Overthrow the tyranny of elected congressmen!

Via Universal Hub: The group FreeGovernment.org is searching for a candidate to run against US Rep. Michael Capuano in the 8th District. But there's a catch:

If elected, you will be bound by contract to act as no more than proxy for our district by voting on bills only as do online verified voters, and by introducing and sponsoring bills only through significant support.

Seems like an attempt to bring the Town Meeting model to Congress, complete with spotty and unpredictable voter participation (but without any face-to-face political discourse). Last year, there were 1,186 roll call votes in the US House. If FreeGovernment prevails, the responsible voters of the 8th District might as well cancel their cable TV because they'll be too busy researching bills.

Or, like members of Congress, voters could hire staffers to do research for them. In fact, a bunch of voters (say, 150,000 of them) could all get together and hire an assistant to help them decide what directions they should give to their proxy member of Congress.

Comments

[Foy Savas]

Hi Robert,

I get the feeling you think we're going for direct democracy. If you read through the FAQs on the site you will learn otherwise.

Ha, you're completely right about people not ever going to spend enough time to research bills, but honestly we've actually designed FreeGov for citizens not to have to do that, as they can opt to select advisers.

The adviser concept we use on the site, mimics representative government with a few major benefits: 1) real-time accountability, 2) personal representation, 3) the opportunity to choose multiple advisers, and 4) the ability to override how they vote whenever you want.

You seem like a guy keen on following politics, so I hope that despite your initial criticism, you now better understand what FreeGov is actually going for. No, it's not town-meetings or direct democracy, but instead the idea of citizens being able to participate at any time in a convenient way.

Anyway, I hope to see you on the site one day, perhaps even as an adviser.

Best,
Foy