The Big Fix

[KTCat]

I believe that protecting our Freedom in America is going to require that the government adapt to the times and to the will of the people. As of 2003, 75% of all American households owned at least one computer. Our computers, as we all know, gives each of us the right to interact in ways that were undreamed of in  previous decades.

If the polls are correct, then the vast majority of Americans today feel that Washington DC is "out of touch" with the voters and that the country is "headed in the wrong direction". However the computer is obviously the one essential tool that can change all of that. Today our elected officials pass bills in congress that ultimately effect all of our lives on a massive scale, but unless a particular bill is given considerable attention by the press, very few of us have any clue as to which bill is being brought before the senate for a vote. This makes the old adage "write your congressmen and senators" a rather lame objective, because you can't write your congressmen about a bill before congress when you haven't been informed of it in the first place. In retrospect, how can we expect the senate to vote according to the will of the people, when our system is so hopelessly outdated, antiquated and inefficient, the American voter isn't really given much of a chance to even make his or her wishes known?

It would be so easy to have a nationally funded government web site that presented each and every bill up before congress to the people so that the citizens of each state have a way to easily make their wishes known. It would be easy to have the pros and cons of any bill, as well as its probable long term effects, explained down to the small print in simple, everyday language completely devoid of all "legalese". Voting our opinion on each of those bills would be as easy as setting up an internet poll on a state by state basis, and it would allow people in any state to easily express their opinion in favor or against any bill before congress from the comfort of their own homes. Such a process would give voters and politicians alike a "no excuses" venue. Every senator would then know the people's wishes in the state he was elected to represent, and it would give us all a national voice again. If people are too darned lazy to sit down at their computer and go to a national web site once a week and vote their opinion on any currant bill before congress, then perhaps we deserve everything we get. But until people are given an easy way to do that, the whole process of passing laws today seems not only hopelessly outdated, flawed and unfair, it gives big business and special interest groups who regularly lobby congress the chance to make their voices heard in Washington DC, while the average American citizen is pretty much completely left out of the loop.

How can we expect to maintain a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people," when by in large, the people are simply being left out of the process? If we want to return to the roots of our American Freedom, then it remains evident that it is primarily reliant upon making our voices heard. We've got the tools to do that right now. What we don't have is a system set up so that we can all easily voice our opinion. We can demand that congress put into place the necessary venue that will change all that. And then, woe be it to the congressman who refuses to vote the will of the people!

When there is a state by state national polling system set in place that gives all Americans equal and easy access, then and only then can we be sure that our elected officials understand where the people stand on any given issue. Such a system would not only make it very easy to access the will of the people state by state, it will also give us a reliable way to assess the will of the people on a national scale. If the polls show that 67% of the people of the United States of America are not in favor of passing a particular bill, and the senate passes it anyway disregarding the will of the people, then I believe that implementation of that bill should be put on hold, and the people should have the right to revoke its passage by a national referendum. 

How can we set such a system up so that all Americans have an equal and fair vote? Well, by 2008 all Americans will be required to have a national ID card and number. Anyone over the age of 18 with a national ID card should be able to login to a national Internet polling system using their national ID number which will allow them to cast their vote. Just like any other password, our ID number will remain hidden from view. That's not a hard program to come up with. Every forum on the internet uses a similar program. As long as only one vote per bill is allowed each ID number, we should have a reasonably accurate count. This would provide a way to effectively prevent people from voting on the same bill more than once. Also, it would be an effective way to immediately let people know if someone has stolen their ID number. If you log in using your national ID number and go to vote, and the system says your vote has already been cast, then that is a very clear sign that you have been the victim of ID theft. As long as people are vigilant about casting their vote, every time a bill goes up before congress such a polling system would serve a secondary purpose of letting people know very quickly whether or not their national ID number has been heisted by an ID thief.

When our founding fathers set up the American political process it was considered self-evident that elected officials were there to serve the will of the people. Today that process has become innately flawed simply because there are no checks and balances in place to see that the will of the people, rather than the will of corporate, military and special interest groups, is being served. We have to change that or we turn our future and the future of this entire country over to groups who have historically shown no interest whatsoever in serving anything but their own peculiar and greedy agendas.

If we are going to save Freedom in America, it's high time we realize that it's going to take more than our vote in electing officials to fulfill state and national political roles; it's going to take our active participation in the political process concerning the passage of the bills that ultimately effect the lives and livelihood of every American citizen. I emphatically believe that our founding fathers put every check and balance in place that could possibly be implemented when they wrote our Constitution and developed the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our governing system. Were those same brilliant men alive today, I believe they would absolutely support that today American citizens should now have the right to vote on any bill before congress. Such a proposal was not even remotely possible when our government was formed, but had it been, our founding fathers would have  likely set our government up in the first place so that all people could vote on any bill before congress.  But we didn't even have a decent postal system in place when our government was set up. The entire governing system had to be set up to accommodate the communications and technology available in 1787, a full 230 years ago. Today all that has changed, and we have the technology to vote on any bill from the comfort of our own homes with the click of a mouse. So why shouldn't we?

This is not an expensive proposal. We, the citizens, already have our computers at home. Even the 25% of the people who don't have a computer can easily access one at work, at school or at the libraries. We are each going to have a national ID card and number whether we happen to like it or not, that bill has already passed, so most of the needed system is already in place. There are already several good computer programs that have been written that provide us with a good polling program. So, all we really need is the necessary government web sites, and every single one of us can have the right to vote on any bill that is up before congress.

Any politician who protests that "Americans just aren't informed enough" is seriously out to lunch. Americans access the information super-highway every day. Many of us are actually more informed than our congressmen are on the issues. When we give people the right to vote on national legislation, even the people who haven't been paying attention are far more likely to get involved. All it requires from us is a few minutes once a week to check out a web site, review the bills up for a vote in congress, and cast our vote right along with the elected officials we have hired and put in Washington DC to serve the will of the people.

Right now most of us seem to think the politicians are acting like we, the people, exist only to serve the will of our elected officials, and that is NOT what our founding fathers intended.

It's not going to cost millions and millions of dollars to set this up. The cost will be in one single national web site where people can click a button to go to their state, log in using their national ID number and vote on any bill up before congress.  How simple can you get? It would, however, be prudent of us to demand that the people, rather than congress or the administration, appoint rather than elect who is going to run that web site. You can fire an appointee. It's obviously a whole lot harder to impeach someone who has been elected. We would need to put the very best Info Tech people in place to insure against hackers who might try to steal ID numbers or attempt to manipulate the numbers in the voting. We would also need to put people in place who are aware of the loopholes placed into laws written in the typically vague and misleading language of legalese that the lawmakers seem so fond of. We would need people in place who were capable of understanding what the outcome of any law would ultimately be, and we would need them to write accurate, clear and honest descriptions of the bills before congress.

If, as the currant polls suggest, roughly 75% of us share the opinion that Washington DC officials aren't doing the job we've elected them to do, then this is a very simple, down to earth remedy that can certainly change all that. Also, I believe that any politician who adamantly objected to such a move, might well be suspected of being involved with the Washington DC crowd that appears to be bent on destroying the intent of our founding fathers which was that America was created to be a government of the people, for the people and by the people. If we implemented this idea, we the people, can take control back of our nation. It would be as easy as the click of a mouse button.

Please think about this, and if you like the idea, spread the word…

[Volitzer]

VOTE ANTI-ILLUMINATI FOLKS!!!!

[Penny]

Hi Cat,

Great writing!

I would love to have national voting on every issue.  If people can get off their duffs and vote for who is the next American Idol, they can sure do it for referendums that affect their lives, though.

Barring that, though, we need public financing of all campaigns. That way, politicians are not beholden to corporations and special interests.

[Volitzer]

America needs to getout of the 2 party system mentatlity.



If this aint America under the Illuminati I don't know what is.

[Volitzer]

and again....

[KTCat]

Thank you, Penny. I must confess I wrote that in a rare moment of inspiration.

And you are right, Volitzer. The two party system is a joke, because it doesn't matter which side of the fence you are on, both parties are under the control of precisely the same behind the scenes manipulators.

However, I do think that if there was any time in the history of this nation, when a huge number of people would embrace the above idea, that time is now. Americans are so sick and tired of our elected officials pandering to the money grubbers, I think we are actually ready to do something about it.

So if anybody wants to copy the above post and put it up on another forum, please feel free to do so. Maybe the idea will catch on over the internet, and if enough people like it, maybe we can turn this mess around.

[unknown]

Hi Penny

Absolutely, it is the need to raise enormous sums of money to campaign that corrupts our political system. That is why it won't happen, unless there is a drastic shake-up in the system. Because too many vested interests will oppose it.

Hi KTCat... although I agree that our political system has been corrupted by corporate interest, I am not sure computers are the way to go... results could be tampered with too easily.

[Volitzer]

Use the internet to campaign but use a tabulator system then with a hand count confirmation. 

[KTCat]

There has to be some way to protect the count from hackers and manipulation.

[Volitzer]

The hand count.

[Volitzer]

They maintained a republic in the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s w/o computers and voting machines. 

[Penny]

Hi Penny

Absolutely, it is the need to raise enormous sums of money to campaign that corrupts our political system. That is why it won't happen, unless there is a drastic shake-up in the system. Because too many vested interests will oppose it.

Hi KTCat... although I agree that our political system has been corrupted by corporate interest, I am not sure computers are the way to go... results could be tampered with too easily.

Unknown, the best way to clean up the system is to have public financing of politcal campaigns - no more lobbyists or campaign contributions from giant organizations that the candidates might be beholden to.

That is why I support Barack Obama as opposed to Hillary Clinton.  Hillary takes PAC money  (even from health insurance companies) - something Bill Clinton didn't do, while Barack only takes from individual contributors.

If you are less beholden to someone, you are more apt to clean up the system.

[Penny]

Thank you, Penny. I must confess I wrote that in a rare moment of inspiration.

And you are right, Volitzer. The two party system is a joke, because it doesn't matter which side of the fence you are on, both parties are under the control of precisely the same behind the scenes manipulators.

However, I do think that if there was any time in the history of this nation, when a huge number of people would embrace the above idea, that time is now. Americans are so sick and tired of our elected officials pandering to the money grubbers, I think we are actually ready to do something about it.

So if anybody wants to copy the above post and put it up on another forum, please feel free to do so. Maybe the idea will catch on over the internet, and if enough people like it, maybe we can turn this mess around.

Cat, I have to disagree with that one.  The Democrats and Republicans are beholden to some of the main interests, not all of them.  Big business definitely needs to get it's nose out of politics, which would mean no more oil company lobbying, or lobbying by Big Pharma.

In my view, the worst damage done to this country has been on behalf of the religious right, though. They have a stranglehold on the Republican Party (as the Terry Schiavo case, Bush's Supreme Court nominees, the Partial Birth Abortion bill & Bush's "Faith-Baised Initiative" office can attest to, among other things). 

You won't find the religious zealots with the same pull in the Democratic Party, ours is, if anything, is for unions, women's rights, those of minorities.

Republicans are also pretty giddy about war, they are all about getting more money for their corporate overlords.

If you keep telling people that there is no difference between the two parties, not only will real change never happen, it also isn't true.

[unknown]

Hi Penny,

 I have to agree, there are definate differences between the two parties... one only has to watch C-SPAN to see it. As the Republicans did everything in there power to protect corporations from litigation and to dismantle the agencies already in place to protect the public from excesses of capitalism. We are seeing the consequences now... in everything from contaminated pet food to  anti-freeze in tooth paste. The Republicans have sold the soul of the nation for thirty pieces of silver.

The republicans blatant arm twisting to pass a prescription drug program that forbid the national government from negotiating prices is a prime example of where their loyalties lie and to their boldness and audicity in pursuing those goals. A mindless loyalty to profit... above all other considerations even above patriotism.

Why is it that businesses would rather **** money away then give it to our government? It is because their only loyalty is to profit... not to community, not to posterity, not to nationality -- but to greed?

[KTCat]

When I said "no difference" I'm not talking about party platforms. The "no difference" that I was talking about is because when you research out the all the presidential candidates in the game thus far, they all, regardless of whether they are on the Republican or Democratic side of the equation, have serious ties to the Council on Foreign Relations. And that worries me. I am adamantly against the move towards creating a North American Union that ties the US, Mexico and Canada together, and it is the CFR that is seriously involved in seeing that it goes through. I'd like to see a Presidential candidate that had the balls to stand up to them for a change.