“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” –George Washington, 1796

Let us take a look at our political system for a moment. Right now, only a minuscule fraction of the population cares about voting for senators or representatives, only a few more care about and vote in primaries, and only half of our citizens eligible to vote in national elections do so. That is quite alarming, especially considering that our country prides itself as a democracy with power for the people. Especially because those who we elect are supposed to govern on our behalf and for our interest.

So why don’t we care? Why don’t we vote? Let us first consider why republics exist and why America was formed as one. First we need to look at its father: democracy. In a true or pure democracy, every major decision is decided by every citizen. Citizens regularly meet to debate and compromise on major decisions such as taxes, whether to go to war or not, how to plan for the winter, etc. No man’s vote is worth more than any other’s vote. If the society needs money because it is in debt, the citizens collectively decide to raise taxes or cut spending, and although no one is happy about it, they bear it because they feel ownership over the decision and the community’s well-being. However, as great as democracy is, it requires constant meeting and debating to work properly. It is impractical for larger societies, so people decided to elect representatives instead. Thus, the idea of a republic was born.

Elected representatives meet all day with one another, making laws and then spending time with the people they speak for to ask for their opinions and concerns. The elected officials should be faceless, pure reflections of the people who elected them. They should aim to be transparent so that the government still functions like a democracy. In this system, there is no place for political parties because there is no way to take all of the possible moral, ethical, legal, economic, and militaristic beliefs individuals have and boil them down to “Are you A or B (and by the way, you can’t be A for one issue and B for another)."

The reason we don’t vote is because the system is constructed in a way that our New York State Senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, probably don’t care too much about our opinions. Instead of being pure reflections of the people, they are pure reflections of the Democratic Party. Consider the fact that a majority of votes in Congress are a brute force game of “Which party has the most?” instead of “Let's compromise." For example, in the Senate, the vote for ObamaCare was 56 to 43 with 54 Democrats and two Independents voting yes, and 40 Republicans and three Democrats voting no. That is not a reflection of the people at all; that is following the money of the party and following the backhand deals. They need the money for campaigning, so they become puppets of it. This might be necessary to organize funding and to help draft laws, but it forces the population to become detached. For instance, on many issues, I stand on the Republican side, but on a few, I support the Democratic Party’s ideas. In our system, there is no room for compromise; rather, I am asked, “Do you want a pure Republican or a pure Democrat to represent you?” In that case, neither option is thrilling and neither option really makes me excited to vote or participate. Instead, that reality makes me disinterested and makes me want to complain rather than contribute and be combative instead of compromising. There is a polarization in D.C. that prevents real progress.

With that in mind, what is the solution? A return to democracy, or, at least, an effort to bring accountability back to our political system. Consider that a big challenge associated with democracy was and is finding a means to gather large groups of people together in a place where we can listen to and consider each other’s opinions fairly. Today we have the most powerful communication medium the world has ever seen at our fingertips. The Internet connects hundreds of millions through email, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms. What if we used the Internet not just for social media or business, but for political reform? What if we used it as a means to communicate the opinions of each American to his or her representatives and to host meaningful debate that would be echoed in Congress the next morning? Imagine a system where we could register by SSN and district into a system where we could log into a forum every day for our state and congressional districts, where our senator and representative could post PDFs of their thoughts on bills being discussed and voted on that month in Congress. Where we could comment, saying, “I like Bill 10567, but I think X. Can you propose this amendment? It would be better because Y." Or, “I don’t think this law is good for us as a community, state, or country because X, Y, and Z; can you argue against it tomorrow and vote no for it?"

Imagine if he or she responded regularly and took on the face of the community. Imagine if he or she made a poll, after all, the debate on the forum (that he or she regularly commented on) that listed “Yes," "No," or "Abstain." That person wouldn’t need to be a slave to a party anymore and wouldn’t need the money the party gave them for campaigning because the people would vote for officials who represent them. They could spend their time and dollars that would be spent campaigning actually thinking and actively processing and contributing to a public forum.

Imagine if representatives actually represented us. It would force the government to be more transparent, too. The public can’t offer opinions or vote on bills that we can’t find the text of. We can’t vote on a fair tax rate if we don’t see a budget sheet. All we need is for this premise to work once in one state, which would start a chain reaction that would inevitably lead to the overhaul of the current system. Word would spread, and people in other states would only vote for officials that follow these principles. We could replace our own disillusionment with a sense of pride and ownership for our nation. We could use the Internet for something really good; we could stop complaining and try to aim for the pie in the sky.