Man Explains Why We Should Get Rid Of Congress And Replace Them With An App
Although it could be argued that our current government isn’t working as intended, solving its problems are not all that simple.
@theatheisticdeist via TikTok / Rob Crandall via Shutterstock In a free country, when your government isn’t doing everything the way you want it to be done, you’re able to criticize them and talk about the ways in which you would be able to actually get things done. In the United States of America, we’re allowed the freedom of this kind of critical free speech (especially important when it comes to talking about the government) thanks in part to the branches that make up our democracy and continue to enforce the Constitution.
One man, however, believes we should get rid of our Congress entirely, and replace it with something a little more convenient that would actually contribute to a fairer democracy.
Man explains why he thinks we should replace Congress with an app to vote on bills.
A man on TikTok who goes by “@theathiesticdeist” recently posted a video in which he shares just how frustrated he is with our current government’s decisions and laws by introducing the idea of an app where we, the people, could do the jobs for them.
“Anybody else ever think about the fact that we should replace Congress with an app?” he asks the over 80,000 people who watched the video. “We could all, like, propose bills throughout the month on our phones and then have once a month where the most upvoted bills get voted on by everybody in the country."
If we lived in an ideal world, this would be a fantastic idea! No really, think about it. If everyone in the country (over 18) had a smartphone where they were able to access their own “We The Congress” app, things could probably get done a lot quicker and smoother, no?
He even has an idea for how these bills would get finalized. “Then we [get] one day off a month — like, the last day of the month — and we all vote on whatever was the top 5 bills upvoted during that month,” he explains, “and then we don’t need Congress.”
Without Congress, he claims, we wouldn’t have to worry about paying their salary, worry about them doing insider trading and “bulls--t like that,” because, at that point, they would just be…us. He even claimed that he would be okay with AI writing bills and putting the power in the hands of the people to just vote on them.
He says, “I’m to the point where I want to vote for AI over half these motherf--kers anyway so, hell, maybe we can have an AI just write the bills for us that it thinks are good.”
Unfortunately, replacing Congress with a phone app would never work.
First and foremost, gating the ability to be able to write and pass laws behind a smartphone app is eliminating people who do not have access to a smartphone or even the internet.
According to Zippia, approximately 12% of Americans own a non-smart mobile phone — I highly doubt that your Nokia is going to be compatible with this Congressional app. Although, Zippia also reports that only 61% of people 65 years old and over own a smartphone compared to 96% of people aged 18 to 29, so maybe it’s not a bad idea after all… no no, still a bad idea.
Throwing access to smartphones and the internet aside, the United States government is a wildly complex beast that cannot simply have one cog replaced by a smartphone app. Although it could be argued that our current government isn’t working as intended — by the people and for the people — solving its problems are not all that simple.
Congress (divided into two bodies: the Senate and House of Representatives) is integral in providing checks and balances for the other two branches of government: the executive and judicial branches.
Regular people who have no political background or training in writing laws should not be given the power to write or pass laws. How will we keep the other branches of government in check? How will we hold our fellow citizens accountable? What about all of the people who would write jokes into law or will still disagree with you? An app wouldn’t eradicate lobbying and insider trading, it would simply increase access to it and allow regular people to do it as well.
While it might be fun to gamify the law like that, it certainly wouldn’t be ideal — but then again, we don’t live in an ideal world right now either.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.