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A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

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Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then don't provide any information for them to sell except for an email address and what pages you look at.

If this representative is intending to make his rationales public, he should choose a public venue. But given the tracking information Facebook sifts via their extensive federation throughout the Internet today, I don't feel any inclination to make it easier for them by registering for their marketing programmes.

He's intending to make it public in the venue that most easily facilitates this type of exchange with the widest number of users.

>But given the tracking information Facebook sifts via their extensive federation throughout the Internet today

Log out and clear your cookies. If you're not clearing them regularly anyhow you're already being tracked by many sources.

I get not wanting a profile with all your information on Facebook but like I said that isn't required to access this and saves him spending resources to build a system to go in its place.

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#22
post #3

I really like the concept, but there are better venues for this kind of material. With just 1.5% of "People Talking About This" I suspect it's rare his 42,000+ Likes are seeing these posts in their News Feeds.

It's about as good as Coca Cola (1.6%), and better than Nike (0.9%), Justin Bieber (1.0%) and Lady Gaga (0.9%). That number is never really that high except for the most viral stuff that people like because it's funny, like George Takei's page (108%).

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#23

I commend Rep Amash for his transparency, it's a refreshing change from politicians that do nothing besides talk in double speak and view being tied down to an actual point of view as a political liability. That being said, next time he comes up for election he'll probably get slaughtered in the primaries when a more extreme candidate portrays any pragmatism in the political process as an impurity that needs to be pu…

Every politician, even a legislator, can explain his votes especially on a party line.The contents of a bill is where the influence game is played. Heck if they are certain the bill will pass they can vote against it anyway.

How legislation is constructed matters far more. I haven't seen the type of focus on the influence that committee members have on bills and senators have on homestate appointments. A chairman can personally rewrite a bill and only send it to the floor when he is satisfied that it will be supported by the leadership. It is a tremendous position of power that isn't recognized.

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#24
unfortunately this guy is crazy...and on the far right fringe of things. in recent years, as more and more people have become involved in the political process we've developed this notion that there's a correlation between transparency and competency that simply does not exist. And the perceived transparency, such as some 100-200 word facebook post summarizing hundred page bills, is merely an illusion buffered by overly simplistic and misleading explanations.

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that word even mean anymore? According to his Wikipedia page there's not much redeeming about his social views. I guess you did say Tea Party "libertarian". That having been said, I admire how he offers his rationale and using Facebook for good.

What isn't "redeeming" about not wanting the government to bother people?

You say that as if any Tea Party candidate has actually espoused anything that truly constitutes limited government. _delirium more or less summed it up. Why don't you actually read his Wikipedia page to see what I'm talking about instead of repeating really boring quips.

You'll note my comment implies that I like actual libertarianism and just not the crap that the Tea Partiers go around calling libertarianism.

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then don't provide any information for them to sell except for an email address and what pages you look at.

If this representative is intending to make his rationales public, he should choose a public venue. But given the tracking information Facebook sifts via their extensive federation throughout the Internet today, I don't feel any inclination to make it easier for them by registering for their marketing programmes.

Hard to fault him for publishing where his constituency goes to every day. Almost no one would go to his website.

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#27

Open communication -> open journalism -> open education -> open science -> open politics -> open ? I'm just trying to think of things that are still left closed. In 10 years will it just be weird that people aren't sharing things?

Law. Finance.

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#28
"I voted no on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H R 297, Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2013, which reauthorizes federal payments to children's hospitals for operating graduate medical training programs... The bill passed 352-50."

"I voted no on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H R 225, National Pediatric Research Network Act of 2013, which expands the existing Pediatric Research Initiative (PRI) to include a new National Pediatric Research Network... It passed 375-27."

"I voted no on H R 325, No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013... The bill passed 285-144."

"I voted no on H R 152, Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013... The bill passed 241-180."

Justin Amash represents a wing of the Republican party that has essentially decided to refuse to govern, and is content to simply object to anything Congress tries to do that is not ideologically pure, which is pretty much everything.

[EDIT: To those who commented below upset with my "refusal to govern" comment -- look, governing requires solving problems that the public wants you to solve. That solution can even be essentially less government.

For example... a lot of Republican voters don't like Obamacare, but I doubt many of them liked our pre-Obamacare healthcare system. Take an extreme, free-market/libertarian form of healthcare policy -- repeal not just Obamacare, but things like the employer tax deduction for health insurance, requiring hospitals to provide life-saving care for anyone regardless of payment capability, etc -- I would vehemently disagree with that, but I would consider crafting and trying to pass such legislation an attempt to govern. But if the bulk of your legislative activity is doing things like voting to repeal Obamacare twenty-three times, as Rep. Justin Amash did in 2011-2012, then I would argue you are just politically pandering to your constituent base -- or worse, your campaign's financial donors -- and not governing.]

On the other hand, I do appreciate his attempts to justify and explain his actions. This type of transparency is desperately needed in the Senate, where everyone uses arcane procedural rules (e.g. filibusters, "holds," and so forth), as anonymous tools of obstruction pretty much constantly.

While I doubt I'll ever agree on any of Rep. Amash's views, I hope that more of our elected representatives continue to use tools like social media not just for campaigning and voter outreach purpose, but for information and transparency in the governing process once they're actually in office..

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#29

I commend Rep Amash for his transparency, it's a refreshing change from politicians that do nothing besides talk in double speak and view being tied down to an actual point of view as a political liability. That being said, next time he comes up for election he'll probably get slaughtered in the primaries when a more extreme candidate portrays any pragmatism in the political process as an impurity that needs to be pu…

Every politician, even a legislator, can explain his votes especially on a party line.The contents of a bill is where the influence game is played. Heck if they are certain the bill will pass they can vote against it anyway. How legislation is constructed matters far more. I haven't seen the type of focus on the influence that committee members have on bills and senators have on homestate appointments. A chairman can…

What you've identified here is an interesting extension of the "open government" culture that I think this phenomenon represents.

If Rep. Amash continues his political career in the same vein, can we count on him to continue to disclose what goes on in subcommittees?

Will he be politically neutered because he cannot be counted on to keep the details of backroom deals secret? Will he make enemies by bringing the DC unmentionables to light?

Interested to see how it plays out...

Re: A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook

#30

I disagree with Justin politically w.r.t. nearly everything, but I definitely admire his approach. He's also a genuinely thoughtful and nice guy, and very adept at explaining why he holds the positions he does.

Thanks for saying something nice about him. Not many in the mainstream (liberals, center right, neo-cons, etc) are as gracious.
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