We ought to give Three Cheers for Technology, the way it is coming to save the present system of government is like the U.S. Cavalry in a B Grade Western movie. All that is needed is the trumpet sound of democracy that never calls retreat. The direct votes of the people are coming to save a confused representative political situation that often, no longer works. The politicians in Congress are simply not doing their jobs wisely or well enough to continue that way blindly.
The Founding Fathers set up our government in three branches. One is the legislative, or the House and Senate, The other two branches are the Executive and Judicial. Congress as you can see from the debt is not working well. So one is not pulling its load. How do the other two branches of government react? They become unbalanced because when one of the legs of a three leg stool falls, the other two slip and become unbalanced.
The executive branch has tried to make up the gap made by the refusal of Congress to deal with important issues by becoming the “Imperial Presidency”. That means the President tries to take over as much as he can to balance things. The idea is someone has to govern. The President is like a hero in battle who runs to take over an empty machine gun nest to win the battle.
The other problem is the judiciary branch. Where the politicians can’t lead, the courts, they try to heard it. Our courts today, as you may have noticed, are out of place. The courts are making the laws sometimes out of thin air because something has to fill the gap. If politicians in Congress led wisely, the courts would not have to be herd. But in the absence of the good policies the near worthless politicians should have made, the courts and the President have to make them. I mean, be understanding, someone has to keep the show going when the politicians fizzle out.
Now I suggest strongly to restore balance to the national government, so the jobs in government can be done right and proper, we let the people vote through modern technology on the big issues. Not much change. We simply substitute the ballots of the voters on big issues for the ballots of politicians. This will restore strength and regularity to the legislative branch through a direct infusion of the people in government. This being done, the government can go back to being as balanced as the Founding Fathers intended.
Of course some will say that all we need to do is change the politicians in congress.. Nonsense ! We no longer need a “third” party in the middle of the will of the people. We can eliminate the third confusing wheel. We do not want a “no nothing” party of politicians that confuses, compromises, distorts and delays or stalls issues. This is the case now. (Besides, if you will investigate, you may find as I do that representative government doesn’t really represent. Direct voting on issues will.)
On most issues the rabbit-like politicians just wring their hands and wonder what to do that will keep them in office. Just make speeches and rely on the apathy that helps political incumbents. How can you really except good governing from re-election addicts who will do anything (or nothing) to ensure their re-election and their next shot of the drug of power.
No, the people are a rock where the politicians are wimps. The people are there. They will vote. Their votes are not subject to polite blackmail by political parties who may hold an election mortgage on them. Yes, the people may be wrong at times. So are the politicians. None are completely right all the time. But it is not to much whether the legislative branch is right or wrong. It needs those who are there and will vote in a timely manner on issues. The country needs the security as well as a high morale from mass political participation.
God knows politicians are often wrong but the security is needed of knowing the legislative voters are there and doing their jobs so the President doesn’t have to turn to being an Imperial Caesar or the courts to handing down laws taught them by Utopian professors in too rich universities that are completely out of touch with the reality of the people.
And the nation can count on the people. Also I suggest, that the people in voting will do a better job of voting on important issues than the politicians. For example, I don’t know of a single person who would have voted for the massive national debt we have now to carry. I mean, do you really believe the people in voting can’t do better than the politicians? Who do you believe in: the politicians or the people? I believe in the people. After all, the people are in touch with the people, the politicians sure aren’t or there wouldn’t be the messes they are now.
I submit for your consideration that there is more common sense in the people than in the politicians. Remember one half the politicians in Congress are lawyers, and often the ‘sense” has been schooled out of them. They may know theory, but not life. And most of them have been trained by law school to be sophists.
We don’t want a gaggle of attorney’s making our laws. The bills drawn up in our Congress of attorney’s are often over 1,000 pages. Thus the famous remark of a recent politician over a fat bill that was pending. I hear it was remarked by a Congress person, “We will have to pass it to see what’s in it.!” (How’s that for informed voting?)
We need to give Three Cheers For Technology that can deliver us from the will of politicians through modern technology into the will of the people. We can count on and involve the people more in government. This technology comes at an apt time when the legislative branch is collapsing. I consider the right timing providential. That is why I say the technology comes on like the U.S.Cavalry. To give us the power to vote when the politicians are obviously failing us. (Regard the debt! Should they be in charge of money? I question that. If you are wise, you may too.)
Remember there is nothing radical being done in this proposal. It is simply a voter adjustment so the legislative branch of government may work better than it does now. This adjustment will make the legislative branch work better and facilitate the working of the other branches of government: the executive and judicial. All three branches will then be able to work together in the spirit of the Founding Fathers.
The change needed is the replacement of Congressional voting on big issues, by the people’s voting on big issues. The voting would come from all over the country by using modern technology. For the people to vote or have the last word on the big issues is actually better than the present system which is archaic. The voting on issues should include national taxation, borrowing, and wars or “non-wars” as politicians now term some undeclared wars.
Look at it this way. As the legislative branch fails to do its duty by stalling on issues, distorting issues, ear marking and delaying votes, simply refusing to face reality, then modern technology has right on time brought in the new possibility of direct democracy. Direct democracy is a step ahead of representative democracy.
As in the game of checkers, you may “jump” over the thing in the way or “leap frog” to get to the next and better position. The people who want to change politicians, don’t grasp the situation. Why argue over which bad politician when it is easier just “jump” over them to a higher level of authority the higher level of authority in a democracy is the vote of the people. (The Apostle, Paul, in a similar situation, as a citizen of Rome wisely appealed to Rome.)
Now technology has advanced so much that it enables us to have the means of ideal direct voting on issues, a most important step in the evolution of democracy. It so far has been desirable but not practical. Now it is not only still desirable but practical to do. Such a happy situation has not been possible in American politics since the New England Town Meetings in which everyone might enjoy a direct vote on issues.
So we should give three cheers for the new communications technology that now allows us to make democracy more direct than representative (when needed or desirable.) As our representative type of democracy seems now to be failing and degenerating (as we can plainly see around us), science has come up with timely new electronic technology that makes direct voting on issues by the people possible. This new technology to politics, I suggest, is like the dropping of a positive and democracy affirming atomic bomb. I say Three Cheers For Technology, and the new media communications it now brings to support more direct and better democracy not only in America, but the world over.