Open Congressional Voting to the People
- by: A Fair World
- recipient: U.S. Congress, the President of the United States
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"Our country is meant to be at the hands of its citizens. But instead is at the hands of but a handful of them, namely, the Congress. Yes, we do choose those members by a majority vote, but after that we, our visions, our thoughts and desires, our hearts and opinions are left out of it and we can only hope to influence these men and women with letters, protests, pleadings. We have fallen into a despair of actionlessness; hopelessness. We feel we cannot change our world, because our world is at the hands of but a few, who seldom have our best interests at heart. We have stopped showing up at the polling places. Stopped protesting. Stopped participating in our government, because it has seemed that our government is over us. Overpowering us. Taking away our freedoms and our country, our lives and our reasons to live, without a thought and without an ear to our voices.
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I propose that we take back that government that has become more than us. I propose that we open Congressional voting to all citizens. It would no longer, then, be 535 people making the decisions for 308 million, but all of us making decisions for all of us. This does not eliminate Congress from being, it just adds the rest of our citizens to the equation. I think this can be achieved through the use of the internet and the creation of permanent polling places. Then, those who have a home internet connection can participate at home if they wish, but even those that cannot afford (or for any other reason do not have an internet connection) can still participate by going to the polling places. They will be equipped with computers with broadband internet access and the places could be run either by paid employees or by volunteers or both. There will be the ability of each citizen to read through the bills and choose those that interest them, to watch each of the relevant speeches given by Congressmen about their chosen bills in videos (like what you see on Government Access), read both the legalese and lay persons versions of each bill, have access to relevant research items so that they can read information about the issues the bills are about and, also, have the ability to do their own research around the internet. Even if, from home or a polling place, a citizen researched and voted on just one bill it would make a difference. Please sign this petition and help create the world you want to live in. "
Dear members of Congress and Mr. President:
We the undersigned, wish to gain your support in making Congressional bills open to citizen voting. In these modern times, we have come to recognise a disparity in the power of the Congress and the power of the people. We seek to change this disparity into equality. We do not seek to eliminate Congress from their duties, however. We merely wish you to include us in them.
I leave you with a few quotations to ponder:
"I am not discouraged by [a] little difficulty; nor have I any doubt that the result of our experiment will be, that men are capable of governing themselves without a master." --Thomas Jefferson to T. B. Hollis, 1787. ME 6:156
"Every nation has a right to govern itself internally under what forms it pleases, and to change these forms at its own will." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney, 1792. ME 9:7
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. ME 3:320
"We of the United States are constitutionally and conscientiously democrats. We consider society as one of the natural wants with which man has been created; that he has been endowed with faculties and qualities to effect its satisfaction by concurrence of others having the same want; that when, by the exercise of these faculties, he has procured a state of society, it is one of his acquisitions which he has a right to regulate and control, jointly indeed with all those who have concurred in the procurement, whom he cannot exclude from its use or direction more than they him." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:487
"We exist, and are quoted as standing proofs that a government, so modeled as to rest continually on the will of the whole society, is a practicable government." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush, 1820. ME 15:284
"We are a people capable of self-government, and worthy of it." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Weaver, Jr., 1807. ME 11:220
"[Our] object is to secure self-government by the republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the people; and to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those who fear the people. They and not the rich are our dependence for continued freedom." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39
Thank-you for taking the time to read this letter. I hope you give it it's due consideration. The freedom and prosperity of our nation is in your hands. Choose wisely.
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