Dan Leftwich wrote:
In the political realm this was Bucky's model, from his 1940 book "No More Secondhand God": "We should be voting by telephone on all prominent questions before Congress"
I ran across this quote recently from Buckminster Fuller which seems to fit: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
It's clear representative democracy alone doesn't represent. The Swiss have kept their Parliament far more honest and representing than Congress by checking and balancing them with national ballot initiatives, since 1848, without telephones, let alone the internet. The Swiss vote 4-7 times a year on local, cantonal and national ballot initiatives. The Swiss read more news than anyone. Real responsibility brings more responsible citizens.
Rep. Jared Polis promised on KGNU to introduce a bill for national ballot initiatives: http://spryeye.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-congressman-jared-polis-on-record.html Rep. Alan Grayson (outspoken on healthcare) recently said "We need more direct democracy and less representative democracy." http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/11/2/9500/39438/189#c189 When I told Jared that, he was already scheduled to fundraise for Grayson, sometime this week! We need more potential co-sponsors. Know any other "Democrats" who also support "government by the people?" What a concept! (Republicans also accepted.)
Of course Jared et al know Congress won't go for it. National ballot initiatives also went nowhere with Congress in 1907 and 1977.
Famed former Sen. Mike Gravel was part of the 1977 attempt and his since found a "Plan B" for getting National ballot initiatives into the Constitution without begging Congress. (How'd that work with healthcare? War?) I hope to convince Jared to go this legal route after "putting it on the table" in Congress. Full particulars at http://Vote.org, my website promoting Gravel's National Initiative for Democracy. The legality has been vetted by the finest Constitutional lawyers, including Yale's Akhil Amar, who was the main interviewee during Bush V. Gore. The website as the Voting by Phone Foundation was the first direct democracy website, now in it's 5th reincarnation.
Jared has been asking me about a state with model ballot initiatives for years. I had nothing. Now Oregon has instituted Citizen Initiative Review, with randomly-selected "citizen juries" to hold hearings, take expert testimony, consider amendments, and issue reports so voters have the kind of info Reps get: http://healthydemocracyoregon.org/node/125 It's the first substantive improvement to the process in the century they've existed.
Some of Gravel's young bucks are making a feature-length movie about the project: http://film.ni4d.us/
What do you folks think?
Evan
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Evan Ravitz, founder. 303-440-6838
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Purty pix and strange stories: Back to the Garden blog
Vote at Vote.org to take the "mock" out of democracy!
Evan Ravitz, founder. 303-440-6838
"Participation, that's the salvation of the human race."
-Pete Seeger