Forum Post: Towards a True Democracy, Pt.1a

Given the latest problems displayed by our government, I believe that it is a good time to refresh an idea that I shared with our local congressional representative (at the time he may have only been a candidate, he is no longer in congress, yet he continues his career in politics) during our Special Olympics event in 1995 or 1996. Thinking that I may never have a opportunity like this again, I approached the Distinguished Gentleman and asked for his thoughts on a more democratic form of government. In particular, why do we not allow the actual citizens to pass laws since technology now enables us to simply phone in our votes? After all, we even have C-Span and other media outlets so that no one need be uninformed of the issues at hand. Later, I tried to better understand his answer and realized that, in very eloquent language, he, in an almost confidential manner, told me that people are just unable to rule themselves. Sometime about 1999, I published this idea on the internet under the title Toward a True Democracy, mainly on alt.politics, etc. I received the most negative responses from Freemasons (non-confirmed on my part, I just took their word for it), but they did indeed help elaborate on some of the age old problems associated with a true democracy.
The largest problem is Minority Rights. In a true democracy, 51% of the people make the laws and civil rights definitely need to be safe-guarded. I think that this can be relatively guaranteed not by dismissing congress altogether, but by altering its role (I do realize that this pretty much ensures that no current Politian will be voting for this idea!). On this issue, it would be role of the ‘fourth branch of government,” the citizens, to first educate themselves about the subject long before any voting occurs. This will become ever easier with the added funding of our citizens’ education which I assume will occur, hopefully rather quickly, through time.
It would be one job of congress to bring forth new proposals for laws (which they themselves currently admit that they don’t read, but have others to do that for them and tell them about what is important to them) and to help draw attention to upcoming problems that need everyone’s attention (presumably far in advance of any crisis!). They would also publicly debate on the many media outlets and by doing so, help to educate the people about the subject, especially in their own districts and states. All of branches should also help ensure that no previous law is broken as well as safeguard civil and minority rights. Another issue that would need to be discussed and balanced (by those with greater knowledge in the subject than myself) is national security, voting security, and military ‘secrets’. A certain amount of faith would need to still be entrusted to congress and to its various committees (as well as the other branches of government) to oversee their direction and that the laws required for their function are brought to light in a truthful, simple and straightforward manner (hopefully, all laws brought before the citizens will be so!).