For the people, turning expression into action can only begin when the power that’s distributed to them within the system is understood, accounted for and captured. With that, the game can change as respect for that clear political authority, and the access it allows will be established. Then, with the proper tools of communications and deliberation at hand, knowledge, options, and the ability to initiate can be enabled and become part of an integrated and intentional process of deliberative democracy. This is genuine power. The idea of deliberative democracy is interesting in that it’s now a thing (a “movement” even) despite it being intrinsic to and inseparable from our system; evidence of how far basic precepts of store-minding citizenship has fallen. However, with the componentry of our potential laden system never quite connected, the separation has always been present and so we see something that should be considered as natural as a rainy day presented as something new or innovative. Nevertheless, the need is identified and it’s important. Recent examples of deliberative democracy (as a movement) in the United States has emerged citizen groups working on matters of local budgeting; participatory budgeting. Also, in some states, citizen assemblies have been tasked with drawing electoral districts in the hope of getting gerrymandering out of the process of redistricting. In other nations like Australia, Canada, and some EU nations, citizens have been gathered in various ways and tasked with responsibilities that range from recommending new electoral laws to entirely new national constitutions. As these actions were sanctioned by governmental authority, they are examples of empowerment. Therefore it should come as no surprise that the convening of such bodies by might be intended to meet entirely different objectives than seeking the people’s wisdom for the purposes of adopting their recommendations; therefore the results of these proceedings were often non-binding. Here, the parliamentary systems required everything from parliamentary AND executive acceptance to a national referendum to approve the citizen’s recommendations; rendering their work pretty toothless. In the United States, redistricting reform that remains unattached This concern seems to pay very little attention to the question of whether there are really significant - and principled - differences between the two major parties.

If there is not, a higher likelihood of electing a representative from one or the other party - as opposed to only one - would hardly do any good.

https://ivn.us/2012/11/06/100-ways-republicans-are-just-like-democrats/

Given that, and unaccounted for in the redistricting “literature”, is that this is about the principled, intra- party electoral competition at the nomination level; not the general election level.

Please see All Faq’s:

Will the WeLeadUSA Citizens Access Network have an effect on our stubborn problems, like revolving doors, redistricting/gerrymandering, and entrenched incumbency? to the issues deeper meaning and enablers has been discussed here at length; and is a very questionable remedy. Therefore, convening citizen commissions (or any other scheme of non-partisan district drawing) to address this makes the scope of such an effort quite limited and controllable; and very may well misunderstand the problem in the first place. Therefore, making these assemblages a cause célèbre of democracy is quite dubious. The lesson here is that for a citizenry to enter the sphere of deliberative politics with no real power over their officialdom is not a level playing field; being empowered and having power are night and day different. Nevertheless, the results of these efforts has demonstrated - very convincingly - that so called average citizens respond very well to a disciplined environment and serious responsibility.Fishkin:

http://scienceofvirtues.org/forums/t/807.aspx They were able to easily shed biases and work together cooperatively to produce professional and useful results; puncturing a significant hole in the “polarized population” theory, among other prevailing presumptions. However, motivated citizens exercising their natural rights and producing good results will be difficult for elite components of the political and media complex to accept. LeDuc

The Quiet Referendum: Why Electoral Reform Failed in Ontario

http://www.democratienouvelle.ca/wp-content/uploads/z2012/08/lawrence_leduc_heather_bastedo_catherine_baquero-the_quiet_referendum_why_electoral_reform_failed_in_ontario_2008.pdf This will be particularly so if those results exceed the mandate of the empowerment scheme or threaten the purpose of public relations or appeasement. Here fellowship will be needed as hostility and interference from those circles can be expected; as these experiences indicate. Access to fellow citizens is essential to the participating citizen or the process will be drained of trust and the crucial ingredient of an involved public partaking, watching and protecting; genuine inclusivity. Lacking that, the vulnerabilities of such remedies are immediately apparent as their actions will be compromised from the outset. Such proceedings can only have meaning if they are conducted in an environment of specific purpose. To defeat the theatrics of “populistic” posturing and elite antipathy requires an ecosystem! One that creates digestible and even entertaining media within a design that informs broader deliberative processes, forges stronger ties, and is delivered in ways that are layered and politically potent. Of course hostilities to effective public action will be managed by design in this ecosystem The WeLeadUSA Citizens Access Network channeling the most powerful audience ever assembled as the fellowship expands. The protection and effectiveness unleashed will unshackle the many now that are otherwise constrained and unable to support - with voice or action - a truly deliberative and free democratic-republic. But, first things have to come first. Accordingly, any attempt to fix our politics with some derivative scheme of citizen contribution and deliberation based on “empowerment” will be futile and render any inclusivity phony. Without accounting for actual power, and a comprehensive media component, anything offered will be mere theater; a distraction, a sop. What all this demonstrates is several-fold: