# Another avenue for reaching the President is shut down "temorarily" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 19, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891 "2017-12-19T21:07:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/1 "2017-12-19T21:07:20Z")
[White House “temporarily” shuts down “We The People” petition site,](https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-apos-temporarily-apos-053156464.html) after failing to follow their own rules and failing to officially follow up on 17 petitions that had each successfully gathered up the required 100,000 names within 30 days. The White House claims that the site will be back up in January, in a way that will say taxpayers more than a million dollars a year. 1. I do not believe that it will come back in any form that will allow petitions a way to object to the President’s way of doing things. 2. In what possible way could they have spent more than a million on this? 3. In what possible way could they adjust the website to save over a million? The article states that > [@](#): > > A White House official told the AP that the administration will “respond to public concerns next year.” If the White House keeps cutting off communication from those they don’t want to hear from, how will they know what and who to respond to? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/2 "2017-12-19T21:11:12Z")
Do you think they were paying any attention before? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/3 "2017-12-19T21:11:45Z")
Pretty sure this clip accurately describes the mindset at the Whitehouse…[Roman Senate in History of the World, Part 1 (NSFW language)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B1IQYD4Uew). ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/4 "2017-12-19T21:11:49Z")
I saw that article. Doesn’t seem like they were looking at it anyway. Shame. Got a conservative Supreme Court judge though, so it all works out. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/5 "2017-12-19T21:28:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > In what possible way could they adjust the website to save over a million? Instead of paying a staff of policy wonks to answer the questions, everyone gets an automated e-mail response that says “No”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/6 "2017-12-19T21:31:55Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Instead of paying a staff of policy wonks to answer the questions, everyone gets an automated e-mail response that says “No”. Would that be more expensive than having petitioners transferred to a page containing a GIF of a stickman dropping a stack of papers into the trash, or less? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/7 "2017-12-19T21:59:42Z")
There are plenty of other ways to put the bare minimum effort into a cause. Try yelling at the TV when Trump is talking. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/8 "2017-12-19T22:07:13Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > There are plenty of other ways to put the bare minimum effort into a cause. Try yelling at the TV when Trump is talking. I sense there is a lack of concern on your part when it comes to people of a political persuasion unlike your own not having equal(or any) means to communicate with their President. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/9 "2017-12-19T22:16:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If the White House keeps cutting off communication from those they don’t want to hear from, how will they know what and who to respond to? What makes you think the current White House gives a damn about what anyone thinks outside their little bubble? Cutting off what they view as dissent is a feature, not a bug. I agree, I don’t expect that site to be back up in anything like it’s former form. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/10 "2017-12-19T22:25:14Z")
I’m not sure this was ever that great a venue for Americans to petition government. If you look at the wikipedia website about this, the average response time for petitions under Obama was 117 days. That’s the average. It sounds like one of those “good ideas on paper” things, but didn’t seem to work out all that well. It doesn’t surprise me that Trump would would to quash this. It was brought online in Sept of 2011, so it’s not like it’s been around all that long anyway. No one is going to force Trump to answer questions he doesn’t want to answer. If you look at most of the petitions, they were kind of screwy, too. “The President should resign”. Yeah, that’s going to get a real serious answer. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/11 "2017-12-19T22:36:19Z")
You guys act like you have a constitutional right to petition the government. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/12 "2017-12-19T22:36:46Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’m not sure this was ever that great a venue for Americans to petition government. If you look at the wikipedia website about this, the average response time for petitions under Obama was 117 days. That’s the average. It sounds like one of those “good ideas on paper” things, but didn’t seem to work out all that well… Maybe that’s because under Obama someone actually took some time to think about the petition and make a thoughtful response to it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/13 "2017-12-19T22:38:14Z")
Yes, I’m sure that’s what it was. If so, it would easily explain the $1M in savings, so there’s that!! ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/14 "2017-12-19T23:03:03Z")
I first noticed this in February or so - the site wasn’t behaving properly. There were several petitions that were only showing a handful of signatures. I signed one, and the signature count didn’t reflect my signature. I will be very pleasantly shocked if the site is ever operational again. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/15 "2017-12-19T23:08:01Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > I first noticed this in February or so - the site wasn’t behaving properly. There were several petitions that were only showing a handful of signatures. I signed one, and the signature count didn’t reflect my signature. I will be very pleasantly shocked if the site is ever operational again. “Your petition is very important to us…” ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/16 "2017-12-19T23:16:25Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Try yelling at the TV when Trump is talking. You mean the way Trump yells at the TV when CNN is talking? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/17 "2017-12-19T23:48:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You guys act like you have a constitutional right to petition the government. New Trump version of the preamble to the Constitution begins: Fuck the people. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/18 "2017-12-19T23:49:59Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You guys act like you have a constitutional right to petition the government. No, they act as if they have a constitutional right to petition the government _via the internet._ ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/19 "2017-12-19T23:50:08Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > You mean the way Trump yells at the TV when CNN is talking? No. Trump only watches Fox. CNN and MSNBC are fake news, remember. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891/20 "2017-12-19T23:56:48Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > No, they act as if they have a constitutional right to petition the government _via the internet._ Should they not? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-avenue-for-reaching-the-president-is-shut-down-temorarily/804891.md?page=2)