WHAT'S BEHIND PAPA'S SOLUTION, BENEFITS, & TITLE? - Trust & Participation.

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1.  The proposed Political Advisory Panel of America (PAPA) is a powerful new method to build voter participation and constituent trust in their legislators.  It fulfills ALL the needs and performs ALL the roles for voters and legislators listed on the previous web page (with the exception of electronic voting in Congress - an expense and effort each chamber must undertake on their own).  Therefore, PAPA will be an excellent solution to fix many problems in Congress.

2.  PAPA is a win-win proposal with a double blessing:  

• PAPA will create more participative citizens by improving communication and trust between legislators and constituents - providing citizens with transparent  access to advice from peers to legislators.  
• PAPA will create stronger government leaders by improving transparency and constituent input - leaders better able to act as fiduciaries for their constituents.

1.  Political parties would have us believe elections are all about them. Political parties tell us to help them generate a “blue wave” or “red wave” for this election or that election, beating their chest as to the importance of voting to keep one party or the other in power.  Truth be told, elections are NOT about political parties at all!   Elections are about electing INDIVIDUALS.  The framers of the Constitution assumed senators and representatives would be DIRECTLY connected to the people, to discuss and exchange opinions with their constituents on which issues and positions on those issues are important.  PAPA will reestablish that direct connection to help America experience a new 'wave' of CITIZEN voters performing their civic duty in EVERY election - a "White Wave", in ever increasing numbers, as the voting population increases.  In science, white is the representation of all colors, and on the U.S. flag white signifies purity and innocence.  In every election, the country needs citizens of ALL viewpoints with purity of purpose to vote for what is best for AMERICA, not to keep a political party in power! 

• If political parties can’t be honest in conducting elections, the only legislative tool given by the U.S. Constitution to voting citizens, then citizens must ask how can citizens trust the guidance political parties give them or their representatives and senators in Washington D.C.. 
• Citizens need to strengthen America, not political parties.  Citizens need a direct link to Congress to become empowered.  With modern communication technologies, there should be little need to have an intermediary between Congress and the people (like a political party) that has the potential to misrepresent facts or filter out the peoples' needs and replace those needs with their own opinions.

2. The United States of America was formed without political parties.  The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of political parties. Many of the country’s founding fathers and many of the framers of the U.S. Constitution expressed hopes that political parties would NOT be an element in the country’s federal government. 

3. Nevertheless, due to the nature of man, the first political parties were formed during George Washington’s administration.  The intention of political parties is to influence voters to persuade them to unite with the party’s chosen representatives and senators to enact legislation supporting the party's views. History has demonstrated that over time political parties more often advertise centralist views to potential members in the hopes of attracting more voters to pass laws in favor of the party’s views - yet once in power, political parties frequently move ‘left’ or ‘right’ of their expressed central viewpoints. Too frequently this results in pursuing legislative options that are best to keep a party in power, rather than choosing options to better America!  

4.  In George Washington's 1796 farewell address, he warned Americans about the dangers of political parties.  In regards to political parties, Washington stated:  (Italics and bold emphases added.)  

• "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism." 
• “But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”
• “Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”
• “It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration.  It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, and foments occasionally riot and insurrection.  It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”

In a nutshell, Washington warned that party partisanship would lead to political conflict, divisions among the nation, and oppression of the people through tyranny and despotism.  Most, if not all, of Washington’s predictions concerning the ills of political parties have come true! 

5. It is said that man should not be judged by his words alone, but also by his actions.  So too in politics can 'actions speak louder’ than words.  While political parties have the potential benefit of achieving more citizen participation in their government, their chosen means appear to be through the introduction of conflict, division, and insurrection – as warned by President Washington.  Additionally, many times the actions of political parties appear to put legislators at odds with their constituents in order for legislators to capture financial and political rewards from their political party!  Therefore the actions of today’s political parties DO NOT  greatly demonstrate the ability to make America a more united and stronger nation.  Rather, the opposite appears true.  America is judged by many in the U.S. and around the world to be a more divided and weaker nation – due to the actions of political parties.

6.  PAPA will provide citizens with the tools to advise, and the transparency to evaluate, INDIVIDUAL LEGISLATORS REGARDLESS of party affiliation. PAPA will enable citizens to be able to vote in general elections based on the INDIVIDUAL RECORD of each legislator, NOT their party!  PAPA will ALIGN AMERICA once again WITH ITS PEOPLE, NOT with any political party. 

• The tenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. NOWHERE is power implied or assigned to political parties. So citizens must ask, WHY do political parties assume powers when they have none? Because lack of transparency contributes to this problem, PAPA and its transparency tools will not only reset the collaboration between legislators and constituents, but also help return power back to U.S. citizens.