Forum Post: Let's Lobby Our Own Congress by creating a virtual congress on the Internet

You don't have a say in government because your voice remains silent in the halls of Congress while special interest lobbyists pack the hallways of the Capitol building and spend hours and hours and millions of dollars influencing your representatives to do their bidding. In fact, it is estimated that in many of our “public hearings”, most of the room is often filled to overflowing with lobbyists. All of this legislation is being passed without your knowledge and consent and much of it is even written by the lobbyists themselves or the organizations they represent.

As reported in a local newspaper, one of the lobbyists recently said, “people have to be vigilant in good times and in bad. If you’re not represented in the process you get what you get.” You might want to reflect on this for a moment. IF YOU'RE NOT REPRESENTED, YOU GET WHAT YOU GET. Or, to put it another way, because of our lack of a common voice, the Very Few are making decisions for millions of Americans in closed door meetings in the middle of the night. This is not democracy - not even a democratic Republic. It's an oligarchy. And it exists because our framers could not have possibly known about modern technology when they formed this democratic Republic. They had no other choice because they didn't know about computers and the Internet, satellites in space, television, cell phones, jet airplanes, and the infamous "30 second soundbite." But that was then and this is now yet we are all still living in the past - a world that hasn't existed for over 200 years. A world where news traveled on horseback and votes were delivered by covered wagons and counted by candlelight.

One solution: Form our own virtual congress using the Internet and use it to gather public opinion on various issues (such as the efficacy of preemptive wars) and then hire our own lobbyists and send them to Washington to influence our own Congress on behalf of the American people. How's that for a novel idea? Let's lobby our own Congress (perfectly doable), monitor their votes, and then use our power of the vote - instead of the billions in special interest money currently being lavished on our representatives, to convince them of the error of their ways. Let's remind them who sends them to Washington and whom they are supposed to represent. AND LET'S KEEP POLITICAL PARTIES OUT OF THIS! There's too much partisan bickering and hatred in America and it's being used against us to keep us divided.

And while we're at it, let's take back some of our own airwaves and create our own television network. Let Americans debate Americans on the various issues of our times. Basically Facebook on steroids. Yes YOU, on TV! Not the lawyers, not the politicians and pundits, YOU. Let's ask Americans what they think. Let's give Americans a voice and listen to what you have to say for a change.

Google or Bing "virtual congress" for more.