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So let me get this straight. You want the same people who voted for Palin and are saying yes to a Trump president in the polls to decide policy? The thing is th

So let me get this straight. You want the same people who voted for Palin and are saying yes to a Trump president in the polls to decide policy? The thing is that as awful as our current congress is, at least it's their job and responsibility to come up with policy and vote on it. In severe cases you can call them out on it and they can face certain consequences. If voting on policy was to be done by the masses you'd have the same uninformed people who can't tell a presidential candidate from an angry potato deciding how much fish is legal to pull out of a specific fishing region. Someone recently pointed out that California is as close to a direct democracy as we get in the US and look at what it's doing there: "Raise taxes? Nope! Fund schools: Yup!" People end up making decisions that benefit them in the short term while ignoring the global consequences. That's human nature and direct democracy assumes that everyone is an informed rational thinker.

cjsthompson 11y ago
No. I want you to pull your head out of your ass and realize that if elections ever changed anything they'd be outlawed. The game is rigged from the start. Switzerland is a semi democracy. In Switzerland, People are allowed to organize a vote to reject laws and to enact laws. And there's nothing public officials can do about it. They are powerless against popular vote. The only thing the oligarchs can do in Switzerland is to manipulate opinion through the media. In certain Swiss cantons, common people gather four times a year on the canton's capital town square and vote laws by raising their hand. It seems like the "masses of uninformed people" in Switzerland are doing a better job than your mafioso leaders of whatever stripe because Switzerland has a much higher standard of living than the U.S. and incidentally has never waged war on anyone even having no oil reserves at all. Note also that democracy in Athens lasted for two centuries, which is longer than any of the today's republics and was one of the most powerful city-state of the time. So much for "direct democracy" not working. So now, please, don't bother with the usual parroting of platitudes (such as "human nature") and go educate yourself.

cjsthompson 11y ago

No. I want you to pull your head out of your ass and realize that if elections ever changed anything they'd be outlawed. The game is rigged from the start. Switzerland is a semi democracy. In Switzerland, People are allowed to organize a vote to reject laws and to enact laws. And there's nothing public officials can do about it. They are powerless against popular vote. The only thing the oligarchs can do in Switzerland is to manipulate opinion through the media. In certain Swiss cantons, common people gather four times a year on the canton's capital town square and vote laws by raising their hand. It seems like the "masses of uninformed people" in Switzerland are doing a better job than your mafioso leaders of whatever stripe because Switzerland has a much higher standard of living than the U.S. and incidentally has never waged war on anyone even having no oil reserves at all. Note also that democracy in Athens lasted for two centuries, which is longer than any of the today's republics and was one of the most powerful city-state of the time. So much for "direct democracy" not working. So now, please, don't bother with the usual parroting of platitudes (such as "human nature") and go educate yourself.