The Idea

Why does it have to be?

The current political system.  The money.  The corruption.  The bickering.  Why does it have to be this way?  Surely this isn't what our founding fathers envisioned when they were fighting and clawing and bleeding to form this nation.  What would they say about an election year where over $7 billion dollars were spent on federal elections alone?  What would they say about Super PACs?  What would they say about two powerful political parties that control the future of the nation, and the lobbyists and wealthy interests that control the parties?

Is there a better way?

What we need is a way to separate the money from the politics.  We need a way to take the power away from the lobbyists, and really away from the elected officials themselves, and give it back to the people.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so we need to take away some, or most of their power, and give it back to the people who they are governing.  But how?

Why did our founding fathers choose the representative form of government?

George Washington didn't have email.  He didn't have a telephone.  If he wanted to know what someone thought about something, he had to either physically meet with them, or have someone ride a horse and take a letter.  So it would make sense that he wouldn't expect everyone to be involved in government on a regular basis.  The sheer enormity of getting input from everyone in the nation on every issue would have been ridiculously impractical.  So they devised a system where groups of people would choose representatives, and the representatives would get together and hash things out.  Makes sense 200 years ago.  In fact, I can't think of a better way of doing it... 200 years ago.

How else could it be done?

A few things have changed since George and his troops crossed the Potomac.  Namely:

• Google
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Online Banking

So now it is possible to get everyone's input about practically every issue.  Most people are posting their input and ideas online anyway.  So why are we still sending 535 people to make decisions for all 300 million of us?  Why are we sending Johnny Representative or Jenny Senator off to Washington for years at a time and allowing them to make decisions that will shape our country's future without checking in with the rest of us except at election time?  And for heaven's sake, why are we putting up with the political bickering?

So how do we get from here to there?  An idea for change...

Form a new political party.  The core belief of the party would be "Give power back to the American People".  The core rule of the party is anyone the party elects to office must:

• Contact their constituents about any vote they have to make.
• Vote the way the majority of their constituents tell them.

The party would have a website to facilitate and enforce this.  The website would:

• Allow people to signup for party membership.
• Allow elected officials to post their upcoming votes to their constituents (members of the party).
• Allow constituents to vote for their elected officials' upcoming decisions.
• Track each elected official's decision, how their constituents voted, and how the official ended up voting.
• Allow party members to apply to run for office as a party representative for offices being targeted by the party.
• Allow primary elections to be held online to decide a single party candidate for each office being targeted by the party.  

So what would it change?

• No more lobbying.  What's the point, if the official is just going to vote the way their constituents tell them?  Maybe the lobbyists will start lobbying the constituents instead.
• Wealthy interests would also lose interest.  
• Power returns to the people.
• No more partisan bickering.  No more partisans.

What do you think?

Please post your thoughts and comments below.  If you have any interest in helping to start such a party, please send an email to politimorph@gmail.com.

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