From: ScottW
Date: Sun, Feb 12 2006 10:15 pm
Email: "ScottW"

Its always the lesser of evils... hey since Al invented the internet
maybe we can do away with a representative republic and become a pure
democracy .

Interestingly, many of the original framers of the Constitution were
very wary of 'true' democracy. The President was not elected, but
appointed.

I'm actually not sure how I'd stand on that one. As a representative
republic, we've done pretty well for 230 years. I think there are areas
that need reform (campaigns, as you brought up, are an example). I do
think that Constitutional issues need to be determined by the Supreme
Court and that amendments need the ratification process.

My gut tells me that after an initial rush, people would get bored with
voting on absolutely everything (do you vote in all elections? Every
school board, referendum, park commissioner, etc.?). Then it would be
which group could get the most people to vote. We wouldn't gain
anything, and we'd lose the time now spent on debate. Special interests
would be even more rampant. So I'd say that initially I'd be opposed to
a 'true' democracy.

One thing I hope for is another valid party or two. I think that the
extremes of the right and left are not what the country wants or needs.
(I do think that the extreme left is much less damaging than the
extreme right overall, though.) Another party or two would mean having
to form coalitions, which would perhaps bring things more to the
center.

If you look at a bell curve, I'd be willing to bet that most Americans
fall in the center. The two parties seem to be a couple of standard
deviations to the right or left.

I'd think that there are some possibilites with Internet voting,
though. You could vote online, print off a unique ticket, and drop it
off at a polling place, which could then verify and tally it. It would
be like a double-entry accounting system. Immediate results with a
paper trail and confirmation a few days later. No lines (except at
libraries or other polling places for people with no Internet access).