PeopleCount will create a lot of benefits for America. In the previous post, we saw that politicians will be able to run inexpensive campaigns and spend little of their time fundraising. And we’ll have more people running for office.
Of course the biggest benefit is that politicians will serve the people. And not only because they will be reporting to us and receiving grades.
Competition to Serve Voters
They’ll also serve us because challengers will be watching them carefully and reporting on issues that people care about. Say Joe Gladhand was pandering to a local industry, trading earmarks for campaign contributions. This is the kind of thing that a few political enthusiasts track. In our current system, they have to try to get a reporter’s attention. And then reporters try to get public attention. But reporters want something that’ll be sensational for a general audience. With PeopleCount, the enthusiasts can inform challengers. The challengers will quickly bring it to the attention of the voters that care about it in their own reports.
Currently, challengers compete with incumbents only by raising lots of money. This is difficult because people with money tend to support incumbents. With PeopleCount, candidates will compete on the issues. Incumbents will compete by serving the people better.
Less Apathy and Ignorance
Today, half to 2/3 of registered voters vote, and only about 2/3 of eligible voters are registered. Why? Because voting doesn’t deliver accountability. Nor does it communicate what people want. Voting is neither rewarding, nor engaging. And it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Many people feel politicians are all the same. They’re all servants of the corporate/political machine.
If you listen to politicians, they only talk about the most superficial of issues. And they often stake out emotional positions on issues they can’t do anything about, such as abortion or health care. So you get to choose between someone who’s pro-abortion or anti-abortion. You don’t need to read anything to decide that. You don’t need to grapple with the more difficult issues of whether an abortion should be allowed after a rape, incest, or in case of a health issue. Our current system doesn’t reward being informed.
But with PeopleCount, you don’t just vote for a personality- you actually vote on issues. And your opinion influences society immediately. Right away it’s part of the totals that everyone sees. Plus, there’ll be more interesting questions, not just the superficial ones.
I’ve asked people why they don’t care about politics. The answers I’ve heard most are that caring doesn’t make a difference, and caring about something they can’t control is frustrating, sometime even painful. So people avoid engaging with issues. Many just stop paying attention.
Real Public Servants
Do you really want to vote for someone with political positions? I don’t. I want someone who’ll represent what we all want. I want someone committed to solving society’s problems. I don’t want them to go to Washington and stubbornly maintain their ignorance. Currently they do that even if their constituency changes. We’ve seen this with gay rights issues. The political forces would rather sue each other in court than ask the people what they want.
In the current system, they argue rather than look for solutions. If they find a great solution or a good compromise, they ignore it, because the party is all about sticking to a single, simple position. There’s no way for them to lead us, to ask for our support.
If my representative discovers a great solution on an issue I care about, I want to hear about it. With PeopleCount, I could even change my vote to show my support. Or a question could be added asking which of several different compromises I’d accept.
The next post is about more benefits, the last in this series.
It is the audience that wants the sensational stuff. I was watching a rally on tv once, and the politician worked the crowd up pretty good. Then he said something to cause the crowd to cheer, and as the noise was rising, he started a topic that was controvercial, was drown out on part of the comment, then shouted the rest of the sentence. Everyone went wild. They all thought he said what they wanted to hear, regardless of what they thought, or how many different applications to the topic, each one, pro or con, could not help but be carried by the herd. For one side or for the other, he said what they wanted.
People go to rallies like they go to concerts. And it’s fun to cheer and boo- behavior we practice at sporting events. But this is fun because it’s with others.
PeopleCount is a boring website, not a social event. You don’t get to cheer or boo, just read or listen to or watch reports that are important to you, and grade them. If you don’t care about a political issue, it won’t be rewarding.