EDITOR: Our country’s elected representatives and system are inept and totally controlled by two political parties, special interests and large corporations. Mainstream media, including this paper, now being owned and controlled by a few, have become nothing more than another very powerful, manipulative special interest group.
As a result, the American people are not in charge of this country, and the country is in a "death spiral." The near trillion-dollar bailout is an atrocity. For this country to survive and regain greatness, there must be a significant change in the balance of power between our elected representatives and the people. The technology exists to do this.
Subject to a direct vote by the American people, would the bailout have passed? Armed with the power to directly formulate and vote on bills, legislation and referendums, how long do you think it would take for the American people to reverse the flow of illegal aliens, fix public education, mandate English as the national language, downsize the military/industrial complex, win the drug war or solve any other major issue facing this country?
The National Initiative for Democracy (www.ni4d.us) is an organization attempting to implement this concept — they are trying to get enough voters to register and vote "yes" to directly making an amendment to our constitution and implement a more direct democracy. This is real change that offers real hope for this country. Get involved. We can do it!
David C. Finkbiner
Mosinee
Name: David Finkbiner
Age: 60
Occupation: CPA/financial analyst
Hometown: Mosinee
What inspired him to write:
If we’re talking about a democracy — in my own opinion, democracy means people voting and having some control over their government. We’ve never had a pure, direct democracy. It’s always been a representative kind of democracy. But for the people to have power offers enormous benefits for all of us. Take the bailout that just happened. If people had an opportunity to vote, the outcome would have been very different and you’d have a happier population.
We talk about apathy in this country. If we had a situation where people’s votes meant more, and people were more able to get involved, a byproduct of that would be better-educated people (who are more engaged).
What I’ve seen is the corporate interest groups, special interest groups and the two-party system is taking full control of this country. The balance of power has gotten to the point where the people do not have that much power.
The concept is not to eliminate the Senate or the Supreme Court or anything else. But it’s to shift the balance of power back to the people.