The following discussion clip is from the Occupy Wall Street demand discussion list.
I wish Direct Democracy was as easy and effective as it seems. It isn’t. Here are two reasons.
Think about it. Why do the presidential elections always come so close to 50 / 50? This isn’t an accident. 200+ million people in the country are psychologically herded by the political parties through the media. When a party is behind, it pours money into advertising, most of it deceptive, until enough people get confused and change their position. As soon as the party gains the advantage, they stop that campaign. So, the public gets pulled back and forth around the 50% point. Direct Democracy will not change that. So, political manipulation must still be eliminated.
Second, consider what would happen if we achieve ideas like single issue bills ( which I agree is a MUST ). How effective do we think the American people would be voting on complex issues? For example, establishing operating rules for nuclear power plants? How about chemical factories? How about air traffic control systems? How about weapons procurement or pharmaceutical drug production? Most people don’t have a CLUE how complex modern society has become. Unfortunately, most elected representatives are just as clueless! Why? Because the system we developed for governing was never designed to address the modern world. Drastic changes are needed.
One example is an alternative that I call the National Opinion Poll. This new system was designed to FULLY capture EVERY viewpoint in the country, and attempt to implement ALL of those viewpoints into the laws. This may sound impossible to some readers, but that’s because our current form of government has brainwashed everyone into believing that we HAVE TO choose only ONE outcome. That, of course is nonsense. There are so many examples otherwise. We all know it. But, due to the brainwashing, and the structure we have set up in government, we keep doing it! We keep banging our heads against the wall.
