Our Crowdsourced Government

Have you ever looked at the plans and proposals put forth by your elected officials and said, “I could do better”? (If you’re an AAUW member, I bet you have!) Well, it seems Congress and the White House might agree with you, and they’re trying to make it easier for you to contribute to overcoming America’s challenges.

Welcome to our crowdsourced government, where every single American can help govern from the comfort of her couch. You may have heard about crowdsourcing though social media — it means asking a large group of people to participate in something online. Whether it’s the Republicans’ YouCut tool, where you can vote on which government programs to slash, or the Obama administration’s new We the People petition website, in which White House officials will review and respond to popular ideas and proposals, government wants your input. Sure, you’re one voice of many, but that’s the advantage of crowdsourcing — if an idea can surface above the background noise of the Internet, it may have merit.

Now, government has been soliciting public input for a long time. Sometimes overshadowed by its big sister, free speech, the right to petition government is among the five freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. We petition government and seek to influence elected officials when we send AAUW Action Network messages or when we rally outside the Supreme Court; we provide feedback to Congress in opinion polls and on Election Day.

But the beauty of We the People, YouCut, or the new commenting tool for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (which we affectionately refer to as the debt “super committee”) is that government is now welcoming the public’s proactive participation in creating policy. If voting is reactive, in that we punish or reward officials for their beliefs and voting behavior, these tools allow us to take the initiative. You could suggest, for example, that the debt super committee stay the heck away from Social Security because it’s an off-budget item; it did not contribute to the deficit; and it is critical to the economic security of elderly women, more than 50 percent of whom would live in poverty without it. Oh, and it pays more benefits to children than any other federal program, including welfare.

But that’s just an example.

The point is that it’s getting easier and easier to add your two cents. And if you’re like me and think you’ve a got a few ideas that would change this country for the better, then assert your right to petition — jump in to the crowd.