What we need is a system that can deliver real accountability to America. In this post, I’ll lay out the first half.
In yesterday’s post, we saw that accountability is the responsibility of both the teacher and the student, or the boss and the worker. Politicians can’t be accountable on their own. We, the people, must be in a relationship of accountability with them, and not just in elections. We need a system to make it possible. We need actions to take to create, strengthen and sustain this relationship. In this and the next post, I’ll outline the system we’re building.
This is what a relationship of accountability between people and politicians would look like:
- We guide our politicians and expect results.
- They report to us.
- We grade them.
- We have real choice in elections.
One of the challenges here is that, in steps 1 and 3, “we” must act together. In #1, We all need to guide them and expect results. Somehow, we have to communicate with each other as well as with our politicians. And in #3, we need to grade them and share that grade with each other.
A System for Guiding Politicians and Expecting Results
To guide our politicians, we can vote on issues on a website. When there’s some general agreement in our district or state about what we want, that’s guidance for our politicians. And when there’s some agreement nationwide, we can expect results.
You might be objecting. You might be having thoughts that we DON’T agree. Actually, there are a lot of things people agree on. We’ve agreed for years that we need to end the corruption in Congress, but the parties haven’t supported it. We’ve agreed on several moderate gun-control laws, such as universal background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. There are actually a lot of things we’ve agreed on, but the parties constantly offer extremist solutions that the other side successfully opposes. They get more donations when people are frustrated and fighting mad than when they compromise.
So the first step is us voting on issues and seeing the results.
Will Politicians use a Reporting System?
Politicians pay huge amounts of money in political campaigns to send us tiny, lousy messages in ads and postcards, plus in phone calls that bother us and knocks on the door that interrupt us. They will report to us. I’ve talked to a few. If we ask, they’ll report. They’re excited about it.
So on PeopleCount.org, when you vote on an issue, you’ll also be able to say whether you want your member of Congress to report on it. They’ll see the demand for reports on each issue.
Seeing the demand for reports, they’ll report. These are short reports about what they’re working on in that area and what they are planning. It’ll even be much easier than their current process of answering letters and emails. It’ll be easier for them, saving them time and money. They’ll report.
Next
So we guide them and expect results, and they report to us. In the next post, we’ll look at the other two steps, grading them and having choice in elections. After that, we’ll look at what this will mean for America, a number of positive side effects.
Did you ever hear of the radio broadcast by Orson Wells, The War Of the Worlds? Many panicked, some fled the area, and a few commited suicide. The population as a whole cannot understand the global effects of what the politicians are doing. Maybe on a local level, no further. There are security issues that cannot be discussed. Media is the only means of us receiving information, and that is out of the question, too much opinion and outright garbage. Accountability needs to start with the reporting system and that is totally out of control. Even if it was brought in line with reality, could the populace handle it?
“War of the Worlds” is not a fair example- that was sensational and scary, with a few disclaimers. PeopleCount won’t have that.
The security issues that can’t be discussed are very few. There are many, many issues about what we want for our future that CAN be communicated.
> Accountability needs to start with the reporting system and that is totally out of control
It could be brought into control. Fake news COULD be made illegal, if people desired it. There could be citizen organizations, or even judicial organizations, that rated the media.
PeopleCount proposes letting your politicians report directly to you- no media intervention. Dishonest rhetoric won’t be allowed.
Could the population handle it? People are actually decent with handling most of their responsibilities. One of the problems with politics is that we really have no responsibility, other than voting. Yes, some people will be incompetent. But if most people are, then we need a monarchy, oligarchy or meritocracy, not a democracy.
America has often had tumultuous politics. The only thing we haven’t tried is a system of actual accountability, designed to provide an environment that supports honesty and responsibility.