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writing for godot

More Democracy, Less Republic

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Written by C Gardner Wilson   
Thursday, 06 June 2013 00:31
At least three big issues have demonstrated that what the voters want has nothing to do with what we get. Whether we are progressive or conservative, the vast majority of both groups want single payer health insurance. We got the health insurance mandate. Single payer never was on the table. Most voters also want the flow of cheap labor into this country to stop and the outflow of jobs and manufacturing to stop. The proposed immigration bill not only vastly increases the legal immigration of lower paid workers, it also does not guarantee an end to the continued influx of undocumented workers. And, as for the budget, the overwhelming majority of voters want Social Security and Medicare to be solid guarantees with full protection against inflation, yet the current budget proposal cuts Medicare and will destroy Social Security over the long run by failing to protect recipients against the thousand little cuts that are caused by real inflation. And these are just the big issues. There are many more issues that are not resolved as the voters want them resolved, rather these issues are resolved the way our elected representatives and their big money contributors want them resolved. Sure, there is talk of primary challenges for candidates of both parties, but this is just pie in the sky. No matter who we have elected, when push comes to shove, the voters' demands are pushed aside and the answers from the top are shoved down the voters' throats. It is foolish to think that we can gain control of our political process by nickle and diming primaries here and there. Not only do candidates misrepresent themselves in order to get elected, once they arrive in Washington, D.C., they all seem to fall into their party's lines. And, yes, there also is talk of amending our Constitution to stop gerrymandering or to require nonpartisan primaries or to require adequate and universal early voting. These things are not going to happen, because the political parties control our government, and the political parties will not allow anything to happen that takes that power away. So, realistically, is there anything we can do to make our elected representatives represent us? Well, there is one thing, and it is surprisingly easy. All we need to do is let it be known that we will vote for the candidate who promises to vote on every issue the way the voters from their district (or, in the case of a Senator, their State) instruct them to vote. Today, everyone in the world can vote for an American Idol every week and have their votes counted, so why not just "morph" this kind of "texting, online, and over the telephone" voting into a reasonably secure "accumulative" voting system that allows everyone to vote on every important issue? You know, getting elected is pretty sweet. Our members of Congress are paid around $150,000 per year plus great benefits and great vacations. If all someone has to do to get that job is to have a good reputation for honesty and then promise to ask the voters what they want done and then promise to do it, then some honest person is going to step up for a chance at that job. And, if they agree to ask the voters what to do and then agree to do it, then it does not really matter if a candidate is red, blue, or green, because they are going to vote how their constituents tell them to vote. And, of course, if the polls show these kinds of candidates are getting increasing voter support, then all candidtes will begin to fall out of the party line and into our line. The best thing about this approach is that big money no longer will have any incentive to buy our members of Congress, because our members of Congress must vote as we tell them to vote, not how the big money people tell them to vote. Representative government has been a necessary evil. Nations had to be big in order to survive, and big nations meant huge distances between its citizens. Everyone could not travel to a single location and then vote citizen by citizen on every issue. So, true democracies gave way to representative forms of government. But, today, even though distances remain huge, communications have overcome those distances. We can all stand together in cyberspace and vote on every issue. The rationale no longer exists for a central government consisting of representatives who, then, act independently in the interest of their voters. It never worked, anyhow. Our elected representatives acted and continue to act more in their own self-interest rather than purely in the interests of their constituents. So, let's pick up our cell phones, our laptops, and our landline phones and start voting on the important issues, because what we need is more democracy and less republic.
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