Forum Post: An Argument in Favor of Direct Democracy

My full post wouldn't fit, but you can read it and comment on it here http://problemssolutions.tumblr.com/

I wrote this a while back, mostly for my own benefit, but in light of the Wall Street protests, I figured it might be an interesting read for others trying to figure out what demands we should be making. This would be my demand.

PROBLEM: A representative political system is run by politicians. Politicians are ineffective.

SOLUTION: Direct democracy has no politicians. Restructure our system to be more like a direct democracy.

WHY IT'S A PROBLEM:

Let's consider a restaurant. The motto of almost every single restaurant I've ever been to has been "the customer is always right." If you want extra mayo on your burger, you get extra mayo. If you want a steak well done and two cups of coleslaw, you can expect to get it. Now imagine a hypothetical restaurant that operated like this: You want a salad with a side of french fries and a water. But, you look at the menu and there are only two options. Meal #1: Porter steak, french fries, rootbeer, apple pie. Meal #2: Caesar Salad, chips and guacamole, a chocolate milkshake, and some pickles. You say to the waiter, "can I mix and match?" and he says, "No sorry these are the two most popular meals and we have one set of cooks for each meal and that's all they know how to make, so you have to pick one." What do you pick? There's no way you're going to eat a steak, you're just a petite little thing, and rootbeer gives you acid reflux. But you're allergic to chocolate and pickles and you're thirsty as hell, and you can't stand seeing all that food go to waste just for a salad. Do you sit there and try to decide, or do you say screw it, I'm going to Applebee's? I would bet all the money I have that 9.9 out of ten people would go to Applebee's. The other .1 person likes that filthy Meal #2.

So, to me, our government is inefficient in meeting the needs of its people in exactly the same way that this restaurant is inefficient at feeding people. Sure we get fed, but there's also a lot of food going to waste. As citizens, we want our beliefs and values to be translated into policy as clearly and efficiently as possible. Is a representative form of government the best way to achieve this? To me, the answer seems to be increasingly no, for a variety of reasons:

1. Politicians lie. They say they're going to do something then they don't, or don't say anything and then do something stupid that you otherwise wouldn't want them to do. See: extending Bush Tax Cuts for those making over $250,000 a year.

2. Politicians can be bought. Their jobs depend on campaigns, and thus, campaign contributions. In some cases, after the campaign, politicians can still be bought off to vote in certain ways, or to alter laws to bend to special interests.

3. Issues have to be dealt with one at a time because one politician is asked to decide on the full spectrum of issues. See: Health Care Reform means politicians have no time to work on Immigration Reform.

         3A. Major issues crowd out smaller issues in public debate. This allows politicians to pass laws and fund projects while everyone is distracted. What about net neutrality or public domain laws? Does anyone know how much the highway budget this year is? Of course not. But those potholes are killing you.
   

4. Personalities and private affairs interfere with the work that needs to get done. When you've got cancer and your health insurance provider is about to dump you because you lost your job, Anthony Weiner's dick pics take on a special irrelevance.

5. The two party system encourages competition rather than cooperation. Thus we have something called "scoring political points" and just like in Who's Line Is It Anyways, those points are meaningless.

These are a few of the major issues I see as a part of a larger systemic problem. These issues are not going to be addressed by electing new and different politicians. The only solution is to find a way to restructure the entire system so that these problems can be avoided.

For the full proposal, please go to: http://problemssolutions.tumblr.com/