Four posts ago I said three main parts of accountability are needed. The next post described the first part, how PeopleCount delivers the foundation of accountability, the relationship where people are the boss. The next two posts were about how PeopleCount delivers answerability, the essence of accountability, and the value of interactive reports. In this and the next posts, I’ll discuss how PeopleCount delivers the final piece of accountability, fire-ability.

Fire-ability is the ability to fire the incumbent and elect a new representative. It comes from an informed electorate and free and fair elections. This article and the next covers having an informed electorate.

Informed Voters are required for Fire-ability.

If voters aren’t informed about issues and have an opinion, they can’t judge if their representative or senator has been serving their own interests. If they aren’t informed about what all the voters in their district or state think, they can’t judge if their members of Congress are representing all their constituents decently.

And if they aren’t informed about what their officials want, have worked on, and have done, they won’t know whom to vote for.

This helps explain why 80-90% of Americans disapprove of Congress’ performance, yet voters keep re-electing their incumbents. Without being informed, they’re making poor choices.

American citizens are not informed.

American citizens are not informed about politics.

1. Most Americans on not informed on issues. This article says most didn’t even understand the failed Iraq war which accounts for more than 10% of our national debt.

2. Most Americans are not very knowledgable about our basic political system. What’s the name of the current Vice President? What are the basic freedoms guaranteed in the first amendment? Does the Supreme Court have the power to make new laws? If you’re reading this article, you can probably answer these. But many Americans can’t.

3. Americans don’t know what we collectively want. To find out, you have to search the web for polls (surveys) about every separate issue. And most polls are updated only once a year. Over 80% of Americans have, for years, desired action on the following issues. But, not knowing that most of us support these, nor whether their representative supports them, voters don’t insist on them.

• universal background checks on gun sales
• anti-conflict of interest laws for Congress
• term limits for Congress

What if you want to find out the opinions of people just in your state? Or just in your district? You can’t. Most polls that are easy to find in searches are only performed at the national level.

4. Few of us know what our members of Congress think, what their stands are, what they vote for. Few of us read the newsletters most members of Congress produce, much less ask them about the issues they omit. Fewer citizens look up their voting records.

Many voters don’t even realize these pieces of information are missing. They just know they have little power and government is outside their control. Most Americans are frustrated and resigned, even cynical.

With these emotions, many don’t even stay informed on issues. When they learn about issues, they just get more frustrated. And they can’t do anything with the information they learn. So why go to the trouble and pain? So many stop. It’s so pervasive, that many Americans have a well-deserved reputation for being stupid about politics.

In the next post, we’ll see how the addition of PeopleCount.org will remedy this.