The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies.
But clergy members can encourage parishioners from the pulpit to carry their faith into the public sphere without endorsing or opposing particular candidates.
He said some 4,000 "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" pastors have self-reported to the IRS that they have talked about candidates, often supporting or opposing particular ones, during a worship service.
Each study is critically evaluated for design, with Garner and Maxwell "lament ing)" the lack of methodological rigor that is evident in many of them, noting "Our assessment is that, as a body of research, it is difficult to use these studies to support or oppose a particular policy or to test a particular hypothesis" (page 66).
Even Gov. George Pataki, who is said to oppose this particular reform in the Legislature, would surely have a hard time vetoing a good-government bill right before all his Republican friends came to town for their convention.
A petition to an MP asking them to support or oppose a particular measure in an upcoming vote, looking for signatures from the postcodes that make up their constituency, might make sense.
If it happens that a majority of Americans oppose the particular policies that progressives favour, this is just evidence that our democracy has been largely captured by the rich already.
Polls provide some evidence for the Democrats' contention; while majorities of Americans favor cutting spending, nonpartisan polls show that by large margins, they also oppose cutting particular areas like those on the chopping block.
They do not support or oppose any particular body of ideas; they merely want to make sure that the voters can make the choice, and change their choice next time if they wish.
