We Speak For Earth

Americans Elect policy director (and former Marine) Elliot Ackerman appeared on The Colbert Report a few weeks ago. Luckily, I caught a repeat…

AmericansElect.org is as close as the American populace can get to a truly grassroots political movement. So, what is it? According to the “About” section on the website:

Americans Elect is the first-ever open nominating process. We’re using the Internet to give every single voter — Democrat, Republican or Independent — the power to nominate a presidential ticket in 2012. The people will choose the issues. The people will choose the candidates. And in a secure, online convention next June, the people will make history by putting their choice on the ballot in every state.

Essentially, AmericansElect.org operates as an online presidential nomination medium. According to Ackerman, the people behind Americans Elect have gone state by state to ensure that whoever is nominated by the users of the site will be placed on the Presidential ballot of EVERY U.S. state come next fall. This is mind-blowing (it is also, unsurprisingly, receiving minimal mainstream media coverage)…

AmericansElect.org will seemingly give every American voter an equal voice. It will truly be an experiment in pure democracy. Since there is no campaigning necessary, any digital candidate will not be beholden to special interest groups, campaign donors, unions, corporations, etc…

Whether we want to admit it or not, we don’t live in a democracy. In name we live in a Democratic Republic; in actuality, we live in a sort of oligarchic republic. In the modern American political system, money equals expression (thank you, Supreme Court)… AmericansElect.org can be seen as an attempt to remove corruption from the system.

What is truly exciting about the movement is that it cuts across traditional party lines… The issues of the individual candidate, not those of any party at large, will be the focal point of the debate. Candidates will be beholden only to their own ideas, values, and political beliefs. So…go sign up!

I’ve been curious about AmericansElect.org since I first heard about it a few months back. I made an account, answered some questions… but aside from the occasional email, haven’t heard much from them or about them. So, I’m not sure what to think. It sounds potentially awesome, but I’m honestly hoping to hear more opinions and some of the possible pros and cons.

What about you guys, any thoughts?

Irony Alert: The House is holding hearings on sweeping Internet censorship legislation this week — and it’s censoring the opposition!  The bill is backed by Hollywood, Big Pharma, and the Chamber of Commerce, and all of them are going to get to testify at the hearing.

But the bill’s opponents — tech companies, free speech and human rights activists, and hundreds of thousands of Internet users — won’t have a voice.

As if you need a reminder: This is the most offensive Internet legislation we’ve seen in years.  It will give the government and corporations new powers to block Americans’ access to sites that are accused of copyright infringement, force sites like YouTube to go to new lengths to police users’ contributions, and put people in prison for streaming certain content online.

This sham of a hearing represents everything that’s broken about our political system. Will you sign the petition at right, demanding that opponents of the Blacklist Bill be allowed to testify this week?  (It’ll generate an email to them too.)

PETITION TO JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN LAMAR SMITH AND RANKING MEMBER JOHN CONYERS:  The so-called “Stop Online Piracy Act” will kill innovation and undermine free speech rights.  You need to give the hundreds of thousands of Americans who’ve spoken out against it a chance to make our case at this week’s hearings.