Mostly Theater? Taking Aim At White House 'We the People' Petitions

theodp writes: "Since we launched We the People in 2011," wrote the White House last month, "millions of Americans have engaged with their government on the issues that matter to them. This groundbreaking online platform has made petitioning the government, a First Amendment right, more accessible than ever. Over the past few years, the Obama administration has taken a stance on a number of causes that citizens really care about and used the We the People petition platform to voice their concerns." Sounds good, but even if the White House is listening to We the People petitions, as it assured skeptics, one wonders what — and who — exactly they are listening to. Petitions suffer from being aye-only, lack identity and location verification, and appear to have other data quality issues. One attempting to explore the petition data for the 67,022-and-counting signers of a new petition urging a quick response to a court decision that could cut the time international STEM students can work in the U.S. on student visas after graduation, for example, would be stymied by thousands of missing and non-U.S. postal codes. Plotting what location info is available does show that the petitioners are clustered around tech and university hubs, hardly a surprise, but it sheds no context on whether these represent corporate, university, and/or international student interests.

Comments

Remember the "change" he promised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just like the "Change!" he promised us ...
 
Just like the "Universal Insurance" he promised us ...
 
Just like so many other lies that he has told us ...
 
How can anyone treat that "petition' thing seriously?

Yer Kidding, Right?

[sycodon]

Did anyone ever think it was anything other than Theater?

Really? You thought that???

Facepalm!

This is Important to Discuss

[ohnocitizen]

Ignore all the comments going "this was expected" or "did you expect anything else"? Those add nothing to the discussion and are worthless. This isn't about whether you support Obama across all of his actions and positions. It is about this specific tool, its problems in its current incarnation, and its promise. I'm disappointed the White House has ignored so many petitions, and the lack of data/flexibility in response is something worth exploring. Imagine a more robust and secure version of this tool, and one that the White House responded more vigorously to. Or one that Congress responded to. I'd love to see it. I'd love to see us move closer to Democracy by putting more power in the hands of regular citizens. Let's talk about how to make that happen.

Re:This is Important to Discuss

[Sarten-X]

Precisely.

The First Amendment guarantees the right to petition the government, but it does not guarantee that you'll get your way or even that your concerns will be considered important.

Frankly, that's a good thing. There have been a number of petitions asking the executive branch to effectively suspend rule of law and interfere with court cases. There have been a lot of petitions seeking to jeopardize foreign relations, and a good number simply asking for the impossible.

To expect petitions to require a change opens the country up to tyranny of the majority. Sure, the population will get the near-sighted quick fixes it wants, but the longer-term costs will typically not be considered until long after the right time to fix them.

"We the People" is just talk

[GuB-42]

The petitions only require the government to provide an answer to the question. Nowere it is stated that they must change their plans in any way.
In other words "fuck you" is a totally valid answer.