We Need More Direct Democracy

Joel,

No offence meant but if Nader was to be president he would have been already. I agree that Nader is a bright man with many good ideas, but he has the charisma of wet laundry.

The problem with the initiative process isn't with the voters, or even Republicans or Democrats. It's with poorly crafted initiatives that are incapable of passing the Constitutional muster, and regularly struck down by the courts.

Rocky

Joel wrote: presidential candidates should "put front and center empowering the American people in direct democracy format so they can move in when their so-called representatives cave in to the interests of big business. ...Campaign finance reform has got to go hand in hand with direct democracy like initiative, referendum, recall."

However, how do we get from here to there?

The very least voters can do now is to stop repeatedly rewarding corrupt and irresponsible incumbent politicians with perpetual re-election rates of 85%-to-90%.

I have been studying the tools of direct democracy for many years; Rocky is wrong. A very small fraction of all ballot measures, initiatives and referenda have been struck down by the courts. A somewhat more interesting problem is legislatures passing laws to negate ballot measures that have been approved by citizens.

What continues to amaze me is how Americans continue to witness the decay of American democracy and the failure of representative government and STILL remain afraid of substantive alternatives to the current structure of this corrupt, inept government. What self-delusion to keep thinking that they can elect two-party politicians that will actually turn things around when, in fact, history has clearly shown that neither Democraps or Republicrooks in power end up serving the public interest.

That's why anti-incumbent numbers are growing.
Eventually, voters may do what they did in year 1933 when they ousted 206 members of Congress.
Especially as the consequences grow increasingly painful.

Joel,

My point was that many of the initiatives that have been struck down by the courts have been the most high profile ones that have been passed by the voters.

If you want me to vote for a third party candidate give me a leader. Give me someone that can make this country great again. Barr and Nader seem incapable of that.

Rocky

Our choices for president aren't very good.
If Iraqis and Maliki want the U.S. out of Iraq, then Iraq may become less of an issue.
Both McCain and Obama have pathetic voting records on illegal immigration, so that's a dead issue too.
What either will do with the economy.
McCain's support for the currently regressive tax system is a negative for McCain.
It sounds like Obama will go on a spending spree to pay for all the things he's promising.
We don't have good choices for president.

Whoever the next president is, the president is going to inherit one huge mess, massive debt that may be past the point of no return, two ongoing wars, and a severely bloated federal government that has ballooned to nightmare proportions.

But regardless of who the next president is, why sabotage the next president with the same corrupt, bloated, wasteful, do-nothing Congress?.
Why repeatedly reward do-nothing Congress with 85%-to-90% re-election rates?
Perhaps enough voters will figure that out when enough of the voters are jobless, homeless, and hungry.

Joel, I don't see anything acutely wrong with our Constitutional structure of government. The problems arise from two sources, political parties, (never sanctioned or mentioned in the Constitution), and voter apathy and ignorance of what the responsibilities and obligations of government (and therefore representatives) are.

In short, politics and education. To correct these deficiencies, we need political reform and educational reform. Our antiquated absence of national educational standards and investments is allowing a host of other nation's to steal the potential of our future away from us, with their superior educational structure, most nationalized.

As for political reform, that is, in a small way, occurring naturally via the dramatic rise in Independent voter registrations overtaking GOP and Democratic. But, as you eloquently write, much, much more is needed.

A considerable amount of damage to our government and hence, citizens, has been done by this Bush administration, and divided political warfare in Congress. Some of that may remedy itself after the next election. We will see.

But, new laws requiring free public service media coverage of election debates, local to federal, is absolutely a must do. And the practice of gerrymandering must end as it nullifies voters actions on election day by artificial and arbitrary political design.

Yes, the major problem is widespread corruption, lawlessness, apathy, complacency, and ignorance.
As long as the government is elected, we are the government. Little if anything can function adequately without adequate virtue, education, transparency, and accountability; all things we have too little of today.

When the majority of voters finally figure out that repeatedly rewarding bad politicians with perpetual re-election is not working, then perhaps things will improve. Perhaps voters will be less apathetic and complacent when enough of them are jobless, homeless, and hungry.

Congress is grown too corrupt.
Here's the first step to fixing that: 20 min podcast audio
Then, follow up with Education, Transparency, and Accountability.

Otherwise, these 10+ abuses will continue the deterioration of these 17+ economic conditions which have never been worse and/or since the 1930s and 1940s.

At any rate, the voters have the government that the voters elect.