Hello. My name is Lewis Shupe, and I’m a recovering Democrat. So, I am about to kick my write in campaign for Congress into high gear (see below) and I wish for help to communicate this idea to the Facebook higher ups. My main reason for running is to propose and institute an idea I believe whose time has come. PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY. Defined, it is my idea of a sitting and serving elected politician directly conferring ONLY with the registered voters in a given political district. No sock puppets, no outside agitators, no political parties, no Russian trolls, no lobbyists, no armchair power trippers, no spooks, and no bullshit.
If I am chosen to represent the PA 7th Congressional district, this group of registered voters is where I will draw from there collected wisdom in my day to day dealings with Congress within the confines of the law. I say this because, as a Congressperson, I will become privy to classified information that I cannot share. At that point, I would have to ask for your trust in my 30 years in cyber security and computer programming to make the right decisions. Outside of that caveat, I intend to depend directly on the voters to inform me on how I should conduct legislative affairs such as how to vote on legislation, proposals, etc. As I have a natural distrust of lobbyists, I would stream my meetings with them to the registered voters, much as I do now with Allentown city council meetings posted at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8TGc8vyVtO24LrwZ-5hXVA. If this special group is set up the way I wish, which is as securable as possible, this could solve the problems Facebook has been experiencing with all the political bovine manure that has, and will continue to transpire. If not, I will continue to chart my own course without Facebook, and I may even speak out against Facebook again. My website where all my words are is http://realchange.us/the-gist-of-it-all/
Around the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, I admin and / or moderate several different Facebook groups. One of which is REALCHANGE.US. You won’t likely see me post a page about my write-in campaign, because to put it as simply as possible I believe in dialogue. Watching these groups and a few others, I see the dialogue that goes on between the politically-connected people here in the Lehigh Valley. It has both educated me and enlightened me to what people can discuss on a daily basis. This can’t happen as well with a dedicated page.
On the flip side, I have seen various tea party, republican, and even leftist groups filled with sock puppets, fake accounts, out of area trolls, and general assholes who must be spending all day and all night filling the groups with bad memes, bad facts, disinformation, and plain old fashioned BULLSHIT and Facebook does nothing to stop them. THIS MUST CHANGE. In particular, tea party groups like “Tea Party” “The Facebook Tea Party” “National Tea Party” among many more like it, wrap there hate in the flag and have been posting there hate for years, unchecked by Facebook. And if you try to enlighten them, not only do the trolls get mad, Facebook keeps popping up with posting reminders every time someone posts a response.
This is as bad as it was 2 years ago, when I ran the local Bernie Sanders campaign. And we all know what happened when the Internet Research Agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency amplified the hate and discord
I was originally inspired in this idea by the coffee party, and its founder Annabel Park. Several years ago, in response to the paranoia of the national tea party, she had this crazy idea that people should get together and be able to talk about politics in a civil matter. Considering all the bovine manure that I’ve been seeing for the past oh 50 years or so, I thought this idea would be great for voters to get together and discuss what is in their best interest. Unfortunately, the organization that she founded eventually got corrupted with people who took over the board and tried to make money from it. She still chugs along with a core group of believers, and so do I.
So, it is with these thoughts in mind that I share my idea of a better world with the reading public. This is why I do what I do.
The trick is to verify the voters are in the PA 7th congressional district by uploading a picture of there photo ID with a photo of there voter registration card. Something Facebook has not gotten right yet. As some people might be a bit skittish on verifying there ID, special precautions must be put in place to put there fears at ease. For example, No Facebook marketing, tracking, or spying code in this specific type of group. People need to feel they are able to converse about potentially controversial subjects without fear from the American surveillance state you so willingly help. This whole endeavor should not be used to inconvenience voters of little means, such as myself. Another suggestion is that, withing the group, people should use nicknames, and not there real name. This is to prevent outside coercion, buying opinions, bullying, ect. More specifics can be discussed soon. Readers, suggestions welcome.
But wait, there’s more. Facebook is approving political advertisements by Islamic State? https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wj9mny/facebooks-political-ad-tool-let-us-buy-ads-paid-for-by-mike-pence-and-isis
So Facebook, work with me here. I am posting all this here, rather than the group, because I worry my words may not reach as wide an audience as I seek. I would hope as many people as possible see this. Help me out and I can help rescue Facebook. Facebook already has a reach into the population far far greater than whoever is in second place. Failure to come to an agreement will simply mean I will look towards second place and beyond. Because at the end of the day, I CARE.