(MintPress)-The White House responded on Thursday to a petition claiming that the Obama Administration fails to take seriously petitions submitted through its We the People online platform. The e-petition, titled “Actually take these petitions seriously instead of just using them as an excuse to pretend you are listening,” received 37,167 signatures, prompting the Obama Administration to respond in a blog post titled, “We’re listening. Seriously.”
The Obama administration launched the We the People e-petition program last September as a new, easier way to exercise the First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, “giving all Americans a way to engage their government on the issues that matter to them.”
“My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government,” said President Obama on the program website. “We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government.”
On the surface, the program seems like an efficient, transparent way for everyday Americans to have their voices heard and make an impact on policies that matter to them. A person simply visits the website, creates an account, searches petitions, and adds a signature.
It is easy to start a new petition if there is not an existing one for a particular issue. If a petition reaches 25,000 signatures in 30 days, it will be reviewed by policy experts and the White House will issue an official response.
Petitioning to “Actually take these petitions seriously”
However, some users believe the online platform is more about making people feel included and creating an avenue for the public to vent than about creating substantive reforms to public policy.
The White House’s response on Thursday refers back to a petition created on October 28th, which continued to gain signatures through this week. Petition creator, Scott S., writes in the petition that “We the People, those who grant you the power to govern in the first place, are requesting changes in policy directly, circumventing legislators who already do not listen to us.”
The petition to “Actually take these petitions seriously…” asserts that “although the ability to submit petitions directly to the White House is a noble and welcome new feature of the current administration, the first round of responses makes blatantly clear the White House intends to just support its current stances and explain them with responses everyone who has done any research already knows.
A separate petition filed in November, titled “We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition,” effectively demonstrates in a sarcastic tone the frustration people share over the manner by which the government responds to successful petitions.
The petition states, “Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.”
Government says “We’re listening. Seriously”
“From the beginning, we promised that every petition that crosses the signature threshold will be reviewed by policy experts in the Administration,” said Macon Phillips, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Digital Strategy, in a response to the petition,
Phillips wrote on behalf of the Obama Administration, “We may not agree with the policy views expressed in every petition (for example, we believe we do take these petitions seriously!), and gathering enough signatures to meet the signature threshold does not guarantee that the Administration will change our policy on a specific topic.”
However, Phillips affirms that each of the 97 petitions that have already crossed the signature threshold have been carefully reviewed by experts at the White House and in agencies across the federal government.
Although not all of the petitions have led to significant policy changes, the government claims that We the People petitions have led to important discussions on policy issues across the Administration as a basis for policy platforms.
Col. Thomas Collins, Deputy Chief of Army Public Affairs, wrote a response to a petition calling for the Army to stop using monkeys in chemical casualty management training courses. Collins reported that on September 20th, 2011, the Army announced it would not longer use monkeys as part of life-saving training courses at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
However, the petition in question only had 7,005 signatures and Collins reported that “This change was long planned…” and therefore not as directly linked to the We the People platform as petitioners may have hoped.
The two petitions focused on stopping the SOPA bill and E-PARASITE Act each had over 50,000 signatures and received a lengthy response from the Obama administration stating, “The organizer of this petition and a random sample of the signers will be invited to a conference call to discuss this issue further with Administration officials and soon after that, we will host an online event to get more input and answer your questions. Details on that will follow in the coming days.”
Phillips cited the two online piracy petitions as evidence that the Administration takes petitions seriously by forcing the White House to outline what it will and will not support when it comes to legislative approaches to combat online piracy.
Despite the Administration’s response on Thursday, many petitioners are still not satisfied. Although the White House claims to have reviewed all petitions that have reached the threshold, some of those petitions are yet to receive a formal response.
A trending post on Twitter reads, “When will we get a response to the petition filed on behalf of online poker enthusiasts? Threshold was met within 2 wks last fall. #WHWeb.”
Source: MintPress