I reckon this was simply a first-pass readme -- hands-up, who likes writing those?

I submitted a pull request that tones down the hyperbole somewhat: https://github.com/WhiteHouse/petition/pull/5

I sense it's essential for them to keep the project focused on the software. Partly what makes this interesting is managing the partisan nature of discourse. That's a unique non-functional requirement here.

It's a good test for Github as a collaboration platform.