seen. By contrast, political communication does more yowling than improving.
A missing part in politics is a working archive to draw from. That is, an “Innovation Nation” show that would tell of political change in America and abroad. Imagine using a half-hour for a new show that three times a week would showcase the hard road of political change—past, present, and future. Few would complain if time for the new show were taken from any of the several dozen annoying talk shows each week. Those shows would still have more than enough time to do what they always do.
An “Innovation Nation” show for politics needs a ready supply of timely insights. The nation’s history is rich with topic areas that have many stories in them. Democracy goes better when we keep in view the long road of improving and failed tries.
Perspectives spread from many venues:
- The nation’s Constitutional Convention that took place in Philadelphia from May to September of 1787
- Lengthy, focused protests, using all the means that are protected in the Constitution
- The formation and evolution of American political parties
- The Congress—where a perverse party system gives the lion’s share of control to the chief of the majority party in each house, however slim the majority is
- The shifting positions taken by the major political parties on large issues that have recurred many times since 1787, such as policy measures on immigration, race relations, and war
- The means our nation has used to sort out pros and cons of issues and, thus, muster truer remedies—these means involve the media, sorts of debate, elections and election campaigns, Robert’s Rules of Order, the Congress, and the court system
This healthy mix presents a remarkable breadth of venues where innovation may thrive or be thwarted. History has shown the wisdom of having so many options for progress. Each of them has missed the mark at one time or other. Yet, the many options in sum have moved democracy towards self-improvement. This success has led many people to observe, “The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
On the other hand, the failures have led others to cite dreadful deeds done by familiar figures and institutions in our country. The public TV resource that we need, “Innovation Nation of Politics,” would pull stories of the good and the ugly from all parts of the archive.
Stories that serve well need facts, but also need context, which means further facts. For far too long, the political routine, to win votes, has sought to strip out context. Context has been missing so often that we have come to expect none. We need to hear the whole again.
Turn to the tools we have that teach more and work better.