Don Mashak wrote a blog about his political new year’s resolutions. He wants people to participate in politics, attend meetings, advocate on issues, rally others and unite. Isn’t this the same wonderful rhetoric we’ve been hearing all our lives? He doesn’t say HOW to unite…

He says the “major parties have betrayed … used issues .. to divide and conquer .. also distract us their corruption and prevent … uniting”. Don’s succumbed to the classic blame game, treating a party as a beast that betrays, distracts and harms. While many of us feel similarly, we also can see that parties are struggling for power, fighting for what they believe in, working diligently within the system, though at times ruthlessly and testing the limits.

Then he says “the lies … of Obamacare … (and) violations of our privacy by the NSA have created a paradigm shift … distrust of government …” This is not a paradigm shift. Distrust of government has been rampant for decades. This, plus distrust of “the other” party are at the heart of the status quo. Then he launches into some resolutions about overthrowing the party leadership.

Remember Arab Spring? If he can get lots of people to participate with him, it’ll be like that- an uprising, noise, change and in the power vacuum, the old established powers will be there to pick up the pieces and continue the status quo.

He’s right, people need to unite- but that takes communication. It takes the kind of coherent, effective communication on issues that’s only possible in voting. This is why voting is the heart of PeopleCount.org’s solution.

Imagine a world where we vote on issues as a foundation- not on bills to make laws, but on simple issues to guide our representatives. We vote not once a year, but always, in a private account on-line. Our opinions are tallied, and show up in results by district, state and nationally. With this new platform, our opinions count, so we’ll begin to take them seriously and educate ourselves more on the issues.

Once we start knowing what we, collectively, want on an issue, we can explore variations and new ideas. Many will change their votes as they explore and see what others want to do. And we can use the tallies to finally know what our representatives are accountable for. Meanwhile, our representatives can know what we, even the centrists and independents, want and deliver it. Plus they can mine the data for good compromises.

Atop this foundation of voting on issues will be an accountability system, a novel solution to give each of us the reports we want from our representatives as well as giving them rewards and feedback for reporting. It’ll also allow them to lead us as they work with others to put a concrete plan together.

Challengers will also be able to use this platform to communicate with us so political campaigns can be inexpensive. This means elections with real choice rather than our current system which gives incumbents the advantage and keeps out the non-rich.

Currently, with people lacking effective collective communication, parties are essential. Not knowing what we want, we must vote for people with positions, and they must unite to form blocks, the parties. The outcomes we have are a direct result of our system, especially what it lacks- mechanisms for voter communication and political accountability.

If we all vote on positions, representatives can truly represent US, the People, instead of a set of party positions. And with choices in elections, if our current representative doesn’t represent us well, we can easily find people who promise to do better.

Don’s rhetoric is great, but we’ve heard it for decades, and longer. This kind of rhetoric doesn’t give people a concrete way to participate. PeopleCount.org does. In a few minutes a week you’ll be able to express your positions on a new issue and see what’s changed in old issues that you care about. Representatives will have a structure that helps them to be accountable, rewards them for it, and punishes them if they’re not. They’ll become responsive. In turn, we, the people, will notice the difference our participation makes. We’ll step up to the responsibility of self-government. We’ll educate ourselves more on issues and more of will vote in elections.

This is a true paradigm shift, people being empowered to self-govern by guiding their representatives, rather than being disempowered as they are today, resigned, cynical, and often angry.

You’ll know the paradigm has shifted as people stop criticizing government and the parties and focus instead on what we want for our future, concrete paths forward.

Opportunities for actions are better than resolutions. Participate in PeopleCount.org today.