Creative politics without competition? It’s un-American, and not nearly as much fun either.

All–America & American Challenges

At the same time, one of the big problems with our modern politics is the obsession with winning, beating the other side as an end in itself, rather than the ends we really need to reach, which is just SAD, because when party labels and personalities are pushed to the side to focus on problems and solutions instead, we know, from experience, that there’s a lot of common ground to be uncovered and covered. So we’ll be putting out ongoing brainstorming challenges that require red and blue to team up, and we’re betting we’ll be able to get your favorite companies and organizations to pony up prizes that will be unanimously appealing.  Without further preamble, here’s our first:

Challenge 1: Coal-Fired Plants
On the one hand, coal causes climate change; on the other hand, it is the lifeblood of many otherwise impoverished communities.  Liberals, find a conservative; conservatives find a liberal, take a look our fair and balanced battery of facts and considerations, find a solution to this conundrum on which you can both agree, and send it in to us.  We’ll publish the best and award prizes to as many as we can!  Jump in–with *both* feet!

The Equivalency Olympics

We’re also running a second, community-based contest series, the Equivalency Olympics.  Each event will be about something good that the parties claim they’ve done (e.g. environmental protection, supporting the middle class) or, sadly, more often, something they accuse each of doing (e.g. speaking out of both sides of their mouths, fomenting violence, etc.) and liberal and conservative members of our community will be challenged to add specific instances to a Google Sheet gameboard.  Weighing both sides of the electronic ledger will be some of the swingingest voters in the country (that would be Floridians, who else?), and we’ll be making a donation to the winning party in each event, which will tell you how seriously we’re taking this, because we hate giving politicians money (30%+ for taxes isn’t enough?).   Let the end of “whataboutism” and “false equivalency” begin!

Event 1: Violence
Sad to say, but this is top of mind these days, so our first question is: which party or philosophy has been more responsible for physical violence, threats of violence, incitements to violence, celebrations of violence, and basic incivility over the last thirty years?  We’re looking for specific examples in every case that you should be able to back with a citation from a reputable source. We want as many examples as possible, but as we’ll emphasize to our judges, not all cases are created equal, whether in words or action. We’ve seeded the contest with some entries to help you…  Click here to begin!

Build-A-Blogs

There are–and will also be–contests built into many of our posts, opportunities for you to win free t-shirts and other fare, guaranteed, just for building on what we put out there, as we try to bring both politics and bloggery into the 21st century together (and bribe you–legally–into helping us)…

Out And In
Faced with what may be a turning point in human history, we’ve decided it’s time for the ultimate “out and in” list that spans all human history. Give us a fulcrum to show the world moving (or plus ca changing) and we will give you a shirt that’s not even been on our backs yet. Learn More…

Conspiracy
The problem, we’ve decided, is not that there are too many conspiracy theories, but too few.  We explain why, and invite you to help us create more of them for lulz and cotton products.  Learn More…

T-Shirt Contests

In which you can win Change Clothes apparel–just for paying attention; either the shirt featured in the contest or any other from our store–your choice; we still live in a democracy here…

The Blood-Soaked T-Shirt Contest
If nothing else, the last four years have taught everyone except Trump supporters what a rare and precious thing democracy is.  This t-shirt design, which graphically illustrates how much of the history of the last century+ has been written in blood by dictators/strongmen, will, we hope, really get the message across.  Can you identify the whole murderers row(s) depicted (or more of them than anyone else)? You could win your own unique version of the tee… Learn More…

The Indomitable T-Shirt Contest
On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who have been so committed to bettering life for their people and ultimately for us all that they’ve been put behind bars for their troubles, sometimes for decades, only to grow ever stronger and ultimately prevail.  They come from all eras, all over the world, as sources of hope and inspiration for us all, and if you can honor their memory with your own, you could win a stand alone edition of the apparel we’ve designed to honor them as well… Learn More…

The Corrupted T-Shirt Contest
One of the supreme ironies of the 2020 election has been the spectre of modern Republicans howling about fraud and election theft.  The fact of the matter, as our “Cheaters Gonna Cheat” design well-illustrates, there’s one party, and one party only, with a storied history of doing whatever it takes to win, no matter how much our democracy is perverted in the process.  Show us how well-acquainted you are with that history, and QED your ability to kick the Trumpian a** of anyone who questions it on your chest, and you could win a custom version of this righteous tee… Learn More…

The Shout Out T-Shirt Contest
On the flip, but not flop, side we believe strongly in the importance of a strong and honest Republican Party for our nation–we can even remember when it used to exist–and want to do whatever we can to help bring it back.  To that end, we’ve created a “Profiles In Courage” tee to honor the growing number of prominent and, more impressively, not so prominent Republicans who have stood up to Donald Trump, often risking–and sometimes losing–everything except their honor.  If you can show us you’ve been following this part of the story well enough, you could be thanked via a special version for free… Learn More…