After taking note of Ray Blain's announcement of his imminent book rewriting the Constitution of 1790, I realize it must just be something that is going around. I too just finished a book which is a bit different in orientation but still accomplishes the same thing.

I started with the realization that computers have come, and multiplied, but politics remains unchanged by the power and promise of those machines. Sure, some things are done faster and more easily.

Voting can be done on them, knowledge can be stored in databases and read back, but the real promise of computers to weld us all into one conversing, weighing, pondering and deciding population has been entirely ignored.

So I decided to stop ignoring it. I lay out what it would be like to use the computer bulletin board ability to join the entire adult citizenry of a union, a corporation, a university or, ultimately, a country, into one big Electorate who read online about laws being proposed and vote DIRECTLY on every single code, appropriation, appointment, or rule. The biggest change is that there is no longer any need for any representatives.

In a union, there would be no president or board. In a university, there would be no regent or board. And in the case of a US type country, there would no longer be the need of a Congress or a sclerotic, entrenched political class. No representative would be free to sell his vote, as today, to the highest paying lobbyist. They wouldn't exist.

The thrust of the book is to explore the logical consequences of such a change and believe me, there are plenty and most of them would not be expected. This is not a superficial change. This would change the people and their attitudes. They would no longer be dismissive of corrupt politics, as so many people are today, because there would no longer be corrupt politics.

They would be the decision makers with all the attitude of responsibility that that leads to. Whenever I discuss this topic, people jump to toss off a popular disinclination to worry about or participate in politics. But people have never been in charge of their own world. This dissects the first Democracy in 2400 years, since ancient Athens.

Of course there would no longer be elections. Everyone who is an adult citizen would already be elected. Elections have long been a scam in this country. George Santos the Liar is only the tip of the iceberg. Marjorie Taylor Green, the Certifiable, is just another throw-up of the system. Who wouldn't want to get rid of these evolutionary sports.

If anyone is interested, they can find my writings at gettingtozerowaste.com, reflecting my main concern, with Zero Waste.

~ Paul Palmer