Forum Post: Do you agree with the GovTogether.com solution?

We believe we have a solution. We are not suggesting a new demand. We are suggesting a strategy to shift power to the 99% through the current U.S. representative system. A strategy to use democracy and the power of the 99% to improve democracy. A way to make representative government more representative.

Read below and then go to www.Govtogether.com and tell us/everyone if you agree with this solution by voting YEA or NAY.

www.GovTogether.com is a project we have worked on in our spare time with our own, very limited resources. We are lifelong friends, lawyers, engineers, and concerned citizens. GovTogether is a not-for-profit, almost quasi-governmental proposal. Our fundamental wish is simply for the essence of it to be considered, ideally by all.

The Problem: It is clear that government in this country - and around the world - has become captive to corporate and special monied interests. As such, democracy has suffered and the social contract has been severely compromised. The interests of 1% take precedence over and to the detriment of the remaining 99%.

Millions marching in the streets may be sufficient to overthrow monolithic power structures, such as a dictator (e.g., Arab Spring), but such an approach is, in a certain sense, not only misguided in the context of democratic governments that have merged with big business, as is the case right here at home, but, much more importantly, also unsustainable in the long-run. And to what end? Even if the 99% succeeded in electing an entire Congress that vehemently and steadfastly pursued their interests, eventually, that Congress would come to be bought by those same corporations and special interests. Why? Because the current structure of our legislative branch of government, where only a few hundred citizens have the direct power to legislate, is exquisitely susceptible to disproportionate external influence. This congenital weakness is compounded and exploited further by a two-party monopoly and laws and results that solidify power at the top, such as the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the Supreme Court case Citizens United.

The Solution: Therefore, a solution - any solution - by definition, would either have to change or supplement the structure of legislative government to an overall design better suited to protect the interests of the 99% AND/OR involve a proliferation of legal enactments designed to protect those interests. Both approaches are only possible through dramatically increased and sustained civic participation. So, how to increase and maintain civic participation?

GovTogether proposes to increase civic participation by directly incentivizing it; that is, by shifting legislative power to the people through the current representative system.

All that would be required is to devise and build a system that would enable an entire congressional district to crowdsource legislation - draft, propose, deliberate, and vote. Such a system would be comprehensive and feature both online and offline attributes. The necessary counterpart to this system would be a representative elected to office on the pledge to abide by the majority vote of their constituents as expressed through the system - in other words, actually represent their constituency. If the representative failed to do so, they would lose their electoral mandate and presumably not be re-elected.

Once in place, the effect would be a shift in the point of influence from the individual representative to their entire constituency. Corporations and special interests would still have a voice, but in order to effectively exercise it, they would now have to lobby the people rather than just the elected official.

The Vision Each citizen will be assigned the power of one vote. With that vote, the citizen can either vote on legislation directly themselves, or, delegate their vote, entirely or on a limited, issue to issue basis, to another citizen or citizen-constituted entity they trust to represent them (e.g., your personal physician for all healthcare-related legislation, if you agree with their politics and feel they are more knowledgeable on such issues than you are; or a local environmental non-profit for all environmental legislation, if you agree with their politics and feel they are more knowledgeable on such issues than you are). Thus, each citizen would NOT have to do all the heavy lifting individually; effort would not have to be duplicated.

GIVE THE PEOPLE THE POWER TO VOTE DIRECTLY ON LEGISLATION, AND AN ENTIRE MULTI-LAYERED, MULTI-FACETED LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE NETWORK WOULD ORGANICALLY ARISE, FROM THE GROUND UP!

Please, all we are asking is for you to tell us what you think. Go to GovTogether.com and vote YEA if you agree with this solution or NAY if you disagree. This is for you...