[this was published a while back but blogspot doesn't presently allow reverse chronological so I'm going to repeat it here]

It has always struck me as a very frustrating facet of modern democratic life that politicians make promises and then conveniently sidestep their promises.

The only way things get done are when ‘connected’ people propose things to the politicians. Essential legislation only gets passed when a fearless citizen/organization keeps up the crusade to implement change. But, for the most part, the people who are acknowledged to command the most influence on lawmakers are the lobbyists. This site hopes to emulate their actions via the Internet; we hope to be “thelobbyist” for the disenfranchised.

Forget letters to your elected officials. Forget public opinion polls; the fat cats cannot be trusted with our future. The only way to keep them honest is to keep them on their toes every step of the way. When this site is implemented, the politician will be guided to do our will, not his own. Notice that I said guided; the politician will always be allowed to vote his conscience.

Here’s how our web site will work:

From the very start the website must belong to all.
Ordinary people place issues on the website (absolutely without constraints of any kind); issues like these:
Eliminate additions to bills where the addition is not pertinent
Tell us everything you know about Roswell, NM in 1947. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but if this is what moves you, you can make it an issue and hope that fellow citizens agree with you.
Nationalize the health insurance industry.
ANYTHING else you could possibly take issue with. I hesitated to list exaples here because I feared that surfers who disagreed with me might think they were my agenda. They are not. They are only examples. But do keep in mind that although “anything goes,” not everything will reach general voting.
Ordinary people offer to join a committee to discuss, elaborate, and fine-tune the issue as first proposed (perhaps a WIKI could be used here). No member is refused membership in a committee but only a limited number of positions will be filled.
The refined/reformulated issue is posted on the web site for first round voting.This first round of voting determines whether there is enough interest. The issue goes to general voting if the first round shows that 5% (for example) of the members are in favor of a general vote. If so, all members are notified that an issue is up for general voting and that they should vote within one week (as an example. The actual deadline may be determined by the issue committe).
The results of the general vote are forwarded to elected officials.
The elected official now can either take action to give us what we want or ignore us because he has information that we don’t have or he really feels that it would be wrong for the country. This is fine.

Now, you may ask, aren’t we back to where we started? The answer is a resounding NO because he/she risks losing the next election by showing utter disregard for our wishes. If we voted 5 million to one million on an issue, our elected officials better provide us with a good reason why they chose to ignore us. Their actions/inactions on our issues will be sent to all our members.

Some may argue: Aren’t politicians professionals who have our best interests at heart? Yes but, so what, nothing gets done anyway with the present system. Nothing, that is, unless big business and their lobbyists give it their blessing.

But what about rule by the masses? Don’t the politicians tend to be more level-headed? Yes but our website will, because of its success, attract the best minds in the country who will provide quidance to our committees; probably joining the committees (alas, even lobbyists will be allowed to join. In fact, I would like every single blessed resident of our great country to join us.

The most important thing about the website is this: THE WAY THE WEBSITE LOOKS AND FUNCTIONS WILL BE DETERMINED BY ITS MEMBERS AND WILL NEVER BE AS HARD TO CHANGE AS THE CONSTITUTION IS NOW. But if it ever were to become as respectable and as useful as the constitution, perhaps it should be made hard to change; but never impossible.

I am asking for help in putting together something functional and . . . let’s play with it for a while . . . all the time building it up to a force that must be reckoned with! I have no personal agenda other than to make our country a true democracy with a government responsive to our needs. Any ideas put forth on the thelobbyist.ortholex.com subdomain are my own and are hereby made part of the public domain; if you want to start your own movement with my ideas, please do so. I will help in any way I can. I am tired of feeling frustrated and disenfranchised; I know that, unless you are one of the wealthy or politically connected, you probably are too .

To make this idea come alive, we need some web designers/developers to volunteer their time. We need idea people who could help in overcoming some hurdles. Specifically and, most important, we need to establish a means of ensuring “one member, one vote.”

Perhaps more than anything, we need discourse. Please e-mail me with your thoughts pro or con. Thelobbyist@gmail.com