> The Best Citizens Among Us
October 13, 2007

We are going out across America to find the best citizens among us for elected office.

We are compelled to do this because the citizens do not choose the overwhelming majority of candidates - secret committees do, for reasons only known to them. Far more important is the fact that the bulk of the candidates and current elected officials are not suitable for attaining successful outcomes for the citizens.

Currently the qualifications for elected office are:

1. The ability to raise campaign contributions
2. Be able to gain the support of either the Republican or Democratic Parties
3. Assure both parties that the candidate will do nothing to interfere with the power structure
4. The ability to shamelessly pursue any course of action that is advantageous to the candidate no matter what the consequences may be
5. The ability to keep political secrets
6. Be able to create an image that is acceptable to the citizens
7. The ability to hide any defects that would cause the citizens to view the candidate as not being an appropriate candidate
8. To have personal ambition that overrides a sober view of one's abilities
9. To be a supporter of a wide variety of non-democratic activities
10. To be able to pay the media or intimidate them

The vast majority of social ills are derived from either political incompetence or corruption, or a combination of the two. This should not be surprising, as candidates are not vetted for expertise, competency, intelligence, character, or leadership skills.

The candidates and elected officials are caricatures of competency and decency. Every incompetent and corrupt elected official was a candidate first.

Who would be stupid enough to go to a politician for help other than the politically connected? Maybe the uninformed do, but they quickly find out that no true help is available. They also learn that if they are not campaign contributors they rarely, if ever can even meet with their elected officials no less get any true help for any problem confronted by them. The only way one ever gets help from any politician is if helping the citizen also in some way helps the politician.

As every person who has ever held a job knows if you want to get a job done right you need to start with a competent person who has the expertise required to accomplish the job. That person must be intelligent enough to deal with evolving conditions, know when they need help, have the character to honestly ask for it, complete the job to the best of their abilities, and lastly, has the leadership skills - even if all the person is doing is leading themselves to sweep a floor well - to see the job through.

I know that every office, factory, firehouse, club, store, church and town in America has people who can do their job right and understand the difference between just doing a job and a job done well. Candidates and the elected officials need to be drawn from this vast pool of citizens who understand this distinction and will do the job to the best of their abilities. The greatest natural resource civilization has is people who can excel at the job at hand.

The only way for civilization to draw on this vast pool of people is for Good Citizens to nominate them for elected office so other citizens can get to know them and induce them to serve civilization.

Collaborative Democracy's primary purpose is to empower the citizens. So citizens can seek out, find and induce the citizens who are best suited to serve for the public good for a limited time and then have them return back to their private lives. These citizens will be forever held in high esteem by civilization for the great contributions they make.

If you know of a citizen who you think should be nominated use the Collaborative Democracy Candidate Framework steps 1 through 3 and then email it to us to begin step 4, the citizen Feedback step.

Currently, we are working on building the software to make this process easier and a 100% online experience that includes steps 5 and 6 but you will loose nothing by starting now and gain much.