If there's one GOP candidate I might vote for, it's this guy

At Jeff Pulver's 2018 Spring Monage conference, I got to see Michael Allman give a talk entitled Blockchain and Voting. While the blockchain aspect of it is probably why he was on the agenda, to me that's a secondary factor. What I found most interesting is the idea of what Allman calls "direct democracy." In this model, he commits to voting as his constituency desires, issue by issue. Allman is running on the Republican ticket and describes himself as socially progressive and fiscally conservative "almost libertarian on some issues," he says. Allman will use a system he's created called Voterfied.com to poll constituents and get their views on issues. He then commits to voting with those results, regardless of his personal preference or his party's platform.

Direct democracy is where people vote on the issues, and however they vote, that is how I will vote in Congress. Instead of me telling the voters how I am going to vote, they are going to tell me how to vote. It is giving political power back to the people, which is where it belongs.

For the first time, voters can have a say on an issue-by-issue basis. Anyone registered in my district can cast their votes on important questions of the day through a website or mobile app I have created. I will be guided by the results of these votes, not by special interests, lobbyists, or anyone else.

I love the idea. Anything that tries to move past the existing two-party, identity politics stranglehold is a good thing. Now, I can't actually vote for candidate Allman because I don't live in San Diego County, the 52nd district, where he is running, but I support what he is doing. Of course, I don't expect either party to be particularly open to this approach. They want candidates that vote along party lines. But if the people start to demand it, maybe they will have no choice. That's what Allman and his team hopes.

And his campaign accepts Bitcoin too 😃