In May, the Obama administration wrapped up its first major digital democracy initiative. The Citizen’s Briefing Book was produced by collecting data from anyone who cared, had the time, smarts, and technical training to share their policy ideas with the Obama initiative via a web site which since has been dismantled. Now, the site is empty like a ghost town. There are many ugly virtual holes throughout the entire change.gov site, where the briefing book used to be, and still is, prominently featured. Clicking on any icon referring to the initiative leads to a blank or error page.
The launching of the results was hushed and the media paid little attention. Despite the fact that this first major exercise was, in fact, quite successful. The problem? The most popular initiative was… legalizing marijuana, an issue that the Obama administration decided to handle with a 9 foot pole. Yet, as Washington Post remarked at the time, and an issue to which a New York Times commentator pointed again just the other day, this is what you get when you apply a digital filter to democracy. The libertarian digerati get more than their fare share of voice and influence, for whatever this might be good or bad…
More than 125,000 users submitted 1.4 million votes during the wide-open process, leading to results that clearly do not align with recent scientific polling.
Legalizing marijuana, for example, ranked as the most popular issue. Ending federal prosecutions for medicinal marijuana also ranked high, as did ending the war on drugs. “We must stop imprisoning responsible adult citizens choosing to use a drug that has been mislabeled for over 70 years,” said one respondent named “Matt.”
This is not the first time that Obama has been hounded by Web-proficient marijuana supporters. One of the most popular questions submitted to an “online town hall” hosted by Obama in March was whether legalizing marijuana would help grow the economy; the president said he didn’t think it was a good strategy.
As might be obvious from the results, this was not a scientific survey. Online, opt-in surveys such as this one are not generated using a random sample of Americans, which is necessary to take a representative measure of public sentiment. In the most recent Gallup polling on the most important problem facing the nation, the economy continued to hold the top spot, with 76 percent citing it as their top priority. No other issue was mentioned by more than seven percent of adults nationwide.
In contrast, a large number of participants in the “citizen’s briefing” survey called for an end to the tax-exempt status for the Church of Scientology, perhaps best known as the unconventional religion of choice for Tom Cruise, John Travolta and other Hollywood actors. “It is my belief, and the belief of thousands of other Americans, that the Church of Scientology is a dangerous, for-profit organization,” wrote someone dubbed “azure.”
And the number one technology issue facing America? The need to legalize online poker gambling, of course.
The morale? Well, it should be none other than the famous answer that Franklin gave to one Mrs. Powels, who impatiently intercepted him on his way out of one of the last meetings of the Constitutional Convention. “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” to which Franklin answered “A republic, if you can keep it!”
I fail to see that much difference in Scientology and any other religion in the concept of money, power and profit. How can you tax one without taxing the other?
Well, that proposal is just a small part of the agenda…