Thread:Comments:Prohibition Party holds convention; nominates Jack Fellure for U.S. President/Florida ballot in 2012/reply (4)

It's ironic that you say that on the same day that former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted of corruption. (worse, he was convicted of trying to sell Obama's former Senate seat!) And the really sad part is that Illinois politics really hasn't seemed to change that much! :(

As much as we try to prevent it, the modern politician simply does not have the incentive to put his or her constituents before anything else! To extend my comments to a more nationwide perspective, take a look at Obama as an example. Despite all of his campaign promises, much of what he does now is political theater. The "beer summit" he held with that Harvard professor and the Cambridge cop was purely a PR stunt. The health care "debate" he held with congressmen from both parties was hardly a debate at all. Political debates, especially debates in Congress, have degenerated into prepared speeches. By the time the congressmen show up for "debate", they made up their minds on how they're going to vote already, and there really is no effort by anyone to persuade the other side about the merits of their own position.

All of this, however, is not a sign that democracy is dead, per se. Rather, it is a reminder to all of us about its harmful side effects. If you take a look at California's political system, you would see that direct democracies really aren't that great. Sure, the people get to vote on their own laws, and they do so only after vigorous debate throughout the state. But the resulting set of laws is one that not that many people are happy with, and the government is now stuck with a huge budget crisis.

So while it would be nice to give the electorate more choices in the ballot, I think we should be wary of any efforts to hand large, unrestricted powers to the people. That would be too far of a step beyond where we need to be.