Centrist papers NO.-1

To the people of Blue poltics.All change is painful. Drastic change is even more painful. But the most painful is annihilation. That is what must be remembered when we want to complain about what I am about to propose. Annihilation, not literally but in every other way as productive, influential and important citizens of the country. We are facing a future where when the words of the Constitution are spoken, "We the people of India", 200 million citizens will not be included in the term, 'We the people.' Once again, if that comes to pass, it will be with our active or tacit agreement. Nobody to blame but ourselves.

As set out in our first post , we launched this Publication both to transparently share our experience in building the EU Commission's Knowledge4Policy Platform, and to bring together expertise in evidence-based policymaking. We hope to learn from contributors worldwide, apply what we learn to our Platform, and generally advance the state-of-the-art.

Referendums should either be non-binding to prevent strong emotions tied to a definite outcome, or they should be held to ratify a treaty or law to allow for a sensible debate over substance. This would greatly decrease the amount of bluster and animosity in these debates, hopefully preventing creating even deeper divisions in the country than we have seen develop over the past five years.

There is also a case to be made for the filibuster's unconstitutionality. The Constitution only explicitly requires a super-majority to convict someone of impeachment, expel a member, override a presidential veto, ratify a treaty, pass a constitutional amendment, restore a confederate soldier's right to serve in congress, or determine presidential disability. This enumeration suggests that the framers believed that a majority vote would be sufficient for legislative action in situations outside these seven cases. Other constitutional provisions imply this presumption and the Supreme Court has confirmed this principle. The Constitution's text strongly implies that a majority vote is sufficient for legislative action in most cases. The filibuster violates this principle by imposing an effective supermajority requirement for votes on routine confirmations and bills.

Exposing elite white male supremacy must operate on at least two levels. First, we must create broad and penetrating public understanding of how elite white males specifically benefit from the exploitation of those who are not elite white males. The Left has done a good job uplifting how inequitable policies hurt those who are directly impacted, but we must also frame our campaigns to expose how the policies help to maintain hegemony for the benefit of elite white males. For instance, positions like denying climate change, privatizing schools, opposing universal healthcare, supporting mass incarceration, taking away a woman's right to choose, deporting immigrants and banning Muslims, etc., could all be framed according to their value for maintaining elite white male rule?—?in addition to how the poor, women, Blacks, immigrants or the planet will be hurt.

The change must begin within us, individually, within our families and within our community. We need to clean up our lives of all forms of disobedience of Allah? and ensure that we spread goodness all around us. Islam doesn't distinguish between Muslim and non-Muslim when it comes to justice or welfare. Neither must we. Our presence must be seen as a blessing in the community we live in, our cities and villages. This message must be spread by all of us in our different capacities. The major share of this lies on the Ulama who have access to the Friday congregations. Their message must be about distinguishing ourselves through service, bringing hearts together and against every form of divisive thought, ideology and message. We need to root out the social evils that our society is plagued with, chief among them being alcoholism, gambling and ostentation. Our ostentatious weddings are a case in point. To participate in such functions is to aid and abet the crime.

We must not only consciously not propagate differences and divisiveness but we must forcefully do the opposite. Preach and promote by word and action, inclusiveness, acceptance and brotherhood. Universal brotherhood, because that is the way of Islam. Universal brotherhood is a message that is unique to Islam. That and mercy and forgiveness from one person to another. These two must be revived urgently because our lives are currently desolated and deprived of both. Today, let alone preaching divisiveness with respect to non-Muslims, we preach it with respect to Muslims who don't belong to our particular cult, juristic order (Madhab), culture or region. This is completely Haraam. It is not in the scope of this article to quote from the Qur'an and Sunnah to prove my statement but there are plenty of lectures of mine with all references that you can listen to.

Last May, while we were up to our necks caucuses and primaries, John Oliver noted on Last Week Tonight that we only seem to talk about how screwed up our elections are in the months leading up to them. Once we've voted, we develop amnesia and forget about fixing anything?—?which is a large part of why the system stays screwed up.

Why should Justices interpret the Constitution with regards to groups that may not have been considered at the time of adoption? Because without that flexibility, the Constitution ceases to exist for many in society, its protections wither into nothingness, due to the failure of the Democratic process to recognize the rights of others.

We must ensure our voting systems cannot be compromised going forward. The longer we wait, the worse it will become. Based on 10-years of work in this arena, I cannot confidently say next year's mid-terms or the general election in 2020 will be any more trustworthy than 2016, and if nothing changes probably less so. America's voting technology throughout our nation has deteriorated like much of our overlooked physical infrastructure. It now impacts our national security. We believe this infrastructure is too important to completely privatize and remain as a backwater of government I.T.. Initiatives like the TrustTheVote™ Project (and others) offer a way to increase confidence in our elections and their outcomes. Election officials' have a fiduciary mandate to deliver elections that are verifiable, accurate, secure, and transparent (in process and systems). America needs to make this a priority as a matter of our civic duty and our civil right.

I find myself asking what's real anymore. We know enough now to build our own world, our own internet if we have to, as some are demonstrating here . In order to engage the community at large, and to truly reshape the institutions holding us back from progress, we must look beyond the echo chamber for inspiration.-centrist