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The petition process has one purpose, to provide an outlet for short attention span outrage, in a forum that poses 0 threat to the White House.
by plonh 11y ago
The petition process has one purpose, to provide an outlet for short attention span outrage, in a forum that poses 0 threat to the White House.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> The petition process has one purpose, to provide an outlet for short attention span outrage, in a forum that poses 0 threat to the White House. Writing to the White House directly already provided such an outlet; what the newer formalized petition process does is two things: 1) It provides an incentive to aggregating related requests, providing an economy in reviewing and responding, and 2) Provides visibility to the requests and responses, which frequently serve as a focal point for organizing by the groups interested in the subject matter of the request. (#2, if anything, increases the potential political cost compared to the status quo ante to the White House, both from responses and absences of responses.)