Contract From America: A Tea-Party Fueled Attempt To Be Heard

A Houston lawyer looks to turn legislation back into a bottom-up process.
By Andrew Ian Dodge at Pajamas Media:

"Last month, a new effort to reconnect the populace with its public servants was launched: Contract From America.


This consultation exercise aims to gather ideas from the public on laws they would like to see passed or eliminated. The ideas will be boiled down to three in each policy area by a panel of tea party activists from all over the nation and then submitted to political leaders.

Considering the arrogance displayed by many members of Congress towards their constituents and their wishes, this project intends to make them aware of just how driven people are to see a change in governmental behavior.

An interview with Ryan Hecker, the head of Contract From America:

AD: What prompted you to create this project?

RH: In the past, public policy has been entirely a top-down affair. Politicians work with consultants and others to create public policy initiatives, for which the electorate either show support by re-electing the politician or reject by choosing his opponent. However, we have seen over the past decade that politicians have largely been bereft of economically conservative ideas. I created this website because I strongly believe that the citizenry has a lot of ideas to offer to politicians if given the chance to speak and make an impact. We no longer have to sit passively as politicians present their ideas to us. We can all help in creating a Contract From America that we can use to direct public policy in 2010 and beyond."
Read on here.

I like it a lot!