Utopia it Ain't

TODAY’S CIVICS LESSON comes from a Portland Press Herald article about something called “people’s veto” where people can collect signatures to have a ballot initiative to veto a law passed by the state. The idea of which threatens the ability of our republican form of government to rule.

This is why our republican form of government is superior to so-called ‘direct democracy’ an expert says:

…politicians have more time and resources to carefully study issues than the voters do, and lawmakers develop “a more informed position” on issues as a result.
[Portland Press Herald: Power to the people]

Heh. Well, even if so, “a more informed position” can be “more informed” by a lot of different things. Least of which, it seems in a lot of cases, is the “Will of the People.”

Continue reading for a not-very-well-thought-out I-don’t-know-what-it-is…

If we take ‘where we are now’ as a starting point, and adopt as our goal, ‘for things to get better’ — and compare evils — as unappealing as ‘tyranny of the majority’ sounds, could it possibly be any worse? (Especially in terms of decreasing state coercion and ending imperialism. It would most certainly suck for NIMBYists everywhere.)

Shift from state politics to the national: under direct democracy where would the idea to allow an imbecile the president to invade a country at his own discretion come from? (For fun, let’s assume that under direct democracy, things like broadcast licenses and such are a matter of public discretion.)