"Firing the prosecutor expresses anger, but it doesn't seek structural change. Lynch mobs don't." That was pretty much exactly what I said in a comment on that

"Firing the prosecutor expresses anger, but it doesn't seek structural change. Lynch mobs don't." That was pretty much exactly what I said in a comment on that petition the day it was posted on HN. I received multiple downvotes right away, and things didn't balance out until several days later when the comment finally reached 1 point again. So I agree that the low threshold makes it too easy for a short term "anger wave" to reach the petition threshold. But I also think that by making the threshold too high you lose the possibility of smaller interest groups getting attention. Politics is already about the big players, and the giant special interest groups with the millions and millions of dollars to play with. There were already very few successful petitions that actually got responses, now there will be even fewer.