Reply #185: I'm sorry , Larry, but there is a world of difference.

[dfgrbac]

You say, "The way we choose our leaders is similar to a national initiative". But I beg to differ.

We give our power away each election to some representatives we know little about. And they tend to forget about us once elected. But if we had a national initiative process, the voters who happen to be interested in a particular issue (initiative), that is those who have a personal stake in the outcome, would inform themselves to a much greater extent before they voted.

Voting on initiatives or actual issues (instead of just some representatives), would improve the knowledge of voters and improve the maturity of their decisions as time went on and they gained experience. Along with that, we would set in motion possible solutions to our many, many problems. If a solution didn't work, we would change it.

For one thing, we could remove that silly filibuster rule in the Senate. This rule hurts us far more than it helps. It gives way too much power to one person.