Dear America,

I thought about writing my response to the State of the Union Address. However, I never ended up watching it because I felt it would have made my blood boil due to all the lies the President would have said. Now, this letter will not be an attack on President Biden, nor will it be a divisive piece. Instead, it’s meant to address an issue that I believe gets worse every year: accountability from our elected officials. How can a country that prides itself on freedom and democracy have elected officials that lie so freely to the American public?

Now, I can’t speak for what it was like in the eras before our technological advancements allowed for the quick spread of mass information. I’m sure our elected officials have been lying since America was formed. The issue I have now is that when misinformation and polarization are at an all-time high, it’s hard to decipher what is true from our elected officials, which seriously threatens our democracy. Unfortunately, this issue will continue to get worse, as I foresee both sides fighting one another and utilizing every dirty trick in the book to do so. Now, depending on their political affiliation, American citizens will find themselves standing on party lines, refusing to listen and consider the other party’s views. This will further the divide between both parties and prevent our country's progression.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If we are to progress forward, we must realize that our expectations from our elected officials must change for the sake of our democracy and way of life. Politicians will continue to lie because they know they can get away with it, and why wouldn’t they? The argument many would make is that the first amendment allows them the ability to do so – which is a fair point. However, that all can stop once we find a way to hold them accountable for their lies and misleading information. The worst thing that can happen to a person is to be caught red-handed.

We must remind ourselves that these politicians have positions that dictate our lives. With that said, any elected officials must be held to a greater standard. What I propose is the implementation of a system that would hold our politicians accountable for their statements.

Listed below are two major initiatives that should be considered in this plan:

• Public database on Elected Officials’ History

• Citizen Notes

Centralized Public Network on Elected Officials

Currently, there is no centralized network that keeps track of what our elected officials are doing and saying. It is difficult for American citizens to stay updated on how elected officials use their power. If we were to create a public service network, it could serve as a database that would essentially keep a record of everything our politicians are doing and saying.

Within this database, citizens could see an accurate compilation of what politicians are voting on, attempting to pass, who their donors are, and a history of their public statements (fact-checked). I understand some of you might be arguing that this is an invasion of privacy that could unlock far worse consequences for the American people. My response is that it has been known for years that a public official is said to have waived his or her privacy rights “as the price of admission” to enter the political realm.

Again, I must remind you that politicians have great power and are involved in decisions that impact the development and quality of life of all citizens. There is a simple solution for those that don’t agree with this – don’t run for office then. Those afraid to be held accountable for their actions are probably not the best to hold power.

Now the next step would be to allow citizens of the network the ability to contribute towards fact-checking our elected officials.

Citizen Notes

Currently, Twitter has a fact checker system called Community Notes that aims to create a better-informed world by empowering Twitter users to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading Tweets. This approach transfers the power to people competing for the most accurate information. The algorithm is an open-source code publicly available on GitHub, along with the data that powers it so anyone can audit, analyze or suggest improvements. According to the documentation, Community Notes doesn’t work by majority rules. To identify notes that are helpful to a wide range of people, notes require agreement between contributors who have sometimes disagreed in their past ratings. This helps prevent biased ratings.

While there’s still a lot of trial & error that Community Notes needs to figure out, it provides a foundation that brings back the power to the community. Beforehand, Twitter itself was essentially considered the authority of truth; and since Twitter’s overhaul, it has become clear that this was unjust. I believe a model similar to this, which gives the power back to the community and utilizes algorithms to prevent biases, could be replicated in a truth-seeking centralized network.

Our citizens should have more of an active role in fact-checking statements by politicians rather than select news agencies and even independent fact-checkers, who, like any other organization, have their own biases (whether conscious or unconscious).

The system put in place would be designed to increase our political involvement. Citizens would have the ability to refute statements made by our politicians by writing a “Citizen Note” - like a grievance. The note would have to be voted on by others before being presented on record as a reputable argument. Now to protect citizens from harassment for having different views and encourage participation, citizens can have alias when operating the platform.

The way this process could hypothetically work would be the following:

• A statement by a politician is self-published or released by a news agency

• A citizen can make a “Citizen Note” and refute the statement by presenting an argument backed by citations. Simply posting “This isn’t true” or an opinion would not be sufficient.

• Citizens would then be able to vote on the note if it’s deemed helpful enough for citizens to see.

• If the note becomes public, it will go on record, in which the elected official could present a counter-argument if needed to address the note.

• At this point, the note would appear alongside the statement made by the elected official and be kept on record.

To prevent biases and coordinated manipulation attempts, these would be put in place:

• Registered Voter & Phone Number: A Citizen would need to prove they are a registered voter within their district, with proof of residency, such as a valid phone number. This must only be limited to American citizens to prevent foreign countries from influencing our politics. We’ve seen how China and Russia have influenced our thinking and divided us.

• Algorithms to Prevent Biases: Like how Twitter attempts to prevent biased notes, there would need to be an algorithm put in place to ensure that these notes are likely to be helpful to people from many points of view.

Now politicians on the other end will be able to respond to these Citizen Notes and will have the ability to prove their claims or clarify any misunderstandings, holding themselves accountable. Once again, the citizens will have the ability to dispute these claims if substantial evidence.

These initiatives put in place are just the premise of an idea that would have course need more testing and validation. The idea is to increase our civic duty while at the same time holding our leaders accountable. Nothing that I am suggesting calls for any punishments or is biased toward any political party. Ultimately, by election season, American citizens will be better informed on who they are voting for and their history in public office. At the end of the day, it’s still a free country, and if citizens choose to elect or re-elect someone with a record of outrageous lies, then that’s their decision. However, at least this time, Americans can vote with the accurate information provided to them.

For too long, we have accepted the belief that corrupt politicians who lie so freely to keep their power is normal. As a country, we must hold our politicians to greater standards of accountability. It’s time to think outside the box.

Signed,

G.S.P.