Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Top 7 Organizations for Fluid Democracy

If you believe in democracy, then you should care about the current state of our own, here in America (sorry readers from the rest of the world!). If you're really aware, you might know that our democracy isn't in fact very strong at all. Many people barely consider it a democracy. We have much less say in goverment than we may think we do, but if we stand together, we still have the power to bring about great change.

People argue about today's hot topics and promote the causes they care about, but we need to focus on something a little more fundamental: our political process. Without a strong democracy, it might not be the case that the majority wins, but the side with the most influence (money) does instead.

To put into perspective only a few of the problems that still exist today: Why should we have an opinion if congress serves lobbyists instead of us? Why should we vote if our votes are not counted, are miscounted, or are downright manipulated? How can we form valid opinioins if the media serves corporate interests instead of putting journalism first? For all this and more, we need to focus on improving our democracy. Here are my top 7 organizations that are doing exactly that. 

  1. Change Congress
    Stop congress from accepting money from lobbyists or PACs, end earmarks, and support reform to increase Congressional transparency
  2. Free Press
    Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. If the media is slanted, how can you trust what you hear and see? 
  3. Verified Voting Foundation
    Ensure our elections are reliable and publicly verifiable
  4. Public Campaign
    Campaigns should be publicly funded to make elections about voters, not lobbyists and campign donors. 
  5. FairVote
    Our elections need universal access to participation, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices, and majority rule with fair representation for all. 
  6. Sunlight Foundation
    Open up government and increase transparency by revealing the interplay of money, lobbying, influence and government in Washington.
  7. Free Government
    Empower citizens to engage in government decision making and promoting true representation in congress
I also have to give mention to the American Monetary Institute
Economic reform is needed to prevent an inevitable total financial meltdown, take the ultimate power from banks, and ensure a sustainable economy. For a pretty good explanation, check out this video (and forgive the crappy animation). 

I hope this reaches the eyes of interested readers, and if you'd like, feel free to join my Democracy FIRST group on Facebook. 

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:33 AM

    I appreaciate, and mostly agree with your main points, but I'd like to point out something. America is NOT a democracy, it is a republic. It's a very important distinction and you do a disservice by misrepresenting it.

    "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself." John Adams

    You will never get money out of politics unless you get the power out of government. The only reason companies give large sums of money to politicitians is because those politicians have the power to make or break them, not because they have extra cash to throw around.

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  2. Another interesting group to watch (and use their website to direct email to all those congressional folks that are supposed to be representing the people and not their own pocketbooks) is http://www.downsizedc.org

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  3. The more people taking note, the better.

    We are beginning a blog to explore just this very point: http://trueq.net

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  4. Thanks for the kind words about the Sunlight Foundation. We need to be able to access as much information as the power brokers of Washington. When we have information we can also have power to hold representatives accountable.

    Other organizations and projects you will be interested in:

    Washington Watch tracks the bills in Congress, along with estimates about their costs or savings, when available.

    Read the Bill, we are asking that lawmakers post legislation for 72 hours on the internet so people and lawmakers can actually read them.

    Thanks for the support! Together we can help push our government to be more open.

    Nisha Thompson
    Organizer and Outreach Coordinator
    Sunlight Foundation
    1818 N Street NW
    Washington DC 20036
    www.sunlightfoundation.com
    202-742-1520 x 223
    nthompson(at)sunlightfoundation(dot)com
    twitter.com/sunlightnetwork
    Facebook.com/NishaqThompson

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