Reply #66: Governing from the people (aka bottoms-up):

[MH1]

First, people have to have access to information - i.e., open and transparent government. Second, you have to find and close channels of corruption.

Then you still need people to be educated in the means of working with their political representatives to get things done (it is shocking and disheartening how few citizens have even the slightest clue about this).

Obama has expressed and worked hard on the first two items. He has issued specific plans on opening up government and ethics reform, and as you know, sponsored the (weak but a step in the right direction) recent ethics reform bill. His plans probably don't do enough, but no one's shown me any plans at all by Hillary yet.

Since actual influence by the people on their elected reps can't even happen until those first two items make significant progress, I don't care that I haven't yet seen detailed plans from Obama on how to educate and engage the citizenry. He took time in a debate to specifically raise the point that citizen engagement is important, which is again, more than I have seen from Hillary. (please note that just because I haven't seen something doesn't mean that it doesn't exist - in either Hillary's or Obama's case).

Even though I disagree with you on this essential point, I appreciate the sanity of your post. :thumbsup: