Chapter Eight
People often ask if I will run for office. I have absolutely no desire to be a politician for many reasons. I don’t want to rule or control anybody. Wearing a suit and tie while sitting through one tedious meeting after another sounds terrible. Begging for campaign contributions with attached expectations of future favors feels downright dirty. I wouldn’t want to be tempted with bribes or corrupted by power. Almost everything about running for office and being elected seems awful to me.
Even if I were elected and set the finest example for public service while rising to the highest office without flaw, the power entrusted to me would be abused by future leaders. We should never put our full faith and confidence in one person. America’s Constitution is designed to limit centralized power while promoting local control with public participation by citizen legislators. Modern technology gives us an unprecedented opportunity to elect true Public Servants who govern based on constituent consent. This chapter will be dedicated to laying out a vision for self-governance with official representation.
We would start with myself and two other people willing to get the ball rolling. The three of us would talk with friends and family about this new concept of collective self-governance and invite them to join us. We would interview anyone interested in being our elected representative. Let’s say they will run for a County Commissioner seat. We would pick the best candidate who will follow our guidance to run for office.
County Commissioner seats usually pay a few hundred dollars per monthly meeting. This would be our Public Servant’s financial compensation. The only money we really need to raise would be for setting up our official website which will be used to share information, facilitate discussions, and hold votes. Social media platforms and word-of-mouth promotion are how we should invite people to vote for our candidate. Ideally, the opportunity to elect a true Public Servant would resonate with voters who are tired of the two-party system. We would work with the County Board of Elections to get our unaffiliated candidate on the ballet. This would require some signatures and a small filing fee. Relatively few voters could be the first to elect a Public Servant who is managed by the citizens they represent. We can set an example for voters in elections across the globe.
Our Public Servant would post all information provided for commissioners prior to meetings so we could review and discuss it before voting on any positions. Our commissioner would have a computer at meetings to live stream video of public comments and commission debates. One of the first things we should direct our Public Servants to propose is that no votes will be allowed the same day public comments are given. This would give us time to consider comments and relevant information while we discuss options before voting. We could also hold real-time votes if necessary. Once a supermajority of a suitable constituent quorum agrees on something, we would advise our commissioner to vote that way. Failure to achieve those voting thresholds will cause our commissioner to abstain or vote present. We could explain why and offer alternatives.
Let’s look at a recent vote to see how this might have played out if we decided how our Public Servants would vote. There is a new community that needed a Fire District designated for responding to emergency calls. There were two choices. One district has a department five minutes away while the closest other one was thirty minutes away. Kind of seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Which Fire Department would you want to be dispatched if you lived there and needed help? How do you think the vote went? Despite admitting it was wrong, most deciding politicians voted for the more distant district because of politically motivated priorities. How would you direct your Public Servant to vote on a life-or-death issue like that? Would you want your safety to be the only priority? I believe this would play out differently if self-governing individuals decided how to treat other individuals. We would have an incentive to show the kind of consideration and respect we expect in return.
We are more than just variables in political equations. When we are seen as numbers, it is easier for those with power over us to justify questionable decisions. Does it need to be said that we are not numbers? We are all distinct individuals with personal freedom and Natural Rights. We deserve to be treated better than just another digit. Practicing collective self-governance encourages everyone to consider how we would want others to treat us in similar situations. The inherent goodness in humanity naturally guides us to respect each other. Being viewed as little more than a statistic dehumanizes us, enabling those characterizing us that way to be disrespectful. Numbers don’t have feelings or Rights to consider.
Good communication and coordination can help us use numbers to our advantage. We started this vision with three individuals working together to share ideas with anyone interested. Those joining our group should help come up with guidelines for establishing an ongoing series of smaller constituent groups numbering between three and three hundred. Three is the minimum needed to hold votes. Three hundred is roughly the limit of individuals we can recognize before everyone starts blending into anonymous figures. This is also about how many people can have a meaningful discussion. Recognizing each other would help us know if an account has been hacked. Groups could grow to three hundred before splitting in half or new groups can be formed by three people wanting to start one. Each group could have private talks and votes on their own forums while joining open discussion boards to work out solutions a supermajority of all voters can agree on. Remember how a supermajority requirement avoids mob rule? Minority rights should not be undermined by a simple majority.
Our secure website could send updates and have sections like social media sites with chatrooms, polls, private messages, and public posts. We could get involved with the issues that interest us without feeling obligated to be constantly engaged. Guidelines should be established for when a quorum is necessary and what constitutes a constituent quorum. We can’t expect everyone to participate every time. Each voting member should be allowed to share ideas to see if there is enough support to move forward with votes that would direct our Public Servant to bring it up at the next County Commissioner meeting.
Here is an example of a current event I might post about in hopes of gaining enough traction to move forward. Congress is considering an Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act. You may have noticed my disdain for letting corporations use our Public Waters for their industrial fish farming operations. I would ask that our Public Servant Commissioner propose that the Commission send a Resolution to Congress officially opposing AQUAA. We could include suggestions such as limiting Public Water aquaculture to stocking native seafood for public consumption. If there wasn’t enough support, it wouldn’t go anywhere. If there was, it would.
Another thing I would bring up from the start in hopes of making it a platform for electing constituent-guided Public Servants is a Stop-and-Review policy for our county and all levels of government. Our Public Servant candidates’ positions would let every other candidate know what we want to be done instead of them declaring how they will rule us. Politicians often act as if they have a mandate to do whatever they want even if elected by the slimmest of margins. Those of us in the middle majority get hit hard from the left and right as our voices of reason are largely ignored by partisan extremists.
We really need to beware of benign-sounding legislation with bi-partisan support like AQUAA. Corporate lobbyists know how to play politicians on both sides of the political aisle to get what they want. Two things most politicians have in common are a love of money and power. Promises of one or both can create strange political bedfellows.
Received updates today on the Fire Department debacle. A life-threatening emergency was responded to by both available departments. The closer one was there in six minutes and the other arrived twenty minutes later. This predictable event along with considerable public pressure finally convinced our politicians voting on this to do the right thing. Fortunately, everything worked out for the patient thanks to those heroes who responded despite knowing there would be no monetary reward. Only the dedicated district receives payments. Time matters in medical emergencies. That person could have died if it took over four times as long for help to arrive. This is a great example of why it is so important to be seen as individuals rather than numbers. Our humanity reminds others of theirs.
Getting back to the vision for collective self-governance, we have a wonderful opportunity to do something historic that should not be squandered. A well-coordinated effort between those willing to work together is necessary to make this a reality. We all have something special to offer that can help us make the most of this timely opportunity. Some people are good at reviewing and summarizing documents for easier reading and understanding. Others with technical talents can help us design secure websites to be engaging, informative, and easy to use. Social-media-savvy citizens can quickly spread our messages with a few keystrokes. We can all help by sharing information online and in person. Any successful attempt to self-govern with official representation will depend primarily on whether enough of us are ready to pay attention, get involved, and think beyond our own self-interest.
This is a good time to consider ways we can get paid for managing our Public Servants and Resources. We have already touched on some possibilities. The first step should be to set up something like a Community Commerce Co-op that we could use to run various revenue-generating operations. Rather than trying to create corporate jobs by offering absurd incentives to outside investors, we could invest our tax dollars locally in using available resources to create our own jobs and income. We should be prepared to make the most of new opportunities as they present themselves. This can be a profitable way to secure locally sourced goods and services necessary for modern society to exist. The potential is there for all of us to achieve basic financial freedom with paychecks coming from our Community Commerce Co-op. There will still be the usual opportunities to make more money at traditional jobs or by starting a business.
Getting paid for paying attention to doing the People’s Business will make it much easier to invest our time in expanding collective self-governance to other elected offices. Even if we are limited by security clearance protocol from reaching the highest offices, we can still use our polling power to influence outcomes. Think of how quickly politicians change positions when polls show a significant majority of the public doesn’t like what they are doing. They mostly ignore party-line polls that show anything close to a fifty/fifty split. It is time we moved beyond being limited to picking from two bad partisan agendas. The middle majority needs to start offering alternative solutions most reasonable people can understand and support. We have a way to make this happen if enough of us get involved.
Imagine the influence we would have if hundreds or thousands of Public Servants filled elected offices across our nation. We could set up state and national websites where local groups can communicate and coordinate with other self-governing citizens. The smaller constituent groups of three to three hundred voters could privately work out positions before presenting a supermajority-supported message on their public platform for all to see. We could collectively negotiate solutions and coordinate our message using polls to guide public policy. Public opinion is a powerful tool when used properly. Critical thinking is critical to making the best use of public polling. It is important to think critically about our own ideas to make sure what we are asking for is reasonable and fair to everyone.
Between the polls and our Public Servants, we could introduce civility and common sense to politics. We could start a Stop-and-Review process that allows us to decide how we want to be governed. Everyone would have an equal chance to share their vision for what we want. Our best ideas would rise to the top with enough support from thinkers throughout America. Considering other viewpoints about the same issue can help us understand how and why others might see things differently than us. We will have to agree to disagree sometimes but will find solutions acceptable to most people when we are willing to think about the big picture. We could consider a wide variety of issues that will offer opportunities for compromising across them. Personal autonomy and Public Resource management are two topics where cross-compromise can help bring people with differing views together to help each other.
The idea of cross-compromise comes down to finding solutions for two different issues that all sides can accept by making concessions to gain ground. We have already touched on managing Public Resources for public profit. The left might concede to extracting fossil fuels from our Public Property as the right concedes to public profit sharing, so everyone wins. Reasonable energy solutions can help align all of our interests. A middle-majority example of personal autonomy cross-compromise would be to stop politicians from telling us what we are allowed or required to put in our bodies. Independent thinkers can negotiate cross-compromise solutions for all kinds of issues if we try. We should also try guiding our Public Servants and other elected officials to support our constituent-inspired ideas. It is amazing what a few people can do when we try.
The optimist in me knows we can do all this and much more if enough independent thinkers will work together while the realist understands most people are still too comfortable. Setting a successful example would inspire others to follow suit as politicians keep pushing people out of their comfort zones. One win could lead to many more. We can realistically shift the balance of power toward local control by self-governing citizens with official representation over a few election cycles. Thinkers worldwide would take notice as the course of human history starts trending toward tolerance, public prosperity, and personal liberty. We can also wait to see what political puppets for powerful special interests come up with next to help us. Now is the time to decide if we want to keep going down this political path we are on or start charting a new course toward freedom.
Even if I were elected and set the finest example for public service while rising to the highest office without flaw, the power entrusted to me would be abused by future leaders. We should never put our full faith and confidence in one person. America’s Constitution is designed to limit centralized power while promoting local control with public participation by citizen legislators. Modern technology gives us an unprecedented opportunity to elect true Public Servants who govern based on constituent consent. This chapter will be dedicated to laying out a vision for self-governance with official representation.
We would start with myself and two other people willing to get the ball rolling. The three of us would talk with friends and family about this new concept of collective self-governance and invite them to join us. We would interview anyone interested in being our elected representative. Let’s say they will run for a County Commissioner seat. We would pick the best candidate who will follow our guidance to run for office.
County Commissioner seats usually pay a few hundred dollars per monthly meeting. This would be our Public Servant’s financial compensation. The only money we really need to raise would be for setting up our official website which will be used to share information, facilitate discussions, and hold votes. Social media platforms and word-of-mouth promotion are how we should invite people to vote for our candidate. Ideally, the opportunity to elect a true Public Servant would resonate with voters who are tired of the two-party system. We would work with the County Board of Elections to get our unaffiliated candidate on the ballet. This would require some signatures and a small filing fee. Relatively few voters could be the first to elect a Public Servant who is managed by the citizens they represent. We can set an example for voters in elections across the globe.
Our Public Servant would post all information provided for commissioners prior to meetings so we could review and discuss it before voting on any positions. Our commissioner would have a computer at meetings to live stream video of public comments and commission debates. One of the first things we should direct our Public Servants to propose is that no votes will be allowed the same day public comments are given. This would give us time to consider comments and relevant information while we discuss options before voting. We could also hold real-time votes if necessary. Once a supermajority of a suitable constituent quorum agrees on something, we would advise our commissioner to vote that way. Failure to achieve those voting thresholds will cause our commissioner to abstain or vote present. We could explain why and offer alternatives.
Let’s look at a recent vote to see how this might have played out if we decided how our Public Servants would vote. There is a new community that needed a Fire District designated for responding to emergency calls. There were two choices. One district has a department five minutes away while the closest other one was thirty minutes away. Kind of seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Which Fire Department would you want to be dispatched if you lived there and needed help? How do you think the vote went? Despite admitting it was wrong, most deciding politicians voted for the more distant district because of politically motivated priorities. How would you direct your Public Servant to vote on a life-or-death issue like that? Would you want your safety to be the only priority? I believe this would play out differently if self-governing individuals decided how to treat other individuals. We would have an incentive to show the kind of consideration and respect we expect in return.
We are more than just variables in political equations. When we are seen as numbers, it is easier for those with power over us to justify questionable decisions. Does it need to be said that we are not numbers? We are all distinct individuals with personal freedom and Natural Rights. We deserve to be treated better than just another digit. Practicing collective self-governance encourages everyone to consider how we would want others to treat us in similar situations. The inherent goodness in humanity naturally guides us to respect each other. Being viewed as little more than a statistic dehumanizes us, enabling those characterizing us that way to be disrespectful. Numbers don’t have feelings or Rights to consider.
Good communication and coordination can help us use numbers to our advantage. We started this vision with three individuals working together to share ideas with anyone interested. Those joining our group should help come up with guidelines for establishing an ongoing series of smaller constituent groups numbering between three and three hundred. Three is the minimum needed to hold votes. Three hundred is roughly the limit of individuals we can recognize before everyone starts blending into anonymous figures. This is also about how many people can have a meaningful discussion. Recognizing each other would help us know if an account has been hacked. Groups could grow to three hundred before splitting in half or new groups can be formed by three people wanting to start one. Each group could have private talks and votes on their own forums while joining open discussion boards to work out solutions a supermajority of all voters can agree on. Remember how a supermajority requirement avoids mob rule? Minority rights should not be undermined by a simple majority.
Our secure website could send updates and have sections like social media sites with chatrooms, polls, private messages, and public posts. We could get involved with the issues that interest us without feeling obligated to be constantly engaged. Guidelines should be established for when a quorum is necessary and what constitutes a constituent quorum. We can’t expect everyone to participate every time. Each voting member should be allowed to share ideas to see if there is enough support to move forward with votes that would direct our Public Servant to bring it up at the next County Commissioner meeting.
Here is an example of a current event I might post about in hopes of gaining enough traction to move forward. Congress is considering an Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act. You may have noticed my disdain for letting corporations use our Public Waters for their industrial fish farming operations. I would ask that our Public Servant Commissioner propose that the Commission send a Resolution to Congress officially opposing AQUAA. We could include suggestions such as limiting Public Water aquaculture to stocking native seafood for public consumption. If there wasn’t enough support, it wouldn’t go anywhere. If there was, it would.
Another thing I would bring up from the start in hopes of making it a platform for electing constituent-guided Public Servants is a Stop-and-Review policy for our county and all levels of government. Our Public Servant candidates’ positions would let every other candidate know what we want to be done instead of them declaring how they will rule us. Politicians often act as if they have a mandate to do whatever they want even if elected by the slimmest of margins. Those of us in the middle majority get hit hard from the left and right as our voices of reason are largely ignored by partisan extremists.
We really need to beware of benign-sounding legislation with bi-partisan support like AQUAA. Corporate lobbyists know how to play politicians on both sides of the political aisle to get what they want. Two things most politicians have in common are a love of money and power. Promises of one or both can create strange political bedfellows.
Received updates today on the Fire Department debacle. A life-threatening emergency was responded to by both available departments. The closer one was there in six minutes and the other arrived twenty minutes later. This predictable event along with considerable public pressure finally convinced our politicians voting on this to do the right thing. Fortunately, everything worked out for the patient thanks to those heroes who responded despite knowing there would be no monetary reward. Only the dedicated district receives payments. Time matters in medical emergencies. That person could have died if it took over four times as long for help to arrive. This is a great example of why it is so important to be seen as individuals rather than numbers. Our humanity reminds others of theirs.
Getting back to the vision for collective self-governance, we have a wonderful opportunity to do something historic that should not be squandered. A well-coordinated effort between those willing to work together is necessary to make this a reality. We all have something special to offer that can help us make the most of this timely opportunity. Some people are good at reviewing and summarizing documents for easier reading and understanding. Others with technical talents can help us design secure websites to be engaging, informative, and easy to use. Social-media-savvy citizens can quickly spread our messages with a few keystrokes. We can all help by sharing information online and in person. Any successful attempt to self-govern with official representation will depend primarily on whether enough of us are ready to pay attention, get involved, and think beyond our own self-interest.
This is a good time to consider ways we can get paid for managing our Public Servants and Resources. We have already touched on some possibilities. The first step should be to set up something like a Community Commerce Co-op that we could use to run various revenue-generating operations. Rather than trying to create corporate jobs by offering absurd incentives to outside investors, we could invest our tax dollars locally in using available resources to create our own jobs and income. We should be prepared to make the most of new opportunities as they present themselves. This can be a profitable way to secure locally sourced goods and services necessary for modern society to exist. The potential is there for all of us to achieve basic financial freedom with paychecks coming from our Community Commerce Co-op. There will still be the usual opportunities to make more money at traditional jobs or by starting a business.
Getting paid for paying attention to doing the People’s Business will make it much easier to invest our time in expanding collective self-governance to other elected offices. Even if we are limited by security clearance protocol from reaching the highest offices, we can still use our polling power to influence outcomes. Think of how quickly politicians change positions when polls show a significant majority of the public doesn’t like what they are doing. They mostly ignore party-line polls that show anything close to a fifty/fifty split. It is time we moved beyond being limited to picking from two bad partisan agendas. The middle majority needs to start offering alternative solutions most reasonable people can understand and support. We have a way to make this happen if enough of us get involved.
Imagine the influence we would have if hundreds or thousands of Public Servants filled elected offices across our nation. We could set up state and national websites where local groups can communicate and coordinate with other self-governing citizens. The smaller constituent groups of three to three hundred voters could privately work out positions before presenting a supermajority-supported message on their public platform for all to see. We could collectively negotiate solutions and coordinate our message using polls to guide public policy. Public opinion is a powerful tool when used properly. Critical thinking is critical to making the best use of public polling. It is important to think critically about our own ideas to make sure what we are asking for is reasonable and fair to everyone.
Between the polls and our Public Servants, we could introduce civility and common sense to politics. We could start a Stop-and-Review process that allows us to decide how we want to be governed. Everyone would have an equal chance to share their vision for what we want. Our best ideas would rise to the top with enough support from thinkers throughout America. Considering other viewpoints about the same issue can help us understand how and why others might see things differently than us. We will have to agree to disagree sometimes but will find solutions acceptable to most people when we are willing to think about the big picture. We could consider a wide variety of issues that will offer opportunities for compromising across them. Personal autonomy and Public Resource management are two topics where cross-compromise can help bring people with differing views together to help each other.
The idea of cross-compromise comes down to finding solutions for two different issues that all sides can accept by making concessions to gain ground. We have already touched on managing Public Resources for public profit. The left might concede to extracting fossil fuels from our Public Property as the right concedes to public profit sharing, so everyone wins. Reasonable energy solutions can help align all of our interests. A middle-majority example of personal autonomy cross-compromise would be to stop politicians from telling us what we are allowed or required to put in our bodies. Independent thinkers can negotiate cross-compromise solutions for all kinds of issues if we try. We should also try guiding our Public Servants and other elected officials to support our constituent-inspired ideas. It is amazing what a few people can do when we try.
The optimist in me knows we can do all this and much more if enough independent thinkers will work together while the realist understands most people are still too comfortable. Setting a successful example would inspire others to follow suit as politicians keep pushing people out of their comfort zones. One win could lead to many more. We can realistically shift the balance of power toward local control by self-governing citizens with official representation over a few election cycles. Thinkers worldwide would take notice as the course of human history starts trending toward tolerance, public prosperity, and personal liberty. We can also wait to see what political puppets for powerful special interests come up with next to help us. Now is the time to decide if we want to keep going down this political path we are on or start charting a new course toward freedom.