What are the objective measures for the political world?
That is the question that’s plagued me since I had my epiphany about sports journalism having more fidelity than political journalism. In the previous issue I focused on the legislature, the legislative season calendar, All-Star players and the idea of a political scoreboard. But the legislature is only one way that power moves.
If we want to track G-Ball in all of its glory we need to know all the ways power moves. All of the levers of power.
Luckily, there’s only five.
Five legal, institutional, objective ways power can shape your life, your neighborhood, your pocketbook, and your children’s future. These are the 5 Power Plays of G-Ball. And if a news story doesn’t connect to one of them, then power is not being tracked.
Here are the 5 Power Plays — these are the five legal ways that power can actually move in our system:
Bills and Laws - the long drive
Executive Actions - breakaway plays
Ballot Measures - civic penalty kicks
Court Rulings - booth reviews
Agency Policies - strike zone shift
Each of these Power Plays are: traceable, verifiable, publicly recorded, objective, and capable of changing your life.
1. Bills and Laws are handled by the legislative branch, think Assembly Members, Senators, and Congressional Representatives. This is the main thrust of play in G-Ball. These are the long drives to the endzone that require full team effort and coordination to score “touchdowns,” meaning, to pass actual laws.
2. Executive Actions are handled by various executives: Mayors, Governors, the President. These are breakaway plays where an All-Star drives to the basket alone outpacing the rest of the field. It doesn’t require full team coordination, however, in G-Ball these points can be reversed or countered by a breakaway play by the other team, the other party or the next executive. For example, one President can’t get congress to move so they sign several executive actions but then the next President comes in and either cancels or overrides those actions, essentially voiding the previous administration.
3. Ballot measures — these are soccer penalty kicks, and an interruption to the main game, where everyone pauses and sets up the conditions for a dramatic score or miss. The twist here is to imagine if a random fan from each side was pulled to make the shot rather than one of the professional players.
Ballot measures are direct democracy where citizenry participates in and votes directly to pass or block laws. For example Proposition 209: in 1996, the public voted directly, passing the measure thus banning affirmative action in California.
4. Court Rulings — these are the booth reviews of G-Ball. Just like you can challenge a play in football that reverses a decision, Court Rulings determine the constitutionality of a law and if it needs to be struck down, upheld, or reinterpreted.
5. Lastly we have Agency Policies — this is probably the least understood way power moves in our country. One of the clearest sports examples comes from an obscure corner. In the running world there is an organization called World Athletics they govern everything from Track and Field to Ultra Marathons. The WA won’t change official rules — a 100 yard dash is a 100 yard dash — but they do issue technical mandates like reducing shoe sole thickness. These kinds of changes can have significant impacts on race outcomes.
The legislature introduces rule changes that alter the game, think pitch clock in baseball. Agency policy says, the maximum shoe sole thickness needs to be reduced by a quarter inch. And by the way when you Google search how many state agencies there are in California this is the AI answer you get: “There is no single, definitive number for California state agencies, but estimates range from over 200 to over 500.” Let that sink in. 100s of unaccountable agencies shifting regulations that the public neither elects nor has any practical mechanism of overseeing.
These are the plays.
If we don’t see them, we don’t see the game.
If we don’t know how power moves, we can’t respond when it does.
And if we don’t respond, we’re not citizens — we’re spectators.
That’s what the Sentinel is about.
Not just watching the game.
Learning to play.
Stay Sharp.
Stay Sovereign.
Let the People Watch the Game.