Presidential Election 2012: Will web 2.0 be the decisive factor?

Probably not this election, but the next, or the next, Politics 2.0 will change the course of elections and might even create better choices for presidency. I think the time is coming, and soon, when candidates will emerge from outside the Power Party Alliances. It might be premature, but I believe the candidates within the party structure missed a great opportunity this year of getting connected and blowing the doors off the election. The candidates' flunkies piddled with web 2.0 but none embraced it, connected with it and utilized its viral power. They don't quite "get it" yet. In this world of get-its and don't-get-its, politicians are the don't-get-its.

71 year old Ron Paul didn't have a clue, but somehow the YouTube crowd embraced him -- who knows what he might have accomplished if he'd had a clue. Who knows what bright person in the next 4 to 8 years might capture the imagination of connected users all over the country and break the power hold of the two parties. A third way might develop to choose leaders, leaders who understand the new, open way of the world where ideas and leadership count more than political connections and party status. We might actually get to the point where it's truly a government of the people, by the people and for the people (or whatever order that's supposed to be in). What a concept! A president that executes the office based on small, unobtrusive government, represented by a congress of public-spirited servants, balanced by courts made up of rational judges who understand and uphold the Constitution, elected through thorough examination of Web 2.0, transparent and psychologically naked.

Imagine thousands of citizens vying for elected positions using blogs, social networks, websites that reveal all their qualifications, vetted by connected users across the country interacting with the candidates on a daily basis. It would be beautiful chaos, democracy in action, a true Greek ideal of citizen participation with our twist of representation in a Constitutionally limited government. It seems improbable but not impossible. One thing is for sure, the candidate who gets connected first and uses political 2.0 tools will have a definite advantage. The candidate who "gets it" will differientiate himself/herself in a new way that people will embrace.

Perhaps even online voting to make it easy and bring everyone possible into the process. Improbable right now, but not impossible in the future. One sign that it will be a great idea will be the resistance from the party machines. It will take power out of their hands and place it in the hands of the people, and they will scream bloody murder.

Imagine how much the people of this country would learn about politics and ideology and governance with a great, open conversation across the web, with candidates stating their positions and having to answer directly to the voters who challenge them every step of the way. Millions of conversations regarding the nature of government, its failures, it successes, the needed changes, the potential for true representation and humble leadership.

I get excited thinking about ideas like this -- I can see it happening and it encourages me about the future. The old guard will break down -- it's just a matter of time, and then we'll be tested to see if we really can be an enlightened country that pushes freedom to its limits, that allows all voices to be heard and to participate -- will we rise to the challenge and accept personal responsibility, or will we shrink back into dependence?

Or, am I just dreaming?

Flipping Homes: A Closer Look

First of all let me say that I distinguish between fraud and flipping. When professionals collude to trick sellers into taking a low price, then flip the home for a profit in a short time, this is not what I'm talking about, and it shouldn't cloud the issue of flipping. Why do we always take the worst practices and make that the norm?

Hell, let's change the name to something that better represents what I consider a legitimate real estate practice -- let's call it BuyRebuild&Sell (BRS) -- it sounds like Briz, so let's call it Brizzing, in order to give it dignity and a cool name.

So there is this dog of a house uglying up the neighborhood and no one wants to buy it. I come along and look at the home -- yet I'm looking at it in a different way -- I look at its soul. The poor darling is sitting there being made fun of, people are even cursing it -- That damn ugly house! It's killing values! Some even secretly wish it would burn down.

Now, I'm a compassionate person, and I've always rooted for the underdog and tried to protect those who were bullied and ridiculed for their appearance. And I'm a businessman. Yep, I'm a crude businessman who likes to make a profit.

I say to myself, this poor house needs brizzing. I'm a good brizzer -- I've brizzed over a dozen houses now. It's funny how some people look at brizzing -- they like the fact the house has been brizzed but they hate the profit you make off brizzing. "I know what you paid for that dog of a house!" -- "You are charging what? You only paid $60,000 for it!"

Yes, but I brizzed it, you dope! I took a chance on this poor ugly house when no one else would. I didn't sit back and make fun of it and curse it, I brizzed it! I could have lost my butt on this, but I believed in this house -- I saw its soul! And, I'm a businessman. I'm a crude businessman who likes to make a profit. So, shut up and admire my work of art.

I've even helped the community. Yes, I've increased the values in the neighborhood -- how about that? Now people ride by the house and whistle - they yell out "Yo, little house, you've got junk in your trunk!" And the little house sits there all pretty and styling. Now tell me what's wrong with that? I think brizzing is a good practice, if you've got the nerves for it. Just having nerve is worth a buck or two.

So quit worrying about what I paid for it, no one else would buy it, and I didn't hold no gun to nobody's head (that's how us brizzers talk) - just be grateful that someone saw the beauty in ugliness and brought it to life. Brizzing is cool, y'all.

Have you ever felt like this?

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The Death of Salesmen (women)

It's sad in a lot of ways. When I was twenty two I sold insurance on a debit route that covered 5 small towns in south Georgia. I was doing okay, making a sale here and there -- I actually caught the Big Guy's eye when one sale's meeting I was number one in the district. The Big Guy was regional, about 55 years old, years of experience, a wise twinkle in eyes that showed experience, smarts and a little mischief.

After the meeting he invited me to lunch, told me I reminded him of someone (he never told me who) and said I had "potential" -- I'd never had potential before, so I felt sort of proud having it. He said he wanted to come to my district the following week and show me a few "tricks" that might help.

We met at the designated meeting place the following week and started on the rounds collecting money and hitting a few prospects. What he showed me was amazing -- he mesmerized people. I'd never seen anything like it. He was taking these old ladies and melting them. Some of them had four or five different insurance policies and he'd start talking and joking and spinning and before it was over he'd consolidated every one of the policies to our company. The art of sales is an amazing thing to behold. I learned a few practical gimmicks, but there was no way I had what he had, and no way he could make me learn it. That shit you're born with.

Later I made friends with a guy who had a used car business, and sometimes I'd go to the lot just to watch him work. He had the gift of gab and a smile that won hearts. He had the touch, the magic -- he knew the art. Both of these guys were selling stuff -- little concern was given to what was actually best for the customer -- that's just the way they rolled then -- it was about selling, and I think the customers loved the game as much as the sales people, if you were good -- but you had to be good.

Things are different now and the art of sales is as outdated as lava lamps. Now, the customer has left the game, looking for service and quality and price. The customers have gotten smart and the internet has enabled them to pick and choose, to search in anonymity for the best of the best and at the lowest cost. Selling is a dead art form. But, when it was alive, man, it was something to behold. 

Surreal Times: Election 2008

Every day around the world there are brilliant people going to work performing complex tasks that make all our lives better. There are companies developing and implementing service oriented architecture (SOA), information technology solutions more sophisticated than the world has ever known. Few people outside the inner workings of these companies know what is happening, because it isn't reported. The leaders in industry building incredibly complex systems that respond with such a high degree of flexibility that reaction time to market changes is almost immediate are mostly unknown -- they aren't sexy and they aren't political.

There are brilliant people making discoveries around the world: scientists, mathematicians, physicists, engineers, programmers, biologists -- they are mostly unknown. There are entrepreneurs with vision reshaping the way we do business in a 2.0 world. These people take chances and gamble on innovative ideas -- they step forward, yet most people don't notice them.

Every day there are improvements to the cars we drive, the medicine we take, the homes we live in -- online search makes information easy and useful to access, buying and selling goods and services is offered up improved and less expensive, medical procedures extend our lives and add to the quality of our lives, entertainment is offered in diverse packages that make our lives more enjoyable, private charities are getting help to needy individuals in more creative and efficient ways. It's all due to the myriad individuals who use their minds daily and development better and better management and delivery. The real leaders of the world, for the most part, go unnoticed.

Not only do they go unnoticed, they are disparaged directly and indirectly by polititians building power bases. It's especially noticable this election year. You would think the world revolves arounds and depends on the choice between three people. Government has positioned itself in the hearts and minds of many people and in the press as the true leadership that will reshape the world and improve mankind. If this idea wasn't so dangerous, it would be hilarious. All one has to do is sit back objectively and consider the brilliant poeple at work each day building, innovatiing, managing and delivering the goods and services that keep the world together and improve our lives on a daily basis with the three political choices we have who are supposed to "save" the world. It truly is a comical picture when you think about it.

Yet, you will hear a vague speech given at a rally with a few key words like "greed" and "change" and "rich" thrown in and people cheer wildly as if the brilliant people keeping the world going are the problem and government (who screw up every project they start) is the solution. How can people still believe this?

And this year housing will be a big power-base building issue. Our three stooges who pretend to be saviors will offer up bail-out schemes to bring even more unsuspecting people into the political fold, grateful dependents of Big Brother who can thank the government for being compassionate. This surreal scene played out on the national stage in the "theater of the absurd" would be hilarious if not for the fact it's so dangerous.

Any scheme the government develops to save the "victims" of housing and finance will create unintended consquences and make rational planning difficult or impossible for all the companies and individuals involved in the housing and finance industries. A downturn left to its natural course is fairly easy to plan for and deal with, but government involvement can extend and temporarily ameliorate the underlying problems so that no one knows where the end is and when these underlying problems will overcome the bandaid approach and create an even deeper problem. 

The housing and finance problem has received the attention it has because now it's a political issue. Real estate touches everyone -- every voter. Who knows what "creative solution" the candidates will come up with from now to the election to cash in on building a greater power-base and receiving more votes. If we're lucky there will be only promises and after the election the winner will leave the free market to deal with the problem. However, the balloons will be floated to see how they are received in polls, and if enough mush headed voters want the government to "fix" it, they will. They'll take money from the responsible people, and the brilliant people I wrote about above, and they will give it to the irresponsible -- in the process they will throw a natural recovery off its course and who knows how long we'll have to deal with the consequences.

Each election I say -- This is the time that people will begin seeing government for what it's become and will embrace the true leaders of the world, the brilliant people who daily make it work in better and better ways. I don't know. Maybe the next election.