Globally, Broad Support for Representative and Direct Democracy

[Dill]

(10-18-2017, 04:34 PM)hollodero Wrote: One could very well argue if you see that objectively as well. I do not know about the US too much, so I can be easily refuted. In my country, the diverse places are the cities. The echo chambers, the life-long (conservative or more extreme right) voters no matter what, the regions where talking points get handed out and shared uncritically, is the countryside. I would never argue their votes should count less because they only listen to certain outlets and certain political figures. You. on the other hand, would. And that is not the kind of democracy I have in mind, the kind that has safeguards put in so your alleged minority opinion is protected against the opinions of the majority.

In the end, you devaluate an alleged majority's opinion just because you disagree with said opinion. Which leads to you not granting every american citizen the same right. You would argue because someone lives in a place you consider to be a BS echo chamber, his voice should be devalued a little compared to yours. That it's only a little doesn't make better what I consider a flawed understanding of the democratic principle. Your own words lead to that, not so much my interpretation.

Hollo, I am not sure how you understand this point about checking the majority, but I think Justwin's view is more in line with "the founding fathers" here.

The federalists among them were not particularly worried about the majority. It was assumed they could take care of themselves. They were worried about how to protect the minority--which in their democracy would be the rich merchants and landowners. As the franchise began to widen, including white males who did not own property, this was a concern for them. Also, many of them were steeped in Greek and Roman classics, which abound in stories of states degraded by democracy, the more numerous poor voting to separate the rich minority from their money and the like.

We have different minorities nowdays, but protection of minority rights is, I think, still a democratic ideal. It will mean that sometimes the vote of the individual majority member counts less. Hence the Senate and the electoral college The alternative is worse.