Welcome
Michael Dorsey – Independent Candidate for United States Senator from Illinois
Petition sheets are now available!
Unfortunately, my internet marketing plan to get the 25,000 signatures didn’t work out this time, so I won’t be on the ballot. The BP fiasco in the Gulf is just one more example of the major parties not doing their jobs because of campaign money from the mega-corporations over the last 35 years. We should have had an alternative to oil by now. Thanks for everyone’s support and those who volunteered to help. I learned a lot that I can use the next time. Please review the ideas in all the sections of this website give criticism in the comments section if you wish. Feel free to be direct and harsh. I can take it. The idea is to find a way to get politics working for the public good instead of the people and institutions that finance the current crop.
My one and only campaign promise:
I will vote on each issue in the Senate as the majority of my constituents vote on that issue by computer or telephone balloting shortly before the Senate vote.
Why do this?
1. You will get what the voters want instead of what the special interest groups, lobbyists, big campaign contributors, and political bosses want.
2. You know what is best for you. Special interest groups, lobbyists, big campaign contributors, and political bosses do not. They can buy experts from think-tanks to support whatever position they want to promote in the Senate. Many votes are simply value choices that require nothing more than the majority to reveal its desires.
3. Social science shows that majority voting by a large diverse group is the best way to arrive at consistently good decisions.* Individual intelligence and even the intelligence of narrow groups such as economists, international relations experts, accountants, or lawyers is not enough to foster consistently good decision making. The reason is that those types of intelligence cannot guarantee the different perspectives on a problem that are required to make good decisions.
Majority voting by a large diverse group is not a dumbing-down, but a smarting-up. Large diverse groups make better decisions than individuals and out perform the group’s best and smartest members. The far out fringes on both sides of the issue cancel each other out and the issue is decided by the remaining intelligent, interested voters with diverse views. The result is consistently good decisions over a wide range of issues.
This is exactly what is needed in the Senate – not reliance on the hired experts of the special interests who are often chosen for their biased opinions and are at best knowledgeable on a narrow set of issues. “Experts” on political issues usually contradict and oppose the opinions of each other and that means they are not truly experts, but rather partisan players in the policy game. There is no way to know which expert to rely upon.
The majority of voting citizens is knowledgeable on the wide range of issues that the Senate deals with, especially with regard to their own interests and wishes. Reliance on special interest groups, lobbyists, campaign contributors, political bosses, and their hired experts brought our country the domestic and international catastrophes of the past few years – the financial crisis and the Middle Eastern energy wars. It is time for a new strategy.
4. You will get what you want at the time the Senate votes are cast, not an excuse from some politician explaining why they broke their campaign promise on that issue.
5. Minimum wage workers, the unemployed, women and men of all ages regardless of economic status or racial identity, farmers, and small business owners will have the same vote and power as the well-connected, wealthy, and CEO’s. They will not be forgotten about the day after the election is over because they will be able to vote on each issue by computer or telephone just like everybody else.
6. This practice gives the people real, genuine control and power and will eventually destroy the top-down stranglehold the major parties enjoy over our country and bring bottom-up democracy to the United States. The ultimate result could and I hope will be that the people will democratically control their country rather than live under the private tyrannies of the vested interests, the lobbyists, the multi-national corporations, the political bosses, and their big campaign contributors.
Fight Back! Use the machinery of government for yourself instead of helping the Democrat and Republican servants of the big money multi-national corporations, the banksters, and lobbyists use it against you. Get Up! Stand Up! Stand Up For Your Rights!
* For a summary of the social science literature related to the benefits of group decision-making see James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds, 2005
34 Responses
Stacie Dalpiaz - January 12, 2010
Congrats Mike!!! I knew nothing about this till Leanne sent me this website. It’s about time we have someone that wants to step forward and make a BIG CHANGE. Good Luck! If you need any help let me know.
Stacie Dalpiaz
MichaelDorsey - January 12, 2010
Thanks very much Stacie. We’re just getting started and we’re going to need lots of help. We need to get 25,000 signatures starting around March 23rd to get on the ballot. The law prohibits starting before then. In the meantime, please direct as many people to the web site as possible so the idea of bottom-up democracy spreads.
Mike
Theresa Schaffer - January 14, 2010
Hello, I am Jeff and Lori’s friend that was at your house when they were in town. Let me know when you need my signature. Good Luck!
MichaelDorsey - January 15, 2010
Thanks, Theresa. By law we can’t start with the signatures until March 23rd. We’ll be in touch.
Phil Bayster - January 17, 2010
It sounds like you have come up with interesting and refreshing approach to properly representing your constituency, and I applaud your efforts to change the status quo that is ruining our government.
While I am in favor of anything that can be done to break the stranglehold that wealthy special interest groups have on our political system, I am not really sure that you will be accomplishing that.
It is my opinion that the average voter lacks the time and interest to stay well informed on the multitude of issues that face our legislators on a regular basis. As a result, he ends up relying heavily on what he can easily gather from the major news media.
Sad to say, what is available from the major news media is usually being heavily influenced by the propaganda that is constantly being spewed by wealthy special interest groups.
So, even though you intend to vote according to the wishes of the majority of your constituency, you will not be able to keep those wishes from being heavily influenced by the propaganda of wealthy special interest groups.
I am afraid that I would feel more confident if I was being represented by an honest and objective senator who used a variety of unbiased sources to keep himself well versed on all the major issues and then voted according to what he believed was in the best interest of the majority of his constituency.
MichaelDorsey - January 18, 2010
Thanks for your comment Phil. Unfortunately, even if we find an honest senator, there is no such thing as an “… objective senator who use[s] a variety of unbiased sources to keep himself well versed on all the major issues…” No living or historical senator fits that bill. Let me know if you can think of one. They aren’t philosopher kings even though they may pretend to be. It is obvious that the assumed superior knowledge of the politicians in the major parties is nothing but pretense. They virtually always vote for the interests of their money sponsors or their perceived short term interests, even as they babble about the national interest or their love of the citizens. A perfect example is the Democrats’ vote to support the invasion of Iraq in 2003. They knew better, but they believed the hype about a short war and the Iraqis welcoming us with flowers as liberators – the nonsense the talking heads babbled about on tv. I know Durbin had guts enough to stick his neck out, but the majority did not. Now we are six years,almost seven, into endless Middle Eastern wars and for what? They couldn’t have done more to play into Bin Laden’s hands.
I don’t understand why you would trust the voters to be smart enough to pick the “objective senator,” but not smart enough to make the right choice on issues that affect them. Please see my home page where I explain why large groups of people consistently make better decisions than experts, including what passes for experts in the Senate. The people can figure out that giving bankers money to speculate on foreign currency exchanges is not a good idea, but the Senate can’t. The people can figure out that gerrymandering voting districts is not a good idea, but our elected officials can’t. The people can figure out that dismantling the industrial economy and shipping half of it overseas to slave labor states such as China is not a good idea, but the Senate can’t.
The people know that we got 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam plus 2 to 3 million Vietnamese. The reason was to keep what they used to call “red” China from taking over Southeast Asia. The people don’t understand why we spent all that money and blood in Vietnam to protect ourselves from the “red” Chinese, but in the 30 years since we have sent millions of jobs to China (they don’t call them “red” anymore) even though it’s the same government. The Senate also helped mortgage our economy to the Chinese. Why would we fight a war to stop them from taking over Southeast Asia and then turn our economy over to them? Apparently the Senators understand this one since they helped do it, but the people don’t.
There are dozens of other examples that anyone could list. These guys in the Senate aren’t smart and they consistently make bad decisions, decisions that are horrible for our country. Shame on you for swallowing their propaganda that puts them on a pedestal. The only thing they know that the public doesn’t know is who they are most eager to serve and please. Do you think they knew what they were doing or dealing with when they got us into the now 6+ year Middle Eastern war? Which are they guilty of – not knowing what they were doing or getting us involved in an endless Middle Eastern war on purpose? Do you think Bin Laden is happy that they took the bait and spent $1 trillion + so far to get nowhere? Their policies are his best recruiting tool.
There isn’t anything mysterious about the people making choices in their own best interest. In fact, the parties’ market based economic ideology is based on the assumption that they are fully capable of doing so. Politics -including international politics – is no more complicated than NFL football. Most of the questions are not difficult and the majority of voters is likely to have a better answer than the current Senators on the difficult ones. If you want to break the stranglehold of special interests on our political system, vote for bottom-up democracy. Help me rid the country of the twin pestilences of the Democratic and Republican parties. Well intentioned Democrats and Republicans are welcome to join us. If you want more of what we’ve had for the last 40 years and if you believe what the Democrats and Republicans are telling you, continue to vote for them. Otherwise, vote for bottom-up democracy and me. The choice is simple.
Erin Dorsey - January 20, 2010
Hey Uncle Mike!
Good luck on your campaign and when you win I expect to be your first intern!
MichaelDorsey - January 21, 2010
Thanks Erin. We are going to need lots of help this spring and summer with the 25,000 signatures to get on the ballot and campaigning. I’m going to register with the FEC in a few days, then we will start it up as Mick said.
peteski - March 10, 2010
I didn’t understand the concluding part of your article, could you please explain it more?
stuart - March 13, 2010
It is useful to try everything in practice anyway and I like that here it’s always possible to find something new.
MichaelDorsey - March 17, 2010
(Response to #9) The Democrats and Republicans are, first of all, voting for the interests of the (for the most part) wealthy people and corporations who finance their campaigns. Bottom-up democracy is a way to get around that and for the citizens to get what they want because the office holder votes the way the majority of citizens, as determined by computer or telephone vote, want him/her to vote.
mandarin school - March 20, 2010
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the great work Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Ron Flowers - May 31, 2010
Are you a serious candidate? Do you expect to get on the ballot?
MichaelDorsey - June 9, 2010
Unfortunately, I’m not going to make it on the ballot this time.
davenycity - September 15, 2010
great blog thank you
Sappipsereaws - October 16, 2010
t’s such a great site. imaginary, quite stimulating!!!
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MichaelDorsey - December 3, 2010
Feel free to use it. I hope this will become a common way of getting rid of the twin pestilences.
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MichaelDorsey - December 6, 2010
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MichaelDorsey - January 29, 2011
None at all. I hope somebody uses this method to get elected and gets the ball rolling towards ending rule by election buyers.
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