I think direct democracy sucks. Namely because your average person is some combination of not very smart nor very informed about the issues. Theoretically, elected representatives are supposedly to represent us, but when then fail to do so, we have the ability to goto the ballot to rectify the wrongs. At least this was the idea when citizen referenda were instituted in the Progressive Era.
However, in the modern era, it is about as classic example of astroturfing as it gets. Virtually every citizen initiative seems to take away the rights of a suspect class i.e. gays, immigrants, criminal defendants, and parolees etc.... or they give people what they want i.e. lower taxes, or more services, but no balancing on how to pay for what. I mean you never see an initiative saying maybe incarcerating 1.4 million people is a sign of a deficient criminal justice system.
This article sums it up well. Most insulting in this whole process is Henry Nicholas. He is a big advocate of victims rights, if the accused is poor and preferably non-white. However, for people like him, he is a big fan of things like due process, the 5th amendment and high priced lawyers.
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