That's an easy thing to say. Coming up with a set of changes to push for is a little more difficult, and actually getting enough people to push in order to make a difference is harder still.
It is an easy thing to say, yes. It's also what I usually tell people who complain and complain about the way things are going but can't be bothered to vote, let alone call or write their congesscritter or representative to voice their complaints.
Incidentally, that you linked to actionable bills and social action for them marks you as not one of those people, which I find quite surprising, and refreshing. There are too many like that, these days.
What do you suggest are some good first steps?
What I suggest, and in fact practice myself is to compile lists of your representatives in government and keep in touch with them. Ostensibly, they are supposed to represent the will of the people, but if they don't know the will of the people they'll do their own thing. "Hi, I'm your constituent, these are the things important to me.. [list and reasons here]... If you listen to me and vote in such a way that you represent my interests I'll not only vote for your re-election but I'll contribute money, otherwise [name of other candidate here] would be more amenable to doing so and my vote and money will go to them. My tax dollars pay your salary."
I've found over the years that by bringing up the next election and the prospect of campaign donations makes it more likely that I'll get more than a canned reply when I do try to get in touch with them about something. Work all the angles you can.
Someone mentioned instant runoff voting, but I think that's jumping the gun--it (along with any other alternative to the current system) gives third parties a stronger voice, so you'll have a hard time convincing current politicians to back it.
Yeah, that would shake things up a lot. Given that some third-party candidates were unusually visible in the '04 election (which made a lot of people inside the Beltway nervous) that seems like a significant risk to the power bloc of the big two.
In my opinion, the best way to foster change is to spread the word about a few bills being sponsored by Downsize DC...
I've deleted your suggestions for the sake of brevity, but I will certainly look over the Downsize DC website and the bills you referenced. I wasn't aware of this before and I'll do some research on it. Offhand it seems potentially helpful.
Either one of these two measures by itself would do a lot to improve the quality of legislation coming out of Washington. DownsizeDC has a decent system for sending messages to all your congressmen. Their newsletter often has interesting (read: maddening) tidbits about what's going on in Washington, too, though the rhetoric can be juvenile at times.
Again, thank you for the heads-up. I've added it to my daily news crawl.
If you want to make a difference, start pushing for these bills. They have a lot of support already, and every new call for them makes it more likely that they'll actually be passed. Don't be put off because the organization doesn't support something that you do (the health care bill, for instance)--just make use of their system to keep increasing pressure on Congress to pass important legislation like the proposals listed above.
No organization will support everything that everyone wants or believes in. The only thing we can do is support those that seem to back most of them and speak out on the specifics.
