From: Desoto-AT-pseud.pseud
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 21:02:22 -0600
Subject: M-INTRO: Re: happened


 
> Not true at all.  I don't agree with you much, but that does not translate
> into
> not liking you.  

Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.  I must admit (if you haven't noticed) that I
like to stir the pot.
> 
> Proven?  Hardly.  First of all it would actually have to happen in the
> United
> States, as far as I know this has never happened. Second, there are a number
> of
> possibilities of how such a system could function.  There isn’t sufficient
> evidence to prove direct democracy as unworkable or even inferior to our
> current system.

What do you mean, it would have to happen in the USA?  How can you say that
other systems are superior, but that your hypothetically most superior scenario
would have to happen here?  Also, why tinker with something that's not broken? 
When the United States Constitutional Republic form of government has stood the
test of time, why look to some European parliamentary system or try to make it
a direct democracy?  A representative democracy works better, for various
reasons, one of which is the fact that most people don't even know how the
government works or anything about politics beyond the soundbytes they hear or
see in the news.    

Bill Clinton, JFK (the original), George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, and several
others received lesser amounts of the popular vote than their opponents.  These
individuals, however, better represented the public.  

I would also like to respond to an earlier criticism of one of my comments.  I
had said that the divide in the USA today is between urban and rural.  The
person critiquing my observation pointed out some exceptions to the rule as
evidence that I was wrong.  For example, they pointed out how Texas has many of
the country's larger cities.  Check out this map:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Presidential_04/RCP_Electoral_Count_Chart.html
Maybe a better way of putting it would be to say "middle America" rather than
rural.
> 
> 
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