DEMOCRACY / INTERNET DILEMMA
Why hasn’t the internet transformed our democracy the way it has transformed everything else in modern society? The fields of finance, travel, education, publishing, entertainment, advertising, and dating (to name a few) have all been revolutionized in the last two decades by universal access to the World Wide Web.
But the Internet has (so far) had no such transformative effect on our democracy. Voters don’t have more choices. Voting isn’t any easier or more efficient. Elected officials are no more accountable than they have been in the past. All of our political institutions, at every level of government, continue to be dominated by partisan politics and the two party system. By these measures, the Internet hasn’t made so much as a dent in the political status quo. Why is this?
One likely answer: the two-party system is so deeply integrated into the American political landscape, it has become impervious to change. Partisan politics has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry that employs tens of thousands of fundraisers, money bundlers, campaign strategists, lobbyists, social media managers, pollsters and consultants of every stripe and flavor. Entire media empires thrive on a business model of partisan pandering. Each election cycle sees an exponential increase in political spending, while public trust in democratic institutions has fallen to an all-time low. Almost half of the eligible electorate doesn’t even bother to vote.
Another possible answer: the two party system remains as entrenched as it is because the electorate has never been presented with any other alternative.
Until now. Now the American Majority Party (AMP), on the web at www.american-majority.org, offers a practical solution to the problem of partisan politics in democratic governance. Here’s how it works.
AMP is a political party representing the interests of America’s majorities, but it doesn’t sponsor or endorse specific candidates. Instead it hosts at its website a series of issue propositions, and invites citizens to commit their vote in future elections to candidates who support these specific issues.
As simple as this Future No Vote (FNV) application might seem at first, in practice it changes everything. Voters who use this new system can now (if they choose) completely ignore the partisan political theater. They no longer even need to know the names of candidates, because on election day the FNV app will identify the candidates on their ballot they can vote for, based on the issues they’ve pledged their vote to. If the app identifies more than one qualified candidate, voters can use any secondary criteria they wish — candidate bio, party affiliation, coin toss — to sway their decision, knowing that whomever they choose will do what they want done.
The core innovation of the FNV application is that it gives voters an alternative, non-partisan basis for deciding who to vote for. This may prove to be an attractive option not only for current voters who are fed up with partisan politics, but also for the half of the eligible electorate that now doesn’t vote at all. AMP offers these citizens a way to vote for what they want, without requiring any exposure to partisan politics (other than voting mechanically for an app-approved slate of candidates on election day). FNV voters are concerned primarily with what they want their government to do; who’s doing the legislative work, and what party they belong to, is of secondary (or lesser) concern.
Republicans and Democrats will of course continue to stoke the partisan fires, because that’s what keeps them all employed (not to mention well paid). Partisan conflict is essential fuel for the two-party engine; without it political parties would have no “hook” for their fundraising, no emotional appeal to their base, no way to rally the troops.
Now, however, those citizens who don’t want to play the partisan game have a viable alternative. They can join the American Majority Party, vote for what they want, and walk away from partisan politics for good.