I didn't have a say in how it was designed - how is that a democracy?
You can call it a "representative democracy" and while this accurately describes our government, the term itself is an oxymoron. You can't call anything an actual democracy unless everyone has a say in everything. Therefore, a "full-blown" democracy is not possible. How inefficient would it be for the entire nation to vote on every single bill, every single war, and every construction project?
In a full-blown democracy the media would rule everything (as it basically already does). Anything the head of a media corporation doesn't like, he could spin as evil. We already saw this with Obama. The uninformed masses (and no I am not saying if you voted for him you are ignorant or uninformed, I am simply saying Obama won his position based on publicity, not his policies) voted on him because they knew voting on him somehow meant "Change."
** I am in no way seeking to smash your intelligence or anything (like others here...). Just responding with how I see things.
So, because you weren't alive 225-ish years ago when the Constitution was written - we don't have democracy? Preposterous. If that's what it meant to have a democracy, we'd have to re-draft the constitution every time a child learns to speak.
I'll say it again, "democracy" is a loose term. There are different kinds of democracy. A "direct democracy" is not what we have, we are represented by our elected officials which is a representative democracy. I didn't make this stuff up. I agree, it's an oxymoron, but it's how our government was designed to work. The fact that it has become something entirely different isn't really the point - when the founding fathers were brainstorming up our new nation, they decided that this was better than direct democracy (direct democracy being more closely akin to anarchy than an actual form of government - because with direct democracy there essentially IS NO government)
I don't think it would be inefficient at all to have every registered voter weigh in on the legislative process. I mean, if you think about it, it could all be done "online".
Go to a web site, check the issues for the day, read over the legislation (this of course, would require complete abolition of earmarks and other pork), and cast your vote.
At least then we'd know what the PEOPLE really want, right? and more people would be involved, right? We'd actually know, for certain, what it is the PEOPLE want instead of relying on polls or simply hearsay fed to us by the media (which, like you said, is controlled by those corporations who control our government)
Our representative democracy, as I've said before, is NOT representing the desire of the people who elected those representatives. Our representatives, with a few exceptions, are only looking out for the best interest of the corporations who have all the money. This is NOT democracy, and it's an insult to every American who truly believes in the foundation our country was built on.
