Why I started Coffee Party USA

...There is a profound relationship problem between the government and the people that it serves. Many Americans feel alienated from the corrupted political process, the dysfunction of the government and the seeming polarization of our society.
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This is a terrible state of affairs because the public's disengagement from politics is the greatest threat to a democracy.

We are proposing to address this threat, to practice democracy at the local level and create a home in the public sphere. What better place than a neighborhood coffee shop to create that home?

There are three steps to this model of participatory democracy.

The first step is creating a public space for open and civil dialogue. The second step is collective deliberation, considering facts and values to arrive at a decision. The third step is working toward implementing the decision.

We will practice all three steps as a community, pledging to be civil to each other.

Annabel posted the link to this editorial on Coffee Party USA's Facebook page last week to remind everyone that the movement is not just about civil discussion of politics. Civil discussion was both a means to an end and only one of the goals. The movement also had to decide what it was about and then take action. The decision was reached last year to tackle Financial Reform and Election Reform, specifically counteracting the massive wealth inequality in the U.S. and the capture of the political system by wealthy interests exemplified by the Citizens United decision. Now it is time to start to take action.

Stay tuned for an announcement from the website about the next event.