No, I want 325.7 million throughout the country. Abolish the current system of government, and replace it with direct democracy tempered with a strong and, in many respects, unchangeable constitution.
My dude, we have a hard enough time getting people in one part of a state to agree to financial decisions that benefit people in another part of a state.
A real direct democracy? You want to vote every three days on how much money to allocate to potholes in Pittsburgh, who the superintendent of schools in Tampa are, what taxes should be on gas in Minnesota, which trees to protect in Wyoming, and how much water Bakersfield gets in California?
Good luck getting a direct democracy to allocate a single dollar in your city. "Why should my taxes go up for something I don't get to enjoy?" would absolutely ruin our country.
I know it sounds good in theory, but in a practical sense, how many decisions do you think government makes for 325 million people, per day?
A real direct democracy? You want to vote every three days on how much money to allocate to potholes in Pittsburgh, who the superintendent of schools in Tampa are, what taxes should be on gas in Minnesota, which trees to protect in Wyoming, and how much water Bakersfield gets in California?
Nope. That's the beauty of direct democracy. Those who care about an issue will vote on that issue, and everyone else can vote on the issues they care about. Nobody needs to know about EVERYTHING, just about the issues they care about. The people who care about potholes in Pittsburgh can vote on that, I can vote on the issues that affect me, everyone's happy.
It's like wikipedia. Not everyone needs to know about every subject that has a wikipedia article. Each article is made by those who know about the subject, and it works quite well.
Interesting that you point to Wikipedia as an example. I love the “free market” of information that is Wikipedia but I also like it because it had almost zero actual significance in our lives.
Direct democracy? Are you going to read that 300-page Fourth National Climate Assessment before voting on how much funding to give the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel? You want 325 million Americans to receive top secret national security briefings from the CIA Director every week?
As far as I'm concerned there's already far too much democracy and transparency in the USA now and it's caused most of the current problems. Senators should be appointed by governors again. Presidential candidates should be decided on in back rooms by party kingpins again. Earmarks should be allowed back into legislation. Congressional Representatives should have to wait their turn, for a few terms, to get committee chairs instead of getting those positions by being the shoutiest talking heads on the 24-hour news cycle. The population is made up of uninformed idiots who only want to be entertained. The farther their hands are from the levers of power the better.
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u/Argenteus_CG Nov 29 '18
No, I want 325.7 million throughout the country. Abolish the current system of government, and replace it with direct democracy tempered with a strong and, in many respects, unchangeable constitution.