Direct Democracy

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17 Jul 2011, 12:15 am

With direct democracy, we'll have the tea bagger types demanding that the government get its hands off their medicare - and unfortunately they would be successful.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

ruveyn
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17 Jul 2011, 5:46 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

Medicare and other "entitlements" will collapse of their own weight.

We are running out of steam and money.

ruveyn

zer0netgain
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17 Jul 2011, 7:56 am

ruveyn wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Medicare and other "entitlements" will collapse of their own weight.

We are running out of steam and money.

ruveyn

Sadly true. Although in Kraichgauer's example, the "tea bagger types" would only get their way if they posed a simple majority at the time the vote was taken.

That's another reason why it won't work. A REPUBLIC is structured so change can't happen quickly. This prevents whims of the season causing radical change to society and government. For any fundamental change to happen, the will of the people must be overwhelmingly the majority and endure long enough to see the process through. Otherwise, we'd be like any other banana republic that changes leaders and governments every other decade or so.

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17 Jul 2011, 8:49 am

I agree that America is far too large for direct democracy. One average American state is roughly the size of one average European country. Could Switzerland have direct democracy if it was 50 times larger? I don't think so.

ruveyn
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17 Jul 2011, 8:52 am

YippySkippy wrote:

One of the advantages of republics over democracies is that change is slowed and somewhat ret*d. Changes for "light and transient reasons" (to quote the Declaration of Independence) are made to be nearly impossible and basic rights trump laws de jour. In a democracy the mob rules and rights are constantly in peril.

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17 Jul 2011, 8:57 am

YippySkippy wrote:

It works through cantons - i.e. the local level. The whole of Switzerland doesn't just vote as one big bloc: it votes seperately, I believe.

ruveyn
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17 Jul 2011, 9:29 am

Tequila wrote:

YippySkippy wrote:

It works through cantons - i.e. the local level. The whole of Switzerland doesn't just vote as one big bloc: it votes seperately, I believe.

I assume that Switzerland is a republic at the nationwide level. Do all the Swiss vote the details of Switzerland's foreign policy or its bank regulations?

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Kraichgauer
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17 Jul 2011, 2:45 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Tequila wrote:

YippySkippy wrote:

It works through cantons - i.e. the local level. The whole of Switzerland doesn't just vote as one big bloc: it votes seperately, I believe.

I assume that Switzerland is a republic at the nationwide level. Do all the Swiss vote the details of Switzerland's foreign policy or its bank regulations?

ruveyn

Well, they are supposed to be the blond Jews of the Alps.
I'm kidding, ruveyn! I'm kidding! :lol:

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

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18 Jul 2011, 4:04 am

My leanings toward direct democracy are largely because I am afraid that the 2012 election will be between Obama and Bachmann, and I am worried that we will go to authoritarianism and Big Brotherism if either of them wins.

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Kraichgauer
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18 Jul 2011, 4:10 am

Tim_Tex wrote:

I don't think you have that to worry about. Obama hasn't tried to grab up absolute power, save in the minds of tea baggers, and with Bachmann - well, we managed to survive eight years of the cretin George W, so we'll live through her.
Even if she makes us wish we were all dead.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

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18 Jul 2011, 8:01 am

Sure, make it super direct. As in all the way to an individual level, people should rule themselves and no one else.

Philologos
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18 Jul 2011, 8:29 am

ruveyn wrote:

change is slowed and somewhat ret*d.
ruveyn

If I were ever going to have a bumper sticker .....!

ruveyn
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18 Jul 2011, 9:03 am

Jacoby wrote:

Sure, make it super direct. As in all the way to an individual level, people should rule themselves and no one else.

That is not democracy, that is anarchy. It has been tried. In places like Somalia and (in effect) in Haiti.

ruveyn

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18 Jul 2011, 9:27 am

Somalia is doing better now than when they were a communist country.

ruveyn
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18 Jul 2011, 9:34 am

Jacoby wrote:

Somalia is doing better now than when they were a communist country.

Doing better is not doing well. The number one "industry" in Somalia is piracy.

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18 Jul 2011, 10:19 am

i seriously doubt that,
it might be bigger than anywhere else but a majority?
also please note that many pirates that are captured are released into singapore, meaning many of the problems could be made by the same relatively small group.

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