It is a well-known and easily demonstrable fact that the members of the US Congress and the State Legislatures do not read, evaluate or debate any of the particulars of the Legislation they vote on. They cannot read or debate the issues because the Bills approach 2000 pages each. And there are sixty to one hundred new bills for them to vote on every day they are in session.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot called attention to this insanity with a diplomatic observation that "a general lack of accountability among elected officials and those in the bureaucracy was the one specific reason that the people in America suffered".
Mr. Perot then suggested that the best and perhaps only way to make government officials accountable was to include the citizens in the decision-making process - every hour, every day.
He went on to note that this can easily be done with computers and called the proposed mechanism
THE ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL.
With this computer program every interested citizen can indicate whether or not they agree or disagree with every line item of every law, policy and program on the books or that was being advanced. It can be used at every level of government and in every jurisdiction.
To prevent chaos the basic law, our Constitution and Bill of Rights would be exempt from review.
Mr. Perot speculated that the Founding Fathers would probably have done the same had the technology been available. He referred to it as the Fourth Branch of government; The Citizens Branch / The Electronic Townhall.
If the government is truly of the people, by the people and for the people then what better way is there to perfect every section of the various laws and policies that do effect each and every one of us every single day?
It would not be difficult to expect at least 500 thousand qualified citizens, per congressional district, to read four pages of law or proposed law and get their Ratify or Annual input every day the congress is in session. The results could be aggregated, made known and we would all be better off.
The program would even allow a citizen to go back and change their vote as they matured. And when a super majority is reached the law/proposed law is either ratified or annulled by immediate recognition of the enforcement mechanisms.
With tens of millions of laws and tens of thousands of taxes there is plenty of work to be done.
According to Mr. Perot, this, the harnessed experience and the combined intelligence of hundreds of thousands or even millions of citizens focused like a laser light on the real issues, will, as surely as night follows the day, perfect every law in our country and eventually it will right every wrong.
Mr. Perot publicly announced his intention to give the fourth branch of government to the people in America if he was elected President.
But this attempt to empower our humanity was so far removed from the business-as-usual-two-party-system that the talking heads and trolls yelled out that Mr. Perot was trying to destroy our Constitution, our government and our way of life.
The ELECTONIC TOWNHALL was denounced as unworkable.
How would the poor participate?
How would fraud be prevented?
What about those who do not know how to use a computer?
In a final act of desperation, the control freaks claimed that letting the average citizen to pass judgment on the individual pieces of public law would lead to chaos and pandemonium.
But we all know the truth: only the concerned will bother to participate.
The media was so intensely negative towards the ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL that Mr. Perot was forced to stop talking about it, but he never withdrew it from his platform.
It’s now been thirty-two years since the proposal.
No other person of national reputation or significant influence has picked up the idea. BUT the big two political parties regularly stage "townhall meetings" where they talk of "reform" and "returning power to the people" and try to link themselves to the empowering part of the idea without adding to its manifestation.
And still we suffer in the hopeless loop of: "candidates with a sense of morality and respect for the Constitution who understand true brotherhood, justice and democracy and who will do the right thing for us each and every time, trust me".
It is a well-known and easily demonstrable fact that the members of the US Congress and the State Legislatures do not read, evaluate or debate any of the particulars of the Legislation they vote on. They cannot read or debate the issues because the Bills approach 2000 pages each. And there are sixty to one hundred new bills for them to vote on every day they are in session.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot called attention to this insanity with a diplomatic observation that "a general lack of accountability among elected officials and those in the bureaucracy was the one specific reason that the people in America suffered".
Mr. Perot then suggested that the best and perhaps only way to make government officials accountable was to include the citizens in the decision-making process - every hour, every day.
He went on to note that this can easily be done with computers and called the proposed mechanism
THE ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL.
With this computer program every interested citizen can indicate whether or not they agree or disagree with every line item of every law, policy and program on the books or that was being advanced. It can be used at every level of government and in every jurisdiction.
To prevent chaos the basic law, our Constitution and Bill of Rights would be exempt from review.
Mr. Perot speculated that the Founding Fathers would probably have done the same had the technology been available. He referred to it as the Fourth Branch of government; The Citizens Branch / The Electronic Townhall.
If the government is truly of the people, by the people and for the people then what better way is there to perfect every section of the various laws and policies that do effect each and every one of us every single day?
It would not be difficult to expect at least 500 thousand qualified citizens, per congressional district, to read four pages of law or proposed law and get their Ratify or Annual input every day the congress is in session. The results could be aggregated, made known and we would all be better off.
The program would even allow a citizen to go back and change their vote as they matured. And when a super majority is reached the law/proposed law is either ratified or annulled by immediate recognition of the enforcement mechanisms.
With tens of millions of laws and tens of thousands of taxes there is plenty of work to be done.
According to Mr. Perot, this, the harnessed experience and the combined intelligence of hundreds of thousands or even millions of citizens focused like a laser light on the real issues, will, as surely as night follows the day, perfect every law in our country and eventually it will right every wrong.
Mr. Perot publicly announced his intention to give the fourth branch of government to the people in America if he was elected President.
But this attempt to empower our humanity was so far removed from the business-as-usual-two-party-system that the talking heads and trolls yelled out that Mr. Perot was trying to destroy our Constitution, our government and our way of life.
The ELECTONIC TOWNHALL was denounced as unworkable.
How would the poor participate?
How would fraud be prevented?
What about those who do not know how to use a computer?
In a final act of desperation, the control freaks claimed that letting the average citizen to pass judgment on the individual pieces of public law would lead to chaos and pandemonium.
But we all know the truth: only the concerned will bother to participate.
The media was so intensely negative towards the ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL that Mr. Perot was forced to stop talking about it, but he never withdrew it from his platform.
It’s now been thirty-two years since the proposal.
No other person of national reputation or significant influence has picked up the idea. BUT the big two political parties regularly stage "townhall meetings" where they talk of "reform" and "returning power to the people" and try to link themselves to the empowering part of the idea without adding to its manifestation.
And still we suffer in the hopeless loop of: "candidates with a sense of morality and respect for the Constitution who understand true brotherhood, justice and democracy and who will do the right thing for us each and every time, trust me".