How many times have you been asked to “make your voice be heard” by contacting your rep or the White House?
Do you really think that any of those people give a damn about you or your concerns?
Guess what….they do not!
Have you called or written to your government?
Did you get the answer you wanted?
What prompted me to write this post is the the White House has taken down the site for petitions….
It appears that the ‘We the People’ petition system has been taken off the White House website. Here is an archive of what it looked like before Biden took office.
The system has been around for many years. At any given time, hundreds of petitions were active. If you get 100,000 signatures, the White House is supposed to give an answer. You may remember that there was an active “Free Assange” petition that the Obama Administration was obligated to answer (and gave a bad answer).
When Trump took office, he briefly discontinued it but put it back up after a media uproar.
Now it appears the Biden White House has removed it. The website used to be here:
https://petitions.whitehouse.govThis URL, as well as URLs for all currently-active petitions, just forward to the White House front page. I explored the website and could not find any mention of it. The link used to appear in both the “Contact” and “Get Involved” links, but it is gone from both.
I have seen nothing about this in the media. When I Google “White House Petition System Down” and other similar searches, I only get 4-year-old articles about the time that Trump temporarily disabled it.
Wikipedia says that the system was taken down the day Biden took office: On January 20 2021, the day the Inauguration of Joe Biden took place, the website’s address started redirecting to the White House’s website home address.
This is a terrible event, and it must be publicized, and Biden must be made to reverse this decision.
(antiwar.com)
It was returned but does it really have any effect on policy?
Biden is not a transformative president.
He just wants a return to the “good old days”…..the days of yore…..the days of 2008….the days of nothing actually being done but the appearance of change.
Even when the active engagement of their base in ongoing political advocacy enhances their ability to succeed, it is foolhardy to believe that politicians secretly welcome pressure or that they will pay tribute to those who, on select occasions, are able to force their hands. Having invested their faith in their talent for insider maneuvering, these elected officials see themselves as indispensable servants of the public good. They want their constituents to be appreciative, and they are rankled at encountering people who are not. “Cut me some slack,” is how Obama put it. “Give me a break, man,” Biden has already exclaimed. These are just other ways of saying, “Don’t make me do it.”
Will we change the thinking in DC with our so-called participation?
NO!
Hope! We will plug along and things will remain the same….no matter how much you attempt to participate and bring the message to those in the Ivory Tower.
Direct action is the only way to make change….and then it will be incremental because you have scared the economic titans….and they will sign on to some small advances.
Think I am mistaken?
Look at our history….that will tell you all you need to know.
Be Smart!
Learn Stuff!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
