If people use it, it will make a difference.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions
The Will of the People
How can we leverage the technology of communication to provide a voice to all of the people?
Every Senator and Representative as well as the President claims to speak for all of the people, but aside from statistical samples in opinion polls, newscasts, speaking with constituents one on one or elections, we have no way of knowing, or even approximating, the will of the people. I think that there may be a way to produce a nonbinding vote from the people that expresses their will without an intermediary.
A poll sanctioned by the White House (or Congress or both), conducted over the Internet, could reveal at least a very close approximation of the will of the people on virtually any issue or bill. Being nonbinding, there would be no need for legislative approval (or, for that matter, presidential approval) to set up such a poll, but in order to have any significance, it should bear the stamp of approval of some branch of government.
To be fair, it would not be able to avoid some “voter fraud” and would probably not include the opinions of people that do not have Internet service (although there may be a way to allow other methods of voting), so it would not be the voice of all of the people, but it could be a tool for gauging both the interest in some issues and the general direction of opinion.
The exact details could be hashed out by the Executive Branch, and it could be relatively informal or carefully screened depending upon how the programmers wish to count the “votes”, but even if it is no more precise than a poll at a news web site, it would bear the imprimatur of the Executive Branch (or Legislative Branch) and thus has the potential to be inclusive. An invitation by the President to all people of all political persuasions from all states to express their opinion by such a poll would likely be received well. The questions on the poll might be upcoming acts of legislation (or summaries) or specific plans (multiple choice, perhaps), and the results could be presented in graphic format for the whole nation and the individual states and districts. The demographic information collected at registration may also be applied to the opinion polls.
It should not cost much, and could be included in the budget for the White House or Congress. The information gleaned could be valuable both for the present and for history.
Of course, our elected representatives and president have a duty to do what is right for the country, not necessarily the will of the people, but it could be a means of countering assertions about “what the people want”. A clear and overwhelming majority would at least reveal such assertions as either true or self-serving and untrue remarks.
I would be opposed to using this as a way of determining how our representatives should vote. That would not and should not be its purpose. Direct democracy is tantamount to mob rule, and it has been tried before unsuccessfully. Our representative form of government has the advantage of allowing deliberation, fact finding, and decision making removed from the passions of the moment, and we at least hope that our representatives and president are capable of making rational decisions in the interest of the country that may run counter to their own opinions or even the opinions of their constituents.
Be that as it may, when the President called for the citizens to contact their congressmen, the responses were not uniformly available for review. We have no way of knowing if the representatives that then expressed their impressions about what their constituents were saying were making statements consistent with what the people that called or wrote were actually saying.
We, the People, need a way to express our opinion. We should know what others think. This type of polling could be transformative, and we could learn much about ourselves, our neighbors and our politicians.
We can participate in our democracy.
