Good sense in Maher's rant

[Sunni Man]

Would you think direct democracy was so spiffy if the majority of Americans decided that the practice of Islam should be illegal?

Sorry, but I don't deal in "what if " hypothetical situations......

 

[daveman]

Would you think direct democracy was so spiffy if the majority of Americans decided that the practice of Islam should be illegal?

Sorry, but I don't deal in "what if " hypothetical situations......

Oh, you mean like your "What if we put all Jews on an island" hypothetical situation?

 

[PaulS1950]

The constitution would not allow religion to be a part of the governing of the united States.
You can practice whatever religion or no religion as your conscience requires in your spiritual life. Government has no place for religous practice.
That is why it MUST be a Republic and not a democracy.

 

[Underhill]

We allowed then to pass it and expand it. We put people into office that care more about their own agenda than the constitution, the country or the people. We vote for "emblems" of or ideals and they don't come close. They give us "free" things that cost us more than if the government was not involved in exchange for our freedoms.
The need for a representative government has passed. We can vote on our own - we have instant communication. It no longer takes weeks or months to be heard. It is time to stand up and take back the power of the people - the power to govern ourselves.
It has been proven in the last two hundred years that representative watch out for their own interests and not the interests of the country or its people. We need to change the fundamental form of government to fit within the information era. We don't need to elect people we can later blame. We need to take the responsibility on for ourselves.
Ben Franklin said when asked what kind of government have you given us, "A republic, if you can keep it."
We did not "keep it". We turned it into a democracy which doesn't allow for personal rights or freedoms. It has become a parlimentary democracy where the power to govern is in the hands of a select few presented by the two biggest corporations in the country - The Democrat and Republican parties. Too often people vote for the lesser of two evils because they forget that we can vote for anyone, even those not from the "two parties". We are supposed to live in a republic that has a constitution to protect our rights and freedoms but we, as a people, don't enforce it. America has lost its way and Americans are to blame. Each of us is to blame both collectively and independently.
Shame on us.

Direct democracy would be a catastrophic failure.

I have to agree with you. The closest thing we have to direct democracy is in California with their ballot measure system and it's been an abject failure.

It's not a partisan problem, it's a human nature issue. People always want more and never want to pay for it. So they force government to offer programs but refuse to pay for it.

It's the same reason both parties struggle to cut anything. They both have constituencies that benefit from them. Cuts always piss off people as do tax increases.

A great example of this is pork barrel spending. Congressional approval is in single digits and everyone bitches about pork. Right up until you mention their congressman. Then they become worthwhile projects and the approval of the masses is usually guaranteed.

So if it's hard to get long term positive things done with a representative republic, it would be virtually impossible in a direct democracy.

I do think things could be better if we did away with the 2 party system, but that is going to be near impossible... Those making the rules benefit from them as is. But I see that as one of the biggest failures of the founding fathers.