Someone on Quora asked me (and others):  Does the Citizens United case threaten democracy? My answer was no. In the last post, I showed that a main killer of democracy was not the Citizens United decision, but the candidates’ need for money. In this one, I’ll focus on the second major killer, the distance between Congress and citizens.

Some say that the problem is that the parties have become ideologically more extreme, and this contributes to gridlock. This is true, sort of.

I say the problem is really the cause of this. This happened because our politicians are not in communication with the people. Politicians often talk about the “need for political capital”, the support of the people. But they’re not actually in touch with what people want, so they listen to the media. If the media aren’t saying the people are for something, it doesn’t stand a chance, unless the parties want it.

Not being in touch with people, the only people that stay with the party are the diehard ideologues. The rest want some sort of compromise. In fact, most people in America would like an alternate party:

Americans do not feel that “the American people” are represented by either of the existing parties.

Almost nothing happens in Washington DC without party support. The gridlock happens not only because the parties are widely divided, but also because the parties have the power. The power of the people has been stolen by the parties as much as it has been by the money in elections.

The silent majority is silent. “Most Americans do not have uniformly conservative or liberal views, and want their representatives to meet one another halfway.” But the parties don’t listen. One more bit of evidence, 97% of Americans would support stronger anti-corruption legislation, but Congress doesn’t act because this benefits Congress and the parties.

Further, “gridlock in the U.S. political system benefits the rich and has significantly contributed to rising inequality.” Clearly, the problem is money in politics. But the solution needed is two-fold. The first is to reduce the amount of money needed in politics. But this still leaves the parties in control.

The second is to make politicians directly accountable to people instead of to parties. This means both empowering people to say what they want as well as empowering politicians to answer them. And it means all politicians, not just incumbents. We need politicians to directly compete with each other to do what the people want.

This is what PeopleCount.org can deliver, with your participation.

Do you want politicians to be directly accountable to you, instead of to the parties? Do you want politicians to be focused on running the country, instead of raising funds from the wealthy?

If you do, please support us. Please add your name to our announcement list.