Comments on: Political burnout http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2008/01/02/political-burnout/ Eric Nehrlich, Unrepentant Generalist Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:12:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Eric http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2008/01/02/political-burnout/comment-page-1/#comment-117616 Eric Thu, 03 Jan 2008 05:08:04 +0000 http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2008/01/02/political-burnout/#comment-117616 I think if we truly had a representative democracy where we trusted our representatives to do the research and make the right decisions for us, then it'd be fine. But everybody just wants what's best for them and don't understand some of the compromises necessary, so they think their rep does a bad job and wants to overrule them. I once suggested on eit that attending a single city council meeting in the year prior should be a requirement for voting. I figured everybody has 24 hours in a day, so that was fair. If you can't make time for an hour or two to attend a meeting, you clearly don't have the time or initiative to stay educated on major issues. I was accused of wanting to institute a new poll tax. <sigh> I think if we truly had a representative democracy where we trusted our representatives to do the research and make the right decisions for us, then it’d be fine. But everybody just wants what’s best for them and don’t understand some of the compromises necessary, so they think their rep does a bad job and wants to overrule them.

I once suggested on eit that attending a single city council meeting in the year prior should be a requirement for voting. I figured everybody has 24 hours in a day, so that was fair. If you can’t make time for an hour or two to attend a meeting, you clearly don’t have the time or initiative to stay educated on major issues. I was accused of wanting to institute a new poll tax.

]]> By: Beemer http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2008/01/02/political-burnout/comment-page-1/#comment-117614 Beemer Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:52:54 +0000 http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2008/01/02/political-burnout/#comment-117614 We had a discussion on Sunday night that really got my contrarian streak going, and my conclusion of the moment is that universal suffrage is actually a bad idea. What we should have instead is suffrage based on a combination of being affected by the decision and competence to make a good decision in that venue. How do you implement that and still ensure a reasonable minimum level of justice? I have no idea. But I think our big problem at the moment is that people don't have the resources to make good decisions in a directly democratic way (and some people will never have those resources), and representative democracy doesn't seem to mix well with mass media. I dunno, maybe we just need a parliament instead of a congress... We had a discussion on Sunday night that really got my contrarian streak going, and my conclusion of the moment is that universal suffrage is actually a bad idea.

What we should have instead is suffrage based on a combination of being affected by the decision and competence to make a good decision in that venue.

How do you implement that and still ensure a reasonable minimum level of justice? I have no idea. But I think our big problem at the moment is that people don’t have the resources to make good decisions in a directly democratic way (and some people will never have those resources), and representative democracy doesn’t seem to mix well with mass media.

I dunno, maybe we just need a parliament instead of a congress…

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