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Comment by StevenXC | Hacker News Reader

I'm interested in the White House's response, but anticipate the issue basically being blown off.

People have it in their heads that a successful petition is supposed to mean there will be change but that was never promised.

I've always felt petitions were used by lawmakers to help filter noise. If you set a threshold for the amount of support any cause needs before you'll address it (preventing you from having to listen to each person individually) the petition system seems only logical. If the lawmakers now see that 100,000+ people are against their decisions they promised to make a response but have no obligation to change anything.

This is where people's voting power is supposed to matter. If the representatives are always ignoring the issues that are deemed important by petition/protest groups then why should the be expected to get re-election?

Its sort of a shit deal where we're hoping the channels they provide will show some benefit or marshal of change but I haven't seen that happen yet. I'm not American so I'm somewhat distanced from everything but it has always seemed like these petitions were just another campaign tool and never intended to be taken seriously by gov't.

If only there was a website where voters could see how every politician voted on every vote they've ever made when in power. It would cut right through any BS.

Not as much as you'd like. Thanks to massive omnibus bills, converting Yes and No votes into meaningful stands on issues is far harder than you'd like. A no vote on a bill putatively establishing $YOUR_FAVORITE_CAUSE as the law of the land may have been because a rider encouraging $YOUR_WORST_CAUSE was attached and the whole was not judged worthwhile, even before we consider mere politics themselves.

This is not to mention the constant horse trading that is the norm in congress. i.e. You vote for my bill and I'll vote for yours.

Filter noise? You mean like concerns of citizens instead of concerns of lobbyists?

A Kickstarter might be more useful than a petition in getting the attention of the US government.

I'd chip in.

Concerns of how many citizens? 10? 1000? Out of how many millions?

I have absolutely no idea how you any cause would get even 10% of Americans to actually get up off their couches and away from the tv long enough to make their voice heard on anything.

I mean, the closest thing is recent history, the Occupy movement, was still only a few tens of thousands at most.

I wish I thought you were being grumpy and cynical instead of accurate.

I invite you to also consider using my project, Brian's Taskforce:

https://usa.brianstaskforce.com/

https://brianstaskforce.com/blog/more-than-a-petition

The idea is to combine charitable giving with petitioning so as to establish the weight or importance of your idea to the powers-that-be.

I kind of agree, but it is good that some attention might be brought to the issue (not necessarily the government's).

My concern is that the WH might once again raise the number of needed signatures for the next petitions! as there are still many reaching the target.

I think Colonel Cathcart works in the White House.

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