[EM] language/framing quibble

[Fred Gohlke]

Good Morning, David

re: "Suppose I take an interest in becoming mayor of Owego.

      This will require my neighbors learning this, and something
      of what I might do as mayor."

The essence of democracy is not what you want, it is what the people of 
Owego want.

The only way we can find out who the people of Owego want to be their 
mayor is to ask them.  Our present electoral methods do not ask the 
people who they want, they tell the people what choices they have. 
Campaigning is not asking, it is telling.

The failure of our political system is that it is not an asking 
mechanism, it is a telling mechanism.  In spite of the advances in 
transportation, communication and data processing over the past 200-odd 
years, we have not yet devised a means of asking the people to make 
their own political decisions.  We have the means, but not the method.

My purpose is to devise a practical method of asking the people of Owego 
who they want as their mayor.

Fred Gohlke