WeMatter.com > the_book
>Abstract
Abstract
Reasons for developing the WeMatter.com site
Note: These will be discussed
in more detail in {the-book}
itself, and its subsequent sections, summarized below.
- Problem --
There is a disconnect between the US citizens
and their government. We citizens are seeming
more and more discouraged with the actions of
our Government as it seems to jump from one
failed (or partially successful) policy to another.
- Reasons -- The polices do not seem to be are not the result
of considered citizen thought but are developed, enacted by special
interest groups. The some of the obvious reasons for these problems
are:
- The accountability of our representatives is legally limited
to a Yes or No vote, once every election period, with manor pressures
to reduce even the effectiveness of via Incumbent districting,
- The Cost of elections, etc.
- The separation of the Representative from
the people, for example, the Senators who
determine federal policy are elected by a
large number of people, thus, one person's
vote is relatively unimportant, and only
those in the district of a Senator who is
on the proper committee will be listened
to for the proposals that are relevant to
that committee.
- Solutions -- As this is not a new problem,
many solutions have been proposed, which the
author feels have major problems, all the way
from a strict Libertarian approach that proposes
that the government be so limited that it is
irrelevant that it is divorce from the people
to an electronic direct government approach that
proposes that all issues be decided by the population
directly via Internet voting. The Internet should
allow people to gather together, virtually,
to effect their government, but it currently
does not provide the "architecture"
so that they do, but generally leads them off
in their own little worlds that have no influence
on the government.
- Solution -- The
author's proposes to develop a
political hub site that allows
people to "virtually" get together
so that they can learn from each other, speak
as a united voice based on their positions to
their representatives, and then see how their
representatives voted and support them based
on this record. The site is to be a central
area that lists the issues and coordinates the
special interest sites, BLOGs, Petitions, and
record sites so that people can use the site
to learn and cooperate on issues.
January 31, 2005 19:38
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