Somebody needs to create a petition to reduce the signature threshold back to 25k. Better yet, a petition to actually act on petitions, would be nice.
There's already at least one: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/lower-petition-cou...
White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K
131–133 of 133 posts
Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
>But when positions do gain support, things really do change. We've passed constitutional amendments outlawing slavery, giving women the vote, and instituting civil rights. Jesus Christ, do you understand just how hard getting each of those things passed was? Do you understand how many entrenched and powerful interests had to be overcome? Do you understand just how little shouting that democracy doesn't work would ha…
I've never really understood this argument, because it assumes that if a bad law is enacted, there is no recourse. In a system where a law could be passed in a few days, wouldn't it also be able to be repealed in a few days? Why not have formally-provisional laws: "try it, see if we like it, throw it out if it didn't work?" --- Or, even, (tangent incoming): "try a new law on some [randomly-selected] subset of the nat…
> In a system where a law could be passed in a few days, wouldn't it also be able to be repealed in a few days?
The fear is that it might NOT be repealed in a few days--again, see the patriot act.
But, for a more obvious example, consider a bill that enables martial law.... much more difficult to revert and something that our country might have passed in some of its more heated moments.
But, this is all just speculation. I have no idea if our slow government is actually the reason why it's been so stable as a "democracy"; it could be for myriad other reasons, but it's always made sense to me.
Re: White House raises petition signature threshold to 100K
#133Whether 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…
> Whether the threshold is 100K or 100M, nothing has happened yet as a result of a "successful" petition. This isn't true. For example, the White House had been intentionally silent on the issue of SOPA until two petitions pushed it to take a stand, which had a not small impact on the outcome of the legislation. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administrati... > The most reasonable petitions get essent…