Reply #50: I worked with the nuts and bolts of direct democracy as a legislative lawyer .

[Divernan]

You're throwing around all these terms and phrases very loosely. First you appear to totally condemn socialism - now you say that socialism is not automatically good (which implies that under some circumstances it could be good. "democracy and freedom need to go hand in hand with it"(socialism).

You and I have not had to live in a third world country where vast numbers of citizens lived in abject poverty. I have seen slums in the U.S. and they are often far better than the slums in Latin American countries. The U.S. has not exported "democracy" to these countries. We have exported the CIA and our govt. has gone to extreme lengths to protect corporate (exploitative) interests abroad.
How long were the mestizos of Venezuela to live their miserable, uneducated, unhealthy, short lives waiting for some angel of democracy to descend upon their countries, flap her wings and voila! Democracy!