It sounds great in theory: Use the power of the Internet to get ideas from people, have people vote on the ideas, and then use the ideas that get the most votes.
However, it doesn't work so well for some people.
"Republicans are drafting a new plan to win back the House of Representatives," reported the Christian Broadcasting Network, in describing the American Speaking Out website. "The plan is a project known as America Speaking Out. It is similar to the Contract With America in 1994 that fueled a GOP takeover of the House that year. The new plan is not a GOP platform. Instead, they have asked Americans to go to a website and summit[sic] policy ideas."
Oh, they sure have.
Just one day later, the hundreds of ideas submitted have been such that the Washington Post saw fit to write an article about some of them.
""End Child Labor Laws," suggests one helpful participant. "We coddle children too much. They need to spend their youth in the factories,"" the Post reported.
Americans are continuing to be helpful.
"We should segregate the schools again. Then we would need twice as many schools, that's gotta make more jobs somehow," offered one suggestion.
"We could save a lot of money through product standardization. For example, it should be illegal for stores to sell hot dogs in packs of 10 and buns in packs of 8," offered another.
The one problem (due to Poe's Law) is it can be kind of hard to tell which suggestions are serious and which ones are spoofs.
"Federal Regulations, laws, amendments and programs should all be abolished and handed over to the free market." Real? Or spoof?
Unfortunately, the site is so popular that it's getting difficult to see, let alone submit, ideas. "A very high volume of Americans are speaking out right now," said the site error message. "Please wait a moment and try again."
You betcha.
