Focus on elections distracts from the main game
You tend to get sick of election reporting on TV in the paper and on social media, but let’s make use of it.
Voting
The Aussie ABC Swingers Program is all about Swinging Voters, Soft Voters and Committed Voters. I guess it is important in the lead up to the Australian Federal Election on 3 May. But electing people to parliament or congress is only one bit of democracy. Getting them to do what we want is the second bit.
As far as influencing government decisions, the committed voter always votes for the same party every election regardless of how much the party does disappoints them. If they are on the party state or federal executive, they can have some impact on policy. Otherwise they have none. The party does not need to please them. It has their vote captive no matter what it does. So then the party pleases other voters who may be swinging or soft voters.
Soft voters are those who mostly vote the same way each election but can sometimes be persuaded to vote differently if their own party offends them enough.
The people with most electoral power to influence who governs, are the swinging voters. They decide what they want done and vote for the local candidate most likely to support that in parliament. Political candidates try to please them to win their votes.
However, one local politician in parliament or congress does not have much power at all unless they have very good ideas. Only very strong speakers and can win t 75 or more other MPs to their side of an argument. That is relevant because all decisions of parliament are decided by majority opinion.
Driving democracy
Democracy is designed as a system where voters elect representatives to a parliament or congress that controls government. Thus parliament and congress influence, or drive, what the government does. As parliamentary or congressional decisions are always by majority, it is not much use trying to influence what they do via one local Rep. Half the Reps are fighting the other half to win the lucrative Power Game that is Government.
Promises Promises
It is very important to elect the best candidates possible. However voting on the basis of future promises rather than past performance is risky. There is a saying – “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Many election promises, despite the best intentions of those who promise, are never fulfilled. Many candidates do not even think of them as “promises”. They say things like “We are going to make energy cheaper for voters”, without ever having any really clear proven way of doing that. So much in the world is variable. They did not say “I solemnly and sincerely promise on my word of honour that I will make energy cheaper for voters and will resign if I don’t.”
What is fixed in concrete is how those people and political parties have behaved during the past term of parliament or congress. Most people behave in the future very much the same way as they have behaved in the past.
Power to influence outcomes
The next step up is to be an “Influential Voter”. That is somebody who has a good idea and persuades the parliament/ congress to adopt it to then have the executive government adopt it. Whenever I tell people that, most just laugh and trot out a jovial comment like “You can’t make politicians do anything! They don’t listen and don’t care”. It is sad to hear people say that because I know that in most cases those people have never asked any politicians to do anything. They have been misled by the media which works hard to make politicians look silly.
The secret to influencing parliament in Australia is a little key called a Votergram that you can hang on your Democracy Keyring for when you need it. We could do it in any democratic country if voters were interested. A Votergram takes an Australian’s brief message to each and every Member of Parliament. The message reaches the small group of MPs interested in your topic so that they can persuade other MPs to do it. That can also convince the majority because it has gone equally to all of them without any political party connotations.
Voters learn what MPs can’t
Becoming an influential voter, regardless of how you vote, is very important. That’s because in Australia there are 50,000 to 100,000 of us to each MP representing us. We are out here in the community experiencing life in many different ways. We are living with or without the necessary government services and facilities that our taxes are designed to cover. Meanwhile our MPs, our elected and paid representatives, are in parliament or their electoral offices experiencing only what happens to them. We need to get alongside our “Reps”, helping them and encouraging them to see what needs to be done more broadly and how to do it. It is the same in any country.
Every Australian has an equal chance to become an Influential Voter by adopting the 8P code and applying it to the circumstances, challenges and problems they see with government services or facilities. They can join the influential voters network that has developed over decades.
The Democracy Disease
Democracy will never work well until the voters get involved and work with their elected representatives. Thinking of them as “Our Leaders” as if we were in the army of a military dictatorship is counter-productive. It is only appealing because it is a giant Cop Out enabling us to forget our social responsibilities and go to the beach, sport, pub or club with a clear conscience leaving all the work to someone else. But the “someone else” is probably also relaxing at their beach, sport, club or pub. If you want something done, do it yourself. With 227 great Aussie federal MPs chosen by us ourselves, we can do it with their help. They can use all the full resources of government funded by our taxes. We do not have to do it alone. Same in any country. Voters get what they want by offering the politicians what they want.
Ignoring our MPs, treating them like all-knowing lifetime monarchs, yet simultaneously Electing and Neglecting them, is the “Democracy Disease” and the reason our society is in such an unbalanced mess.
Grab the key – unlock the benefits
Grab the Votergram key, pay the fee and become an Influential Voter. Voters Network will help you all the way. Australia needs your input, feedback, ideas, suggestions. Resist the media-led attack on politicians and start working with them so that they know what you want and why. There will always be differences of opinion. Voters Network has a system for Aussies to put forward their proposals and campaign on those with 80% or more support.
Democracy is always driven by voters. It is just a question of which voters will do the driving. Those who do drive it, usually reap the benefits because they drive it for themselves. At present that is the very rich and the big business executives. However, ordinary everyday citizens, working together on proposals favoured by 80% or more of them, will always make up the majority on which politicians depend for their re-election. That gives them enormous power.
Always room for improvement
Your country is probably a great place to live. That does not mean it cannot be made it better. There is always room for improvement. Become an Influential Voter and help to improve those areas where we are a bit lacking in the services and facilities. Let’s talk about them and then when we can decide what should be done. Let’s work with our parliaments and congressed to get it done.
A parliament, an Assembly or a congress is just a conference of our representatives trying to decide what is best for us. They cannot do that without our input. The silent majority will by definition, never be heard. The Influential Voters will by definition always be heeded.
Anyone can join Voters Network free today to chat with other voters on your key issues. Keep that Votergram key handy for whenever you want to influence your government to do what you want. That is why democracy is the best system in the world. You can influence what it does.
Next year Votergrams, Voters Network and the Voterlobby will celebrate 40 years of making Australian Democracy work for the Influential Voters. Those have been regular, ordinary, everyday Aussies who cared enough to act to solve personal problems or to help improve our society for others. We will be happy to share information with others in other democracies.
It took a lot of time, effort and money to create the Influential Voter’s 8P Democracy Code:
Providing Proof by Polite Persistent Political Persuasion in the Privacy of Parliament.
It just works incredibly well. It also provides the sort of society in which Christ’s teachings can be readily applied. That benefits the most needy as well as the rich, and all those in between.
