Forum Post: Change the process then change the policies

If you look at the majority of movements these days (be it OWS or the tea party) and complaints about the government all seems to boil down to one thing; our leaders do not listen. So we protest, we shout at them, we express our opinions, but are we actually accomplishing anything? I don’t raise this question to be inflammatory or insulting to whatever changes have been pushed through, but to say there might be a better way.

The problem with this country lies not in its politics, but in its process. However, most of the protesting I see revolves around the idea of either attacking or supporting a certain policy/ideology. What little efforts I do see to change the process (such as Get The Money Out) all try to work within the existing playing field. The point of this ramble being why don’t we aim to change the playing field? The vote is still a very powerful tool if properly harnessed.

How we do this is simple; we create our own party, but not one based off of any ideology, not one that tries and advance a particular set of view points, and not one that advocates any particular change in policy. Instead this party will be focused on changing the political process.

Money in politics, special interest groups, and the constant battling of the two parties can all be changed if a large enough part of the population agreed to do it. The party would act as an organizer for its own meetings, support any candidate who wanted to run under the flag, host its own debates, and most importantly implement a system of accountability between the voters and the elected official.

The costs of this could be minimal, the only requirement would be that people would have to choose to pay attention, educate themselves, and vote. In so long as this party merely advocated a process rather than a policy it could change the political playing field to one more responsive to the people.

Billions of dollars are spent trying to get us to notice one candidate above the other. The need for candidates to raise this money makes them more accountable to those with the cash than those with the votes. What if we stopped listing? What if we started having our own conversation?

Once we change the process we would then be much more efficient in changing the policies. We've played by their rules, what if enough of us decided to make them play by ours?