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White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

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Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#21

Post by dasil003 »

jessaustin wrote: post #6

Whether the threshold is 100K or 100M, nothing has happened yet as a result of a "successful" petition. Sure, the stupid petitions give them a chance to giggle at the rubes. The most reasonable petitions get essentially the same reaction, however. ["Legalize pot? I think we can guess what they were smoking when they signed that one! Hahahaha!"] As much as I wish it were otherwise, I expect the same for the current "f…

What do you suggest then? Resigning ourselves to apathy would seem to play right into their hand. Obviously a lot more than a petition is necessary to effect change, but it seems a reasonable place to start.

Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#22

Post by justin66 »

dasil003 wrote: post #21
jessaustin wrote: post #6

Whether the threshold is 100K or 100M, nothing has happened yet as a result of a "successful" petition. Sure, the stupid petitions give them a chance to giggle at the rubes. The most reasonable petitions get essentially the same reaction, however. ["Legalize pot? I think we can guess what they were smoking when they signed that one! Hahahaha!"] As much as I wish it were otherwise, I expect the same for the current "f…

What do you suggest then? Resigning ourselves to apathy would seem to play right into their hand. Obviously a lot more than a petition is necessary to effect change, but it seems a reasonable place to start.

> Obviously a lot more than a petition is necessary to effect change, but it seems a reasonable place to start.

If you live in the United States you have a congressperson. Contacting them is a much more reasonable place to start.

Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#23

Post by tobinfricke »

dangrossman wrote: post #15
johnbellone wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't want to listen. Oh, you actually want us to? Let's placate the sheep for a few more months. If a petition ever gets to 100k it'll go up to one million.

There have been petitions with over 100k signatures. There are open ones (less than 30 days old) right now.

I only see one: "Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group" with approx 300k signatures. The next highest has 80k signatures. (I'm assuming that the "popular" petitions are ranked by number of signatures, which appears to be the case.)

Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#25

Post by RyanMcGreal »

dasil003 wrote: post #21
jessaustin wrote: post #6

Whether the threshold is 100K or 100M, nothing has happened yet as a result of a "successful" petition. Sure, the stupid petitions give them a chance to giggle at the rubes. The most reasonable petitions get essentially the same reaction, however. ["Legalize pot? I think we can guess what they were smoking when they signed that one! Hahahaha!"] As much as I wish it were otherwise, I expect the same for the current "f…

What do you suggest then? Resigning ourselves to apathy would seem to play right into their hand. Obviously a lot more than a petition is necessary to effect change, but it seems a reasonable place to start.

Take the long view. Organize and build a large, broad-based coalition of support and advocate strategically and creatively for the change you want to see. It's the only thing that ever works.

Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#26

Post by tzs »

jessaustin wrote: post #6

Whether the threshold is 100K or 100M, nothing has happened yet as a result of a "successful" petition. Sure, the stupid petitions give them a chance to giggle at the rubes. The most reasonable petitions get essentially the same reaction, however. ["Legalize pot? I think we can guess what they were smoking when they signed that one! Hahahaha!"] As much as I wish it were otherwise, I expect the same for the current "f…

The purpose of the petitions is to provide input as to what issues concern people, not to provide a list of things to be the subjects of immediate executive orders. The kind of action we should expect from a successful petition is to put the issue on the agenda, which may lead to policy changes and legislative action.

Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#28

Post by tobinfricke »

ttaubert wrote: post #7

I think this really makes sense given that in Germany we have a quorum of 50k with a much smaller population. The same thing is probably true for other smaller countries as well.

I was surprised to learn that the population of Germany is 80 million, the same "order of magnitude" as the United States.

(By contrast, the U.S. has 30X the land area of Germany.)

Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#29

Post by dasil003 »

justin66 wrote: post #22
dasil003 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you suggest then? Resigning ourselves to apathy would seem to play right into their hand. Obviously a lot more than a petition is necessary to effect change, but it seems a reasonable place to start.

> Obviously a lot more than a petition is necessary to effect change, but it seems a reasonable place to start. If you live in the United States you have a congressperson. Contacting them is a much more reasonable place to start.

Okay, but a petition is a public focal point that takes 30 seconds to contribute too. The cynical attitude "I'm not going to do this because it won't help" is probably a greater negative to one's personal effect on the cause than however much time it might waste.

Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K

#30

Post by rainsford »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #25
dasil003 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you suggest then? Resigning ourselves to apathy would seem to play right into their hand. Obviously a lot more than a petition is necessary to effect change, but it seems a reasonable place to start.

Take the long view. Organize and build a large, broad-based coalition of support and advocate strategically and creatively for the change you want to see. It's the only thing that ever works.

And I'd argue that that's a good thing. Being able to get an official comment and maybe some future consideration of the issue from the White House is one thing, but being able to substantially impact policy by getting a relatively small number of people (in Internet terms) to spend a minute signing an online petition doesn't seem like a high enough threshold. Requiring the kind of effort you're talking about doesn't guarantee positive change either, but I think it helps ensure people really want the change their advocating.

I'm sure some people like the idea of being able to successfully demand that individuals in government be fired through the petition system, but that seems like a Pandora's box if ever there was one.

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