7 ms·
A congressman who justifies every vote on Facebook
- joewallin 14y agoI like it.
- rwc 14y agoI really like the concept, but there are better venues for this kind of material. With just 1.5% of "People Talking About This" I suspect it's rare his 42,000+ Likes are seeing these posts in their News Feeds.
- BrainScraps 14y agoI highly doubt that the intent is to have each post seen in people's timelines. It appears to be a place for constituents to "check up" on their representative in a way that is convenient and open. And I think that it's a bold cultural statement for a Congressman to make. I used to think that open and honest people didn't stand a chance in Washington, but that may be changing.
- zem 14y agoi'm impressed that he's doing it at all. it's really hard for people who are not techies to realise facebook's intrinsic crappiness; at a superficial glance it seems like a fine choice for the purpose.
- chaz 14y agoIt's about as good as Coca Cola (1.6%), and better than Nike (0.9%), Justin Bieber (1.0%) and Lady Gaga (0.9%). That number is never really that high except for the most viral stuff that people like because it's funny, like George Takei's page (108%).
- fizx 14y agoI'd donate $10k in a heartbeat to a bi-partisan PAC (or equivalent) whose goal was to fund the campaigns of people who do this. Someone should get working on this.
- neurotech1 14y agoMaybe consider donating to Mark Kelly & Gabrielle Giffords' PAC. I've heard that that Mark is actually a moderate republican, even thought he is married to a now-retired democratic congresswoman. The PAC is somewhat bipartisan http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/ http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/ Before her shooting in 2011, Rep. Giffords did blog regularly, Although she didn't give vote-by-vote explanations herself.
- harshreality 14y agofizx asked for a PAC to encourage candidates to publicly comment on their votes, and you recommend a PAC that is focused on gun control?
- Jd 14y agoVery interested in this also. I'd be willing to help organize too (via Facebook or other websites).
- goldfeld 14y agoI'd be much frustrated not to see startups cracking on this on elections to come, what with all the crowdfunding being carried over to many other domains (e.g. YC's first non-profit backing)
- jbigelow76 14y agoI commend Rep Amash for his transparency, it's a refreshing change from politicians that do nothing besides talk in double speak and view being tied down to an actual point of view as a political liability. That being said, next time he comes up for election he'll probably get slaughtered in the primaries when a more extreme candidate portrays any pragmatism in the political process as an impurity that needs to be purged. We really don't like seeing how the political sausage is made.
- newbie12 14y agoRep. Amash is a Tea Party libertarian up for re-election every two years, had no primary challenger in 2012 and it is unlikely he'll be primary challenged next cycle either.
- drivebyacct2 14y agoWhat does that word even mean anymore? According to his Wikipedia page there's not much redeeming about his social views. I guess you did say Tea Party "libertarian". That having been said, I admire how he offers his rationale and using Facebook for good.
- ryanaghdam 14y agoWhat isn't "redeeming" about not wanting the government to bother people?
- _delirium 14y agoI read the parent comment as being about the social parts of his views, which don't really seem to be about the government refraining from bothering people. Defining marriage as between a man and a woman, and life as beginning at conception, are both pretty significant (attempted) exercises of the state using its authority to resolve ethical disputes.
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- salgernon 14y agoClicking "read more" requires me to log in to Facebook. I don't have a Facebook account (nor do I want one). I've noticed this pattern with other groups and businesses. Facebook is not free and open if you choose not to let them sell your information.
- sanswork 14y agoThen don't provide any information for them to sell except for an email address and what pages you look at.
- salgernon 14y agoIf this representative is intending to make his rationales public, he should choose a public venue. But given the tracking information Facebook sifts via their extensive federation throughout the Internet today, I don't feel any inclination to make it easier for them by registering for their marketing programmes.
- sanswork 14y agoHe's intending to make it public in the venue that most easily facilitates this type of exchange with the widest number of users. >But given the tracking information Facebook sifts via their extensive federation throughout the Internet today Log out and clear your cookies. If you're not clearing them regularly anyhow you're already being tracked by many sources. I get not wanting a profile with all your information on Facebook but like I said that isn't required to access this and saves him spending resources to build a system to go in its place.
- chaz 14y agoHard to fault him for publishing where his constituency goes to every day. Almost no one would go to his website.
- ruswick 14y agoI don't believe that they strive to be, nor is the common belief that they are, free and open.
- stephencanon 14y agoI disagree with Justin politically w.r.t. nearly everything, but I definitely admire his approach. He's also a genuinely thoughtful and nice guy, and very adept at explaining why he holds the positions he does.
- mieses 14y agoThanks for saying something nice about him. Not many in the mainstream (liberals, center right, neo-cons, etc) are as gracious.
- Afforess 14y agoHonestly politics is so corrupt at this point that is rather vote for an honest politician who I disagree with than a corrupt politician who "supposedly" agrees with me. And I'm not just saying platitudes. I live in Kent County, MI and voted straight democrat in 2012, except for Amash.
- SapphireSun 14y agoMe too, but I was surprised to see a cogent reasoning for voting against the No Budget No Pay act that changed my mind about it. It is refreshing to see an elected official explain his votes in a way that isn't simply national talking points.
- rtpg 14y agoSame here. I find he is able to defend himself on things I would never accept personally, and in a pretty sensible way. Granted, most of his votes are "more spending not offset by cuts"-type votes, but he also votes sensibly on some bills, with good justifications ("this bill creates redundant regulation.... congress doesn't need to do this, this agency already does it"). I admire his way of doing his job, even if I absolutely despise his political views.
- crusso 14y agoHow can you despise the political view of acting responsibly with taxpayer money? How can you look at the US Debt Clock (http://www.usdebtclock.org/ http://www.usdebtclock.org/) and not realize that we're committing the equivalent of child abuse by inflicting enormous debt on children who haven't even yet been born? I'll never understand the hypocrisy of the group of voters that freaks out over a possible 1 degree shift in the average temperature of the planet over the next 50 years (that we may or may not have any control of whatsoever) -- yet doesn't want to take any action to slow down the runaway spending that will certainly destroy more lives in a much bigger way.
- irollboozers 14y agoOpen communication -> open journalism -> open education -> open science -> open politics -> open ? I'm just trying to think of things that are still left closed. In 10 years will it just be weird that people aren't sharing things?
- contingencies 14y agoLaw. Finance.
- fatkid 14y agounfortunately this guy is crazy...and on the far right fringe of things. in recent years, as more and more people have become involved in the political process we've developed this notion that there's a correlation between transparency and competency that simply does not exist. And the perceived transparency, such as some 100-200 word facebook post summarizing hundred page bills, is merely an illusion buffered by overly simplistic and misleading explanations.
- nhangen 14y agoSounds like a case of 'I don't agree with him, therefore he must be crazy.'
- fatkid 14y agoyea, no. i'm pretty down the middle and appreciate opinions on all sides... but read more about this guy.
- illuminate 14y ago"Plain-speaking" and sincere don't have to make sense.
- ruswick 14y agoWhy does his attempt at transparency, even though you doubt its earnestness, make him crazy? Most politicians give no justification at all, or only offer totally vacuous platitudes and other bullshit. 100-200 words of justification that you don't agree with/ doubt is still preferable to silence or some 5 minute interview on Meet the Press rife with passive-agressive rhetoric and demagogical nonsense.
- fatkid 14y agowhere do i say his attempt at transparency is what makes him crazy? I actually think, distortion and all, it's a start. That said, you look through his voting history and talk w/ people on capitol hill, this guy is off his rocker...
- nhashem 14y ago"I voted no on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H R 297, Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2013, which reauthorizes federal payments to children's hospitals for operating graduate medical training programs... The bill passed 352-50." "I voted no on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H R 225, National Pediatric Research Network Act of 2013, which expands the existing Pediatric Research Initiative (PRI) to include a new National Pediatric Research Network... It passed 375-27." "I voted no on H R 325, No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013... The bill passed 285-144." "I voted no on H R 152, Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013... The bill passed 241-180." Justin Amash represents a wing of the Republican party that has essentially decided to refuse to govern, and is content to simply object to anything Congress tries to do that is not ideologically pure, which is pretty much everything. [EDIT: To those who commented below upset with my "refusal to govern" comment -- look, governing requires solving problems that the public wants you to solve. That solution can even be essentially less government. For example... a lot of Republican voters don't like Obamacare, but I doubt many of them liked our pre-Obamacare healthcare system. Take an extreme, free-market/libertarian form of healthcare policy -- repeal not just Obamacare, but things like the employer tax deduction for health insurance, requiring hospitals to provide life-saving care for anyone regardless of payment capability, etc -- I would vehemently disagree with that, but I would consider crafting and trying to pass such legislation an attempt to govern. But if the bulk of your legislative activity is doing things like voting to repeal Obamacare twenty-three times, as Rep. Justin Amash did in 2011-2012, then I would argue you are just politically pandering to your constituent base -- or worse, your campaign's financial donors -- and not governing.] On the other hand, I do appreciate his attempts to justify and explain his actions. This type of transparency is desperately needed in the Senate, where everyone uses arcane procedural rules (e.g. filibusters, "holds," and so forth), as anonymous tools of obstruction pretty much constantly. While I doubt I'll ever agree on any of Rep. Amash's views, I hope that more of our elected representatives continue to use tools like social media not just for campaigning and voter outreach purpose, but for information and transparency in the governing process once they're actually in office..
- ithought 14y agoSometimes the hardest thing to do in politics is nothing.
- mfenniak 14y agoHuh. I'm not a giant fan of his votes... but I really like reading why he is voting on each issue. I hope he is truly transparent and honest; the cynic in me believes he'll probably only share politically polite reasoning for his votes. I also hope that this level of sharing grows. It's a pretty small thing for a member of a representative government to do, yet so obviously important. "I represent you. I voted X on issue Y, because Z."
- TWAndrews 14y agoDefinitely don't agree with his politics, but I appreciate the transparency.