Internet and Politics

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
1

Just a crazy thought I had, and most likely has a lot of holes/issues with it, but stick with me.

With the prevalence of the internet these days, 1. will it ever happen 2. would it work for the political system to get a major overhaul and each American (well most anyways) to have a right to vote (rather than some politician) on various issues?

Hope that makes sense. I mean if we truly were to have a voice this would be it, rather than electing some official to be persuaded by lobbyists and/or outright lie to us.

Again, this is probably just a crazy idea, and I don’t pay much if any attention to politics.

2

You mean to have individual voting on bills or whatever via the internet instead of elected representatives?
I think it could work, but I also think that b/c of the potential effectiveness, various interest groups would use scare tactics into convincing people that “terrorists will be voting under your name” or something like that.

Benefits of this would be reduced cost from the downsizing of the bureaucracy, more specific representation for people, and it would also limit the current corruption that seems to be mandatory in the current political system.
I do think it will happen. Probably somewhere in Europe first, but I’m not sure about the States going down that path. Even more so if Europe were to do it, b/c that would “make you a socialist”.

3

No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.

4

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.
[/quote]

Cell phones for everybody???
Public libraries dude.

5

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.
[/quote]

Perhaps it could be case dependent. For example, how is it not possible/reasonable for Americans to actually cast a vote on making it mandatory for foods that are GMO to be labeled as such?

Put aside the debate over their safety, but just about the labeling. Sure, we can sign peittions and this and that to try and get it passed, but if something like this were able to be directly voted on by the American public, I think that would make things on this topic come about a lot faster.

I’m only using this as an example, not whether or not the idea of labeling is right/wrong/or not important.

Then again, how and who would decide on which issues would allow voting.

6

This might be the worst idea I’ve ever heard for electoral politics.

In any event, it’d be completely unworkable.

7

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.
[/quote]

Cell phones for everybody???
Public libraries dude.[/quote]

How many computers are at your local library? Mine has like 5. Even if it’s say 50 people in my area that need them to vote, how can they possibly have enough time to read the bills, which are online and then vote? It’s just not feasible.

8

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.
[/quote]

Perhaps it could be case dependent. For example, how is it not possible/reasonable for Americans to actually cast a vote on making it mandatory for foods that are GMO to be labeled as such?

Put aside the debate over their safety, but just about the labeling. Sure, we can sign peittions and this and that to try and get it passed, but if something like this were able to be directly voted on by the American public, I think that would make things on this topic come about a lot faster.

I’m only using this as an example, not whether or not the idea of labeling is right/wrong/or not important.

Then again, how and who would decide on which issues would allow voting.
[/quote]

I think you could possibly work something out for online elections, but not for bills. Even in your example, the turn out will be difficult to predict. How many people will vote and will people from all states vote? At least with representatives everyone, at least in theory, is represented.

Also if you only did only voting on some issues you’d still have the cost of elected officials and the cost of online voting. I don’t think it’s all that bad an idea in theory, but I don’t think it will ever be fiscally possible.

9

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.
[/quote]

Cell phones for everybody???
Public libraries dude.[/quote]

How many computers are at your local library? Mine has like 5. Even if it’s say 50 people in my area that need them to vote, how can they possibly have enough time to read the bills, which are online and then vote? It’s just not feasible. [/quote]

I highly doubt that everyone would be voting on every single bill. They would be voting for or against the ones that concern them.

10

This could also be adapted for each representative to have his or her own channel to communicate with the people of their district to get their opinion on the subject.

11

[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
This might be the worst idea I’ve ever heard for electoral politics.

In any event, it’d be completely unworkable.[/quote]

This lol

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
Sure, we can sign peittions and this and that to try and get it passed, but if something like this were able to be directly voted on by the American public, I think that would make things on this topic come about a lot faster.

[/quote]

Look, that is how our government works. The price of freedom is responsibility. You elect the people you think are going to make the right choices, and if they don’t or aren’t you voice your opinion.

You take the responsibility and you get it done.

It starts with the individual, then it spreads to the family. Then it spreads to the community, to the district, to the state, and then the nation.

This prevents jack wagon ideas from gaining support, and insures that good ideas have soild foundations and good backing from the population. This gives the people power over our leaders.

You start putting votes on the internet for Anon to hack, next thing you know we’ll have a community organizer as president.

12

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
This could also be adapted for each representative to have his or her own channel to communicate with the people of their district to get their opinion on the subject.[/quote]

We have this now, it is called an email, letter, fax, phone call, or verbal communication.

13

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
This could also be adapted for each representative to have his or her own channel to communicate with the people of their district to get their opinion on the subject.[/quote]

We have this now, it is called an email, letter, fax, phone call, or verbal communication.[/quote]

I wonder how many are actually read/looked at.

14

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.
[/quote]

Cell phones for everybody???
Public libraries dude.[/quote]

How many computers are at your local library? Mine has like 5. Even if it’s say 50 people in my area that need them to vote, how can they possibly have enough time to read the bills, which are online and then vote? It’s just not feasible. [/quote]

I highly doubt that everyone would be voting on every single bill. They would be voting for or against the ones that concern them.[/quote]

Isn’t that a problem though? Shoudn’t everyone be represented everytime?

15

We’d go bankrupt within a year.

16

[quote]Sloth wrote:
We’d go bankrupt within a year.[/quote]

aren’t we already technically bankrupt?

17

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
This could also be adapted for each representative to have his or her own channel to communicate with the people of their district to get their opinion on the subject.[/quote]

We have this now, it is called an email, letter, fax, phone call, or verbal communication.[/quote]

I wonder how many are actually read/looked at.

[/quote]

Then write another one tomorrow.

And another the day after.

And 7 more next week.

18

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
This could also be adapted for each representative to have his or her own channel to communicate with the people of their district to get their opinion on the subject.[/quote]

We have this now, it is called an email, letter, fax, phone call, or verbal communication.[/quote]

I wonder how many are actually read/looked at.

[/quote]

Then write another one tomorrow.

And another the day after.

And 7 more next week.[/quote]

it worked for Andy Dufraine

19

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:
We’d go bankrupt within a year.[/quote]

aren’t we already technically bankrupt?[/quote]

I don’t know about that. In theory you would replace the secret service with their tech equivalent. You’d also save in the way of salaries, travel, and other accommodations for our reps.

I still think it would be more expensive the current system though.

20

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
No I don’t think it will happen and would probably not work anyway. I don’t think cost would go down, but rather the opposite. You’d go from the cost of x number of reps to millions of users needing to be online, the security costs to secure IDs would be enormous on its own and of course you’d have to pay for those that can’t afford the internet, but have the right to vote as well. Think subsidized cell phone, but for internet usage.

Aside from that, who would write, read. and argue for or against the bills? Would you read every single new bill? Could you imagine reading the health care law and then voting on it, what in your spare time, for every bill…F that.

Short of a major tech break through I don’t think it’s even a remote possiblity.
[/quote]

Cell phones for everybody???
Public libraries dude.[/quote]

How many computers are at your local library? Mine has like 5. Even if it’s say 50 people in my area that need them to vote, how can they possibly have enough time to read the bills, which are online and then vote? It’s just not feasible. [/quote]

I highly doubt that everyone would be voting on every single bill. They would be voting for or against the ones that concern them.[/quote]

Isn’t that a problem though? Shoudn’t everyone be represented everytime? [/quote]

If a certain issue has nothing to do with me, then I won’t go out of my way to waste my time on it, so no, not always.