In the last article, we saw that money and strong parties prevents democracy from working. There are more reasons as well.
Lack of being able to say what we want means lack of representation.
Representatives are not really representative of their constituents. They can’t represent what their people want because they don’t know. If people were really educated about politics, polling could work. But polling 5,000 people out of 250,000,000 adults doesn’t give most people a sense that learning about politics matters. A lot of people have better things to do than learn things that don’t seem to make a difference. So in America, many people stop being educated about politics.
Today, very few people are knowledgable enough to answer many interesting political questions. So poll questions become simpler and simpler and offer people few real options. So our representatives know even less about what we want.
To have an effective democracy, we’re going to have to find a way to communicate about politics in a way that makes a difference.
Lack of accountability to citizens prevents our democracy from working.
Obviously if our representatives do not know what we want, citizens don’t know either. So we can’t accurately judge if our representatives are doing the right things. The essence of accountability is accounting for ones accomplishments and plans, reporting, so that citizens can judge. But our politicians don’t report to us, and we don’t know what we want collectively, so we don’t know what to judge them against.
The key to all this is communication. If citizens could communicate what we want, for instance if we could vote on issues, we could see the results and know what’s reasonable to expect from our politicians.
And if our representatives could report to us, we’d be able to judge them. If candidates could report as well, they could compete to satisfy us. If this communication were inexpensive, their campaigns could focus on these reports for communication and no longer need much money for campaigns.
Plus, if politicians could communicate with all the people, they’d be free to represent us all and not be so dependent on the parties.
So a communication system that made politicians accountable to citizens could also free politicians from being accountable to the parties and to wealthy donors.
PeopleCount.org – delivering accountability to citizens
This is what PeopleCount.org will release, this coming Spring, 2016, a web platform in which people can communicate with their politicians inexpensively, so politicians can be increasingly free of the need for wealthy donors and the need to side with the extremists of their party.
Delivering accountability to citizens will solve the major problems in American politics. And part of this is giving Americans a say in their future so that learning about political issues will make a difference.
Please join us. Add your email address to our announcement list and you can be among the first to try our platform when it’s ready.
wow, this sounds really great.
can you please explain how people will communicate with their elected officials and vice a versa and how this will free them up to represent us better?
People will vote on issues to say what they want, and may request regular reports from their politicians. Politicians will report, and those reports will be graded.
Now, politicians need money to be elected, so are accountable to donors. They need money because they can’t communicate to voters inexpensively. By reporting on issues, they’ll be able to communicate with voters inexpensively on the issues the voters care about.
Now, politicians can’t represent us because they don’t know what we want.
And you can’t tell them in a way they’ll hear. You can only write letters about what you want- you don’t even know what your district or state wants, so you can’t tell if they’re representing you. If your opinion mattered, would you seek to be better informed?
While our opinions don’t matter, we can argue radical left vs radical right. While our opinions don’t matter, to be heard, you need to yell the loudest. So we have lots of yelling.
We have exactly the results that our system produces. Let’s change it so that you’re actually responsible. Let’s put you in touch with your representative. And not just in communication, but give you and your representatives the communication necessary so you’re in a relationship. What relationship? Accountability.
If they are accountable to voters, they won’t need the party. If they can communicate with you inexpensively, they won’t need much money, so they’ll no longer be accountable to donors.