Petitioning the Government

In 2011, the Obama Administration inaugurated an initiative known as “We the People.” The objective was to encourage people to send petitions to the White House.    With enough signatures, the petitions will be read and commented on.  The White House web page contains instructions for submitting a petition and includes petitions which are in process to which one can add his or her signature (electronically).

Now this seems like a good idea.  A problem in our democratic system is that when we vote for someone to represent us, we typically have a choice of only two persons, neither of which may exactly mirror our wishes on all issues.  We can make our personal agenda known by messages to our elected representatives; one letter is equivalent to 1000 votes, as goes the conventional wisdom.   But it takes a large number of the same message to have an impact on the decision makers, and how few people do it anyway?  That’s where the petition comes in.

Not all petitions are serious, though.  Some of the less than serious or implausible petitions that have been started are “Build a Death Star”,  “Try Senator Feinstein for Treason”,  “Fire Pierce Morgan from CNN”,  “Impeach Obama”, “Nationalize the Twinkie Industry” etc.  The death star (Star Wars series) petition got 25,000 signatures, forcing the White House to respond.  Since then they have upped the threshold to 100,000 signatures.

Reading about these petitions reminded me something I saw earlier this year.  Some young people were soliciting signatures for a petition to “impeach Obama” in front of our local post office.  I inquired of one of the people taking signatures as to what specific “acts of treason or high crimes and misdemeanors” were the basis for the petition.  The answer was a rattling of political rhetoric that could hardly give basis for impeachment no matter what one’s political bent might be.  Thinking about it later, I tried to understand  the purpose of the petition.  In a generally Democratic district in a Democratic state, this petition could hardly get serious notice.  But there is another possible angle.  What if those signatures and addresses (snail mail or e-mail) were to be used for a targeted mailing list for soliciting funds for conservative causes or other advertising?  If so, I’d say it’s a clever ploy.

But in spite of frivolousness and hidden agendas, I still like the idea of a petition to our government.  And it’s guaranteed by article I of the Constitution.