There Oughta Be a Law

October 8, 2005 12:24 AM

Make Your Own LawPsst, Newsfilter
Assemblyman Jimmy Meng wants his Flushing, New York constituents to submit their best ideas for new legislation. The best proposal will be introduced as a bill in Albany.
posted by fenriq (26 comments total)

Completely off topic: My daughter was just born in Flushing this evening. That is all.
posted by fungible at 12:37 AM on October 8, 2005

Actually... isn't this the way democracy was supposed to work all along?
posted by Clay201 at 12:53 AM on October 8, 2005

Am I the only one who really hopes that the winner is a bill making gay marriage legal in ny state?

doesn't guarantee it'd become a state law, but still...
posted by shmegegge at 1:12 AM on October 8, 2005

pop up filter
posted by undule at 3:22 AM on October 8, 2005

Um, do we really need new laws so bad that we're petitioning the public to write laws about anything? What we really need is to compile a list of laws that need to be killed. I'm sure I could find hundreds.
posted by knave at 3:39 AM on October 8, 2005

what knave said.
posted by brandz at 7:05 AM on October 8, 2005

Metafilter.com/null? What?

This would be the best reality show ever.
posted by klangklangston at 7:56 AM on October 8, 2005

Here's my law: Once you are elected you cannot take any money from outside sources. That's it-- You are cut off. No campaign financing, no raising money for the party, zilch. Bupkis.

If you do a good job while elected, then the people will vote for you during your re-election. And if questions come up during the re-election campaign they can be answered by holding a press conference.

Oh, and the President? He has to hold a town hall meeting every other month. Five hundred people get in by lottery, and 12 people get 10 minutes. They can ask questions, they can make statements, they can give their opinions as to the president's performance. That way Mr. Oblivious is forced to come down off his cloud and deal directly with the American people.

I realize this can't be legislated locally, but I just thought I would share my dream.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:01 AM on October 8, 2005

How about the reverse? Ask for suggestions of which laws to take OFF the books. Now that would be more productive.
posted by j.p. Hung at 8:03 AM on October 8, 2005

This would be the best reality show ever.

My feelings exactly. ; )
posted by SisterHavana at 8:08 AM on October 8, 2005

mazel tov fungible!

it's a great idea--participatory democracy at its best, and when was the last time a politician actually solicited ideas like this?
posted by amberglow at 8:14 AM on October 8, 2005

Speaking of washing your hands, all that Geneva Convention stuff is up for grabs.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:25 AM on October 8, 2005

How about putting every single elected position in the NY State government up to a one-time state-wide recall? If more than 50% of the people vote you out, you can never be an elected official/civil servent again. It may seem undemocratic to allow the voters of one district to kick out the elected officials of another, but it's one of the few ways to kick out entrenched corrupted officials who happen to be good for their district.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:28 AM on October 8, 2005

What the, how'd that nice link get converted to /null?

Sorry about that, I guess that's what I get for doing one more thing before going to bed.

I like both this concept and the idea of killing stupid laws off. Actually I like the idea of killing off unnecessary legislation alot more. But not if Bush is going to use it to repeal anti-torture legislation, which is about the most insane thing I've heard in at least the last ten minutes.
posted by fenriq at 8:44 AM on October 8, 2005

Fungible, Congrats!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:53 AM on October 8, 2005

it's a great idea--participatory democracy at its best, and when was the last time a politician actually solicited ideas like this?
posted by amberglow at 8:14 AM PST on October 8

State of Michigan sponsors seminars on how democracy and citizenship work, engaging high school students on up to do some research, then suggest ways to amend, repeal or intiate new laws to address social concerns. Every year, quite a few students are chosen to meet with state legislators to discuss their suggestions. This has been going on at least since 2002 (the first year I was involved in a small way).
posted by beelzbubba at 9:15 AM on October 8, 2005

we need that everywhere, beelz...besides taking it upon yourself or forming a community or other org to pester pols, i've never heard of it here.
posted by amberglow at 9:29 AM on October 8, 2005

j.p. Hung's got the right idea, but as has been pointed out the GOP would just use the opportunity to get rid of all of those laws against torture, environmental protection, civil rights... Wait a minute. Silly me. You don't need to get rid of laws when it's so much easier to just ignore them.

Congrats fungible. My sister (who has two boys and two girls) says raising girls is harder. She says, "With a boy you only have to worry about one dick, with a girl, you have to worry about every dick." Good luck to you mate!
posted by three blind mice at 9:40 AM on October 8, 2005

How about the reverse? Ask for suggestions of which laws to take OFF the books. Now that would be more productive.

Indeed. My suggestion for a law: For every new law, an old law must be removed, except this one.
posted by Ayn Marx at 10:10 AM on October 8, 2005

Why is he limiting it to the best one? Assuming you actually want more laws, why not just submit any and all that are worthy? Democracy shouldn't be reduced to a contest.
posted by HSWilson at 11:11 AM on October 8, 2005

And, congratulations fungible!
posted by fenriq at 11:13 AM on October 8, 2005

Any other MeFites go to PS 21?

I think this is a great idea, and is actually part of my vision for the legislative future. If a representative is there to act on my behalf, it's easier than ever for me as a constituent to tell him my opinions -- and perhaps down the line, massive direct involvement will work to de-corrupt the political system and bring elected officials back to their constituents.

And congratulations, fungible!
posted by VulcanMike at 12:33 PM on October 8, 2005

For every new law passed, 10 others must be retired.
posted by skallas at 2:18 PM on October 8, 2005

Although I wasn't joking about switching the whole concept, I still think this is a good idea in the sense that it will have some media support and puts a human face on things. The downside is he's apparently choosing one persons suggestion and then proposing legislation (making some assumptions here). How does Meng determine that this is what his constituency - at large - wants?
posted by j.p. Hung at 2:55 PM on October 8, 2005

Uh, I don't see why you couldn't propose a law that repealed another law.

Also, IMO democracy sucks. Just look at what it's got us.
posted by delmoi at 5:14 PM on October 8, 2005

I think soliciting one's constituents for legislation ideas is wonderful.

However, aren't our elected representatives supposed to listen to us anyway?
posted by Vidiot at 6:26 PM on October 9, 2005