To Rethink Government

For a long time it has been efficient for the people to elect representatives and send them off to Washington D.C. and to follow their votes and from that decide if their representatives have followed the influence of the people. But, what if that is no longer necessary? Consider that there is an internet, that there is a way to record a single vote, that there is a way to collaborate between people to form groups and between groups to form factions and between factions to form alliances and between alliances to pursue legislation. There is an ability of the general electorate to immediately demonstrate their preferences on current legislation and be a greater, stronger influence on the votes of their representatives.

I am not considering a direct democracy as the Federalist Papers and even the Anti-Federalist Papers and other such books on the subject warn against the abuses thereof, not to mention the French Revolution as a graphic example, but perhaps there is now a method of government that has never before been possible.

In the early days of the Republic it was not possible for people to travel even 20 miles without wasting the whole day and it was even much more difficult to travel all the way in from distant California to participate in government directly, so the idea of Representatives and the electoral college were needed to overcome the obstacles placed on government over such a great expanse. Do we still need such things?

The question might be: Is it necessary to wait out a two, or four, or six year term when it is obvious that the respresentative has not been responsive to the expectations of the people? What I mean is a shorter leash, a tighter rein on our elected representatives and the immediacy of revocation of our consent. If every career hinged on every vote, would they be so willing to disregard the warnings and leave their voicemail boxes full, or switch sides after angering their base, if they knew the majority might remove them from office over the course of a week of preparation for an electronic recall vote?

I just think that at this moment in time, when another two years might see an indebtedness that surpases anything anyone alive now might be able to pay off, it might be time to become more active in stopping the ultimate enslavement of posterity to popular or even unpopular legislation of a single generation.