Searching for information about a particular member of Congress this morning, I came across an interesting web site called White House 2. White House 2 describes itself as “a multi-partisan network of 9762 citizens imagining how the White House might work if it was run completely democratically by thousands of people over the internet.”
It’s an interesting gimmick around which to create a political discussion. Anyone can register, even if they’re not registered to vote in the United States, and then can create or support political initiatives that, if White House 2 were real, and not just a fantasy, would get the attention of the President.
Is White House 2 actually likely to be listened to? It will need many more participants to gain a useful voice, if the congressional wing of the site is any indication. That site, Hello Congress, gathers information about the policy priorities of White House 2 participants, and then calculates what the top priorities of the constituents in each congressional district must be. Unfortunately, many congressional districts are thinly represented.
My district, for example, New York’s 24th, only has one participant in the White House 2 simulation. So, while it’s great that this participant has endorsed ideas such as “Get the Insurance Companies OUT of Healthcare”, “Prosecute criminals in Bush administration”, and “Repeal the PATRIOT Act”, I happen to know that our member of the House of Representatives, Michael Arcuri, has not shown one whit of support for such an agenda.
White House 2 needs a great deal more than one or two participants in each congressional district if it’s going to have an impact. But then, what would its impact be? Not a very progressive one, on the whole. The item with the largest amount of support under tax policy is to institute a flat tax, which would be to the detriment of working Americans. More people oppose repealing tax cuts for the wealthy than support the idea. Under health care, the top agenda item is “Get Government Out Of Health Care” – no more Medicaid, Medicare, no Centers for Disease Control, no FDA…
I’ll join White House 2 this morning, and poke around, and offer my little vote against the whims of the kooky crowd that’s assembled over there, but I’ll continue to place the weight of my focus on White House 1 and Congress 1 – you know, the democratic experiment out here in the real world.
After your mention I took a peek over at White House 2 and wandered back here a bit mystified. The approach is so short-form as to be a bit mystifying. Priorities like “Protect Our Children While Preserving the First Amendment” aren’t accompanied by any explanation, so I have to wonder what they mean. I *think* the above example is a reference to some kind of internet filtering something-or-other for browsers, but heck, it could be 45 other things. It could refer to the notion that we want seat belts in cars and a free public address system in every town square. How can I endorse or oppose such a vague priority?