And I know I’m not alone in feeling this way, for it’s obvious that a great many people are terminally disenchanted with the charade of our political system. Just consider how many people have given up voting altogether. We all know that politics has increasingly become an orgy of greed and personal ambition. We are mere extras in a sham spectacle that is directed from behind the wizard’s curtain.
Trouble is, until now people have had no power to alter the situation. Hence, it’s no wonder that we’ve given up on the system. We’ve said with worldly resignation, “Follow the money!” We have shrugged our shoulders and changed the subject. And in the meantime, our so-called representatives have been making a sensational mess of the world. So much so that ordinary people like myself get to thinking that, despite the obstacles, we absolutely must do something about it. More to the point, we get to thinking, and to using our heads - which is dangerous.
And now, we’ve found the way out of this social and political dead end! Nevada Vote Direct enhances our power to rule ourselves by radically redefining our relationship with our Representative. This removes the material basis of political corruption, as if surgically removing the corrupt tissue of an ailing body. For there can be no utility in bribing a Representative when his vote is strictly decided by his constituents. (Plese see: How It Works?)
Until now, I have never previously wanted to be involved in politics - probably not any more than most of you. Most of us have better things to do than make a career of creating problems for other people. I’m not running for Congress because this has been my ambition in life. I am a musician, and until now the only thing that I have ever seriously wanted to do (apart from live and love) has been to make music.
And I am not demented enough to believe that I have all the answers to our problems. That’s definitely not why I am running for Congress. When politicians pretend to be experts on all questions, I just laugh.
And I’m certainly not corrupt - not that this would even matter once NVD puts the citizens directly in charge. When I am your Representative, and when lobbyists come calling at my door, I will simply tell them to get in touch with YOU instead. My vote will be determined not by what I think, or what lobbyists can convince me to think. It will be determined by how you vote online at the Nevada Vote Direct on the issue in question.
So, then, if they want to buy the vote from the Second Congressional District of Nevada, they will have to invite each and every last one of us to a cruise in the Bahamas. Not that your vote is for sale any more than mine. That’s not my point. I only want to emphasize that, by definition, I will have nothing personally to gain in my official capacity as your congressman. For, in Nevada Vote Direct, my vote is not worth any more than your vote.
The solution to our political problems in America is, as you can see, really quite simple. Let’s demonstrate in Nevada, practically and concretely, just how simple it really is. Let’s give this gift of democratic social renewal to the nation and to the world.
In fact, the only reason that I am running for Congress is because I know that we are much more likely to find real solutions to our problems if we rely on each other, all of us together, to decide the issues of the day. Each one of us is individually the best expert on our own needs. Moreover, each of us has some specialized knowledge and experience, and expertise, to bring to bear on these issues. Surely, our pooled expertise can hardly be less impressive than that of some of the individuals we see today in Congress.
More to the point, however, I see very clearly that the Internet can be adapted to this purpose in the implementation of an electronic direct democracy. Hence, I have developed the computer software that you find here been embedded in the online web pages of the Nevada Vote Direct. This DMS, or “Decision Management System,” is based on Robert’s Rules of Order, revised by me for the Internet. I call it Vox Populi, and I have made it freely available to you through Nevada Vote Direct.
The potential of this software is nearly limitless, for I believe there can be few limits to what a community of people decide to do together. Never before have people had the practical means to join together in a direct democrac, unless on the scale of the celebrated New England Town Meeting. Vox Populi software expands the practical horizons of direct democracy immeasurably. Vox Populi is the software of political freedom and popular sovereignty.
We have the software. Now the question is, what will we do with it?
I propose that we follow in a long tradition of people who, having no illusions about humanity, still believed that, on balance, better results could be expected from an expansion of democracy. In the merry old days of good King John, people thought that things would really progress much more advantageously if there could be a House of Lords. By the time of mad King George, people thought that nothing less than two houses in Congress would do. All along, the idea has been to bring more people into it. Basically, you see, the more people involved, the harder it is to pay them off. This idea has never been more convincing, it seems to me, than it is now.
Daniel Rosen
Candidate for Congress 2006
Second Congressional District - Nevada
