Steemians can help change the political landscape in America, (And the world) here's how:

My name is Todd, and I am writing this because although I have long held this idea, I do not possess the ability to make this dream a reality. So I bring this idea to you and hope that it sparks a fire in you as it has myself and if it does please help me to make this come true.

I currently live in upstate New York and have left my job and begun mining ETH over the past month and have been watching this ICO wave as it has been unfolding over the past year. One thing that is clear is the direction of the economy is global and that these technologies will be fundamental in creating a more globalized and fair world.

As inequality becomes smaller the people on top will inevitably fight this change, using any tricks they can to hold power over you.

Smart contracts have been touted to have the ability to replace governments and I fully agree, although it will be extremely difficult to gain traction in a first world country such as America. If we want to affect change politically somewhere like America where we desperately need change I believe a sort of DAO should be created similar to Steemit with the intention of decentralizing political funding, in the form of a coin/token that would serve to mitigate big businesses ability to lobby and influence the government (recently the limit on campaign donations was lifted from $250,000 to INFINITY, giving corporations power to lobby and influence only limited by their profit margins). This new type of political capital will be decentralized and should serve to fund candidates who would never be able to run due to lack of funding or local support.

Imagine a website similar to Steemit combined with linkedin where any american can create a profile page and declare their political views and ideas, what types of social change they want to enact and what their entire history is. The object of the profile is not to attract attention but to be a one stop source of TRUE and ACCURATE information that is fair to everybody participating.

They should all follow similar formats so that you have the ability to compare two candidates side by side and see their similarities and differences. There could be an AI fact checker that compares past statements to present ones and shows any conflicts, and criteria could be determined to give honesty ratings to candidates as well as tracking the relevant information such as their demographics and trends, that could paint a much more accurate view of America rather than what is mainstream as well as giving communities and activists a platform to organize and fund themselves in order to change america for the better.

Imagine logging into the website and during election season and upon selecting your hometown a list is populated that displays each candidate running and a list of their core values (or various other options) side by side with their opponent. Tracking information this way will make it much easier to cut through the noise during elections and could help America and other countries make better political decisions.

In terms or running for office in America it requires vast amounts of money, if you cannot acquire millions of dollars there is very little hope of you becoming elected. By creating some form of Political Capital Coin we could decentralize political funding and make it much easier for true grassroots campaigns to occur. This political capital could serve to show true grassroots support, by receiving it you will gain influence on the page, if there are many people running for the same office in a certain place the amount of political capital can be used to lift the more popular candidates to the top of the list while less popular candidates are moved lower. At the same time this political capital will hold a dollar amount. Much like steem you will have to transform your political capital into actually campaign capital, this could serve to link the amount of money a candidate receives to how popular they are and remain, forcing them to stay honest and while funding the most popular candidate at all times, if they want to continue earning political capital. Perhaps similar to steem downvoting could be implemented to downgrade a persons amount of influence or decrease their political capital so that if a candidate is dishonest they actually suffer consequences.

The amount of elected officials is actually amazingly low. The Total number of elected offices: 537 (President, Vice President, 435 US House Members, 100 Senators). According to the Census data, there are more than 87,000 local and state governments constituting more than 511,000 offices.

537 people make every important decision in this country.
Apple made $11.1 Billion in profits last year (2016), not revenue. If they lobbied each of the 537 elected officials evenly they would have around $21 Million to spend on each politician. This is only one company. Warren Buffett, one individual person, is currently worth $74.8 BILLION. Money is power and these people have way too much.

Imagine if everyone simply penciled in the name of whatever candidate the community wanted to elect. Overnight America would be changed. Now we just have to figure out who will replace them and what America as a whole truly wants this country to become, for better or worse and make it happen. If people felt they had more control they would seize more power. The more we can empower us common people the more our government will listen to us. Furthermore, we can seek to fill the government with people that wish to serve the common good and not corporate greed.

If you like this idea I am seeking the aid of people who can help make this a reality. What I desperately need is someone who can code this website. I have a background in finance, marketing and investing and have been thinking of creating this website for years and have many more ideas on how to make this a potentially world changing application of blockchain technology.

So please, if you are tired of the state of American politics (on either side of the political spectrum) and want to help America to make informed decisions on who they elect and help to move into a better position in the coming globalized world of the future.

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