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DRIVER-POLITICS Many political factors impacted the development of the Colorado River Compact (now known as the Colorado River Basin Water Agreement, or CRBWA). These political factors included politicians, political agencies, legislation, and political pressure groups/lobbyists. This paper will present an in-depth administrative analysis of the impact of politics on the CRBWA. It will include historical and theoretical research, as well as interviews with present-day politicians in order to answer questions relating to the impact of politics on the original agreement. Some of the major questions asked were: What politics impacted the CRBWA and how did they affect its creation? Has the agreement achieved its goals and mission? Why or why not? What changes could be made to the CRBWA to help achieve the agreement's mission and goals?

DRIVER-POLITICS Water Politics Limited, a geopolitical risk advisory and consulting firm, found that water scarcity could lead to conflict or political instability in many countries. Sources including the Euphrates, Tigris, Jordan, Nile, Danube, and Okavango rivers as well as the Tibetan watershed and resources will become insufficient to support the surrounding areas. These sources currently provide water to dozens of countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Water scarcity will therefore affect communities across the globe. Importantly, it may spark conflict over remaining water resources, within a nation or even between nations. Anya Groner at The Atlantic points to evidence of past conflicts that have revolved around water. These include the riots in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2012, which responded to inequality in the distribution of water resources.

DRIVER-POLITICS-SCARCITY Water scarcity is one of the most pressing humanitarian crises facing the world today. Access to water resources has far-reaching political and social implications, especially in areas where water is scarce. Natural water basins do not comply with man-made political borders, and as a result, the allocation of precious water resources becomes a point of negotiation in transnational treaties and agreements. Adding to the politicization of water is the connection between water and energy production. Water is needed for all types of energy production, and energy is needed for the extraction and dissemination of clean water

Insight into what a generation is focused on. "Issues that dominated campuses during the Vietnam War look a lot like the current social issues college students care about in 2020. Like then, students today are rallying around civil rights and racial justice as a larger cultural rift continues to divide American politics." Also interesting - "Nearly half of students report changing their political leanings during college."

CIPPEC is an Argentina-based independent nonprofit organization that works on better building public policies. The report presents four domestic politics scenarios: Many hands for little cake - Disperse power in exclusive societies. Cohesive and powerful - Integrated societies that have a voice in politics. Members only - An exclusive world with concentrated power. One for all - Concentration of power in inclusive societies and four Global Governance scenarios: Big foot in a local world Big Friendly Giant - big firms in a global scenario Small is beautiful The small under global rule

A national poll of America's 18-to-29 year olds released today by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School shows that despite the state of our politics, hope for America among young people is rising dramatically, especially among people of color. As more young Americans are likely to be politically engaged than they were a decade ago, they overwhelmingly approve of the job President Biden is doing, favor progressive policies, and have faith in their fellow Americans.

DRIVER-POLITICS Over the past two decades, global studies on the water have reported ongoing issues. In 2008, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report said that while there is greater access to drinking water, there are still about 1 billion people without access to safe water and more than 2.5 billion people without good sanitation. The Charting Our Water Future Report by a consortium of business partners in 2009 said that water demand will exceed supply by 50 percent in 2030.

In recent years, there has emerged a broadly shared sense that political moderation is dying. Joe Biden's victory in the Democratic primary has been widely interpreted as the last gasp of an exhausted tradition, after which he will hand over the reins to the party's left. Meanwhile, moderates have been an endangered species in the Republican Party for going on two decades now. The decline of political moderates lies at the root of many of our fundamental governing problems. As American political parties have become increasingly captured by their ideological extremes in recent decades, the space for cross-party coalition-building has shrunk. Where moderates were once critical to establishing coalitions across party lines, both parties' leaders today have established a hammerlock over the agenda in Congress, allowing only single-party alliances to form except under very unusual conditions.

The share of Americans who say they're independent has climbed considerably, according to Gallup's quarterly party affiliation data. In the late 1980s, roughly one-third of Americans identified as Democratic, Republican or independent. Now, 40 percent or more identify as independent, while the share who identify as Democrats or Republicans has fallen to around 30 percent or lower. he problem is that few independents are actually independent. Roughly 3 in 4 independents still lean toward one of the two major political parties, and studies show that these voters aren't all that different from the voters in the party they lean toward. Independents who lean toward a party also tend to back that party at almost the same rate as openly partisan voters.

"For, above all, it is the chasm between the rich and poor in our societies and on a global level that Covid-19 has unlocked. The fatal flaw of the Enlightenment - the unfulfilled promise of economic, social and political equality - has opened up beneath our feet. We are not so much as being thrown back into a bygone primitive age, as being thrown forward into a primitivism that is the true essence of twenty-first century capitalism."

DRIVER-POLITICS-INFRASTRUCTURE-TREATEMENT Criminal Charges Filed Against 6 Officials Schuette announced criminal charges against six more current and former state employees, bringing the total number of people charged to nine. Liane Shekter-Smith is the former director of the drinking water and municipal assistance office within the MDEQ. She and two subordinates, Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook, allegedly misled officials about Flint's water treatment plant, which was not in compliance with lead and copper rules. The other three people charged are current or former employees of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The director of the child health unit, Nancy Peeler, her subordinate, Robert Scott, and a state epidemiologist Corinne Miller allegedly failed to release a report that showed unsafe lead levels in the blood of Flint children. All six are charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy, and willful neglect of duty. Rosenthal is also charged with tampering with evidence, for allegedly requesting water tests that did not show elevated lead.

"The public hearings showed sharp differences of opinion about SpaceX's plans to conduct orbital launches from Boca Chica. Many attendees were strong advocates for the company and the proposed launch site, calling it critical to the nation's future in space. They also played down the environmental impact, often comparing it to the launch sites at Cape Canaveral in Florida, which are embedded within a wildlife refuge." This hit resonates because it hits on lots of areas - environmental, political, technological, geopolitical, demography... There will always be people for and people against. I feels like Space X did a nice job of stacking the room in their favor.

When the National Election Study began asking about trust in government in 1958, about three-quarters of Americans trusted the federal government to do the right thing almost always or most of the time. Public trust reached a three-decade high shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but declined quickly thereafter. Since 2007, the share saying they can trust the government always or most of the time has not surpassed 30%. Currently, 36% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they can trust government, compared with 9% of Republicans and Republican-leaners. Throughout Trump's tenure, more Republicans than Democrats reported trusting the government, though that has flipped since Biden's election.

A discussion of the impact the Trump presidency had on the future of politics in America, including 4 brief go-forward scenario discussions.

A survey based on projections for the year 2050. "Majorities predict a weaker economy, a growing income divide, a degraded environment and a broken political system"

"Americans desperately want less fighting in politics and more cooperation carried out with a sense of shared purpose that is focused on the building blocks of national economic improvement and the well-being of all people." I continue to struggle with why the 'will of the people' continues to be difficult to make happen. I'll temper that with the comment that just because a 'random' poll reflects something, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is a true representation of 'the people.'

"In Gallup polling throughout the first quarter of 2021, an average of 49% of U.S. adults identified with the Democratic Party or said they are independents who lean toward the Democratic Party. That compares with 40% who identified as Republicans or Republican leaners. The nine-percentage-point Democratic advantage is the largest Gallup has measured since the fourth quarter of 2012." What I found to be more significant was the following: "The 44% of Americans who identify as political independents, whether they subsequently express a party leaning or not, is up from 38% in the fourth quarter of 2020 and is above 40% for the first time since 2019. This is consistent with the historical pattern whereby independent identification typically declines in presidential election years and increases in odd-numbered years. However, the percentages identifying as independent in 2020 and thus far in 2021 have been unusually high compared with prior presidential election and odd-numbered years. Thus, the current level of independent identification ranks among the highest Gallup has measured in any quarter since 1988" More people relate to neither party than to one, so why do they both continue on a trajectory of not satisfying the public? Is the message never heard that the Center is where most of America lives?

In 2020, for the first time, Millennials and Gen Z (which comprise young adults born in 1981 or later) will equal Baby Boomers and prior generations (older adults born in 1964 or earlier) as a share of all Americans eligible to vote. But in 2024, the two younger generations are expected to equal the older ones as a share of actual voters on Election Day. And by 2028, Millennials and Gen Z will dwarf the older generations as a share of both eligible and actual voters.