The First Amendment enshrined the right of the American people to petition the government. The Internet enshrined the habit of airing grievances. Mash those up, and you get the White House’s latest online initiative.
The new system, which will launch soon, is called We the People and will allow anyone 13 years and older to submit petitions online via the official White House website. It’s already a hit on Twitter.
Read more here.
Sign up to be notified when the site is live.
Step #1 Create or Sign a Petition
Anyone 13 or older can create or sign a petition on WhiteHouse.gov asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. To get started you’ll need to create an account and verify your email address. Start thinking about the issues that matter to you, what you would like the Obama Administration to do to address the important challenges facing our country, and who you’ll ask to join you.
Step #2 Build Support and Gather Signatures
Creating or signing a petition is just the first step. It’s up to you to build support for a petition and gather even more signatures. Use email, Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth to tell your friends, family and coworkers about the petitions you care about.
Step #3 The White House Reviews and Responds
If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the Administration and an official response will be issued. And we’ll make sure that the petition is sent to the appropriate policy makers in the Administration.The initial threshold to get a response from the Administration is 5,000 signatures.
The History of Petitions: The right to petition our government is guaranteed in the First Amendment to our Constitution. Throughout our nation’s history, petitions have served as a way for Americans to organize around issues that matter to them, and tell their representatives in government where they stand. Petitions have played an important role in many of the changes throughout our history, from ending slavery to guaranteeing women the right to vote. The We the People platform on
WhiteHouse.gov gives Americans a new way to create, share, and sign petitions that communicate your views about your government's actions and policies.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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Comments: 16
All this will do is give them another mailing list. It's another way for Obama to illegally campaign on tax payer money.
If you think this is anything but another pre-election cynical ploy you need to rebalance your meds.
What????
They show no interest whatsoever when the American people or the Constitution opposes their actions.
I would love clarification on this one Ken.
9/12/2009 Tea party rally in DC
9/12/2010 Restoring Honor /Glenn Beck Rally - National Mall
Neither got hardly an acknowledgement from the President and only derision from his "flock" .
Just 3 examples of many: Health Care Individual mandate ruled unconstitutional by an Appeals court (not just a district court) and the liberty-loving (for them but not for you) Administration continues to implement it without as quickly as possible resolving the obvious legal issues involved, NLRB trying to tell an American company where it must open a factory (Boeing), and the Administration suing States over reasonable efforts by those states to control the impact of illegal immigration on those states when the Feds will not do it's Constitutional job.