Great political ideas come, not from committees or from random samplings of the uninformed or semi-informed masses, but from intelligent and forceful leaders who can think them through thoughtfully, who can articulate them in a way that resonates with people, and who can set out an agenda to carry them into effective action. None of this is easy to do and it takes exceptional people even to make a credible stab at it.<p>There is no need to bring in modern politics to illustrate this. Any glance through the Federalist Papers will quickly show to any informed reader that one can take very difficult and highly contentious topics (how to form a country, how to divide its power among different groups, how to limit its power decisively in furtherance of broader principles such as natural law) and make well-reasoned and even brilliant arguments about them in ways that compel people to action. The people who made those arguments were steeped in a lifetime of ideas and imbued with a strong philosophy about the principles of right government, and it showed in what they wrote - even when those writings essentially took the form of propaganda pieces (which is really what the Federalist Papers were).<p>You won't get this from a website such as the one featured in this piece. You won't get it from Democratic Underground either. Leaders are leaders and hacks are hacks. The world offers the latter in abundance but good leaders are a precious few. This is not to say that normal, day-to-day people can't have good ideas or be intelligent in a political sense. It is to say that the intelligent articulation of such views won't come out in a mass setting and that is why political parties are ultimately driven by insiders (who are, one would hope, effective leaders) and not by soliciting random views from the street.
Honestly, this kind of depresses me. I'd love to see an honest dialogue between government and citizens with well thought out ideas and respect from both sides. However, that's just not happening here. Between the massive influx of immature trolls and the Poe's Law style comments, it seems doomed from the start. The server creaking under the massive weight of traffic certainly isn't helping either. I think a system like this could work with some better moderation, and perhaps a better start to it, but this one doesn't appear to have a future, unfortunately.<p>Edit: I'd also like to add that this article is terrible. The seem to be taking glee in the fact that trolls deliberately poisoned the site, rather than thinking about how this could have been useful. I put the blame as much (if not moreso) on the people trolling the site as I do the nutjobs adding sincere comments.
I can't tell if this is real or a satirical article.<p>"Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who created the program, said that to get software for the site, 'I personally traveled to Washington state and discovered a Microsoft program that helped NASA map the moon.'"
The article is amusing but unfair - it's mostly just selected quotes from contributors to the new site. One could write a similarly far out (and amusing) story about HN or any other social site, by judiciously selecting from amongst the troll comments.
Although the troll comments are funny, the seriously-meant ones are even funnier:<p>"both dems and repubs need to gain the trust of the american people both sides have lied to us robbed us and i think both sides are about the money not freedom most of them dont know or care what is in the constitution im not saying all of them but most of the politicians"<p>Especially the attempts at rhetoric:<p>"my grandfather told me if you could lie and steal you could be a politician they were write"
When I visit the site, I get this:<p><i>Unavailable</i><p><i>A very high volume of Americans are speaking out right now.
Please wait a moment and try again.</i>
Cut them some slack. Managing user generated content is a difficult task. I hope they resolve these issues and bring us one step closer to using the internet to improve democracy.
Please vote my idea up on the site: <a href="http://www.americaspeakingout.com/questions/3795/america-s-number-one-problem-lobbyists-they-corrupt-the-political-system-more-than-anything-else-solution-make-all-p" rel="nofollow">http://www.americaspeakingout.com/questions/3795/america-s-n...</a><p>America's number one problem: Lobbyists. They corrupt the political system more than anything else. Solution: Make ALL politicians wear a "Nascar jersey" to work. Every politician should wear clothing with corporate logo decals. The bigger the payoff amount, the bigger the decal.
Not a bad idea, but not the best execution. A shame.<p>Interesting - I looked at their WHOIS records to see who actually built the site, and while that wasn't obvious, I did find the site's domain server on sale at Sedo for $300. I wonder how long that goes unpurchased.
New GOP site looks good to me:
<a href="http://hammerandsteele.com/?u=http://xkcd.com/personal/gop/" rel="nofollow">http://hammerandsteele.com/?u=http://xkcd.com/personal/gop/</a>
They're trolling for troll-attention. They know the more trolls that come and make funny posting the more attention it will garnish.<p>..at least I hope that is their plan.<p>Anyway, this site doesnt need software that maps moons, I'm sure it could be done as a weekend project with [your favorite set of frameworks] and some red bull.
Some of the current top posts for each section:<p><i>Job creation:</i><p>"We should invent and patent more colors. Like fuchsia, but not that because it's already been invented."<p><i>Fiscal responsibility:</i><p>"Nationalize production of "Arrested Development" and reap the profits of the show owning."<p><i>American Values:</i><p>"Did Glenn Beck assault a young girl in 1990?"<p><i>National Security:</i><p>"Americans die in hurricanes and tornadoes. It's time to declare a War on Weather."<p><i>Speak Out:Start Your own Debate:</i><p>"1500 characters maximum is hardly enough to explain the extent of failure that this website has enabled."
I have a feeling the thought process behind this site was something like this:<p>1. Have an idea for one of those newfangled web 2.0 things.
2. Hire someone to write it.
3. ???
4. Profit!<p>As it turns out, there's more to it to create a successful social media site...
I spent only a few minutes on the site, and after trying to sort "Ideas" by Total Votes, I got this lovely, classic ASP.NET error page:<p>Server Error in '/' Application.
"A 'teacher' told my child in class that dolphins were mammals and not fish!" a third complains. "And the same thing about whales! We need TRADITIONAL VALUES in all areas of education. If it swims in the water, it is a FISH. Period! End of Story."<p>wow