I'm well aware. I also recall a shockingly large portion of the population thinking that the US government was being too restrained and that every Muslim count

I'm well aware. I also recall a shockingly large portion of the population thinking that the US government was being too restrained and that every Muslim country should have been nuked. If nothing else, I think the other nuclear powers would be a lot more nervous if the American public were in direct control of those nukes. It simply isn't safe. If we had been under a direct democracy at that time, the inter-personal pressure to conform would have been even greater. As it stands, the opinions of your fellow citizen are relatively low stakes because they aren't the ones actually calling the shots, and they know you aren't either. This indirect nature of representative democracy is conducive to political tolerance at the inter-personal level.