Charles
>>> Patrick Ellis <patricke at uclink4.berkeley.edu> 05/08 7:01 PM >>>
Charles Brown wrote:
> Can we, with computer-telecommunications
>technology get so that people vote as often
>as they shop now,so that there could be
>considerably more direct democracy with
>the planning boards and all planning
>decisions, seeking to making them less
>oppressive and arbitrary. We've got
>to have some whithering away of the
>state in this advanced process.
Living in a state with a trial version of such "democratic reform"--the California initiative process--I cringe at the notion of people voting as often as they shop. Aside from such well-known disasters as Propositions 13, 187, & 209, we Californians have also routinely voted for more prisons than schools, recently passed a little-noticed measure that apportions voting representation on bond issues according to your land holdings, and are now about to vote for a measure that would eliminate unions as a countervailing force to corporations in future elections. Given this opportunity to avoid responsibility, our elected officials now routinely turn over tough decisions to the population of this state--decisions that 99% of us are utterly unqualified to make and are "informed" about only in soundbite attack commercials. The results are appalling. Quite similar, in fact, to much of what comes out of the retail marketplace: glossy cure-alls that fall apart almost immediately.
Patrick