Appealing in many respects, but scary, too, inasmuch as it would allow what William Burke referred to as "the tyranny of the majority", which the current system of republican government and the checks and balances of the three branches of government in the US Constitution, keeps more or less at bay.
** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote: > > Idea from a friend: > > > > rick, > > i think we need to evolve our republic into a democracy. we have the > technology now to eliminate congress entirely and let the citizens do their > own voting on everything - like in some european countries. in sweden, for > example, the residents vote on their t.v. every month for or against even > little things, like a new stop sign in their neighborhood. they're having > great success with it as they have total say in how their government is run > and their tax money is spent, and it's being spent wisely. their lifestyle > has surpassed ours because they have a true democracy, not a republic. i > think at some point this is an idea whose time is coming in the usa ... and > there's no stopping an idea whose time has come, especially with the advent > of the computer age. trouble is, how do you start a movement that would be > the beginning of the end of congress? i don't think writing your congressman > would do any good. he's not going to be for eliminating his own job, or > letting us vote down his raises he himself approves. how would we start a > movement to allow voting via interactive t.v. or computer? if we could get > one town to use their t.v. or computer to vote, it would spread and the rest > would happen automatically and congress would become obsolete at some point, > because there would be no need to have representatives vote for us when we > can vote ourselves. if you really want to change the world, save the seals, > polar bears and stop global warming, this would do it. make sense? this has > been a pet peeve of mine for many years because congress is the problem. the > house of representatives is a remnant from the colonial day when the only > way to communicate our vote to washington was to send a representative. that > need no longer exists. nowadays, everyone knows congress represent special > interest groups and not the people who elect them. maybe we should just get > the word out like this and start a movement to let people vote from home. > hasn't the time come? > > bob >
