I think you focus to much on the aspect of democracy that is about voting. A lot of the ways politicians come to vote the way they vote is because of the general public debate.
If you look at an issue like Effective Altruism, no one did really the grunt work of thinking about the issue in depth to help a politician implement it.
A while ago I was talking to someone at a German Lesswrong meetup who both had the interest of entering politics as a member of the pirate party and who cared about Effective Altruism.
I suggested to him and go and write a detailed policy paper for the pirate party about what kind of Effective Altruism actions the pirate party would support if they would get elected. That would be a good way to both start a political career by being the person behind a major policy agenda in a new party and it would serve the interest of Effective Altruism.
You don’t get real political progress by saying: I want more A than B. You get it by actually thinking in detail about new policies that nobody thought about before. This means developing political positions that take more than a paragraph to express.
I think you focus to much on the aspect of democracy that is about voting. A lot of the ways politicians come to vote the way they vote is because of the general public debate.
If you look at an issue like Effective Altruism, no one did really the grunt work of thinking about the issue in depth to help a politician implement it. A while ago I was talking to someone at a German Lesswrong meetup who both had the interest of entering politics as a member of the pirate party and who cared about Effective Altruism. I suggested to him and go and write a detailed policy paper for the pirate party about what kind of Effective Altruism actions the pirate party would support if they would get elected. That would be a good way to both start a political career by being the person behind a major policy agenda in a new party and it would serve the interest of Effective Altruism.
You don’t get real political progress by saying: I want more A than B. You get it by actually thinking in detail about new policies that nobody thought about before. This means developing political positions that take more than a paragraph to express.