This is going to piss some folks off

I have been coming to the conclusion that a great deal of our problems stem from the fact that we have becoming increasingly a Democracy and less and less a Representative Republic.

It is apparent to me that the founding fathers did not think much of the idea of establishing a full democracy to run the country. They appeared to spend quite a bit of effort in the idea of removing the governing bodies from the direct control of the populace. Worked for quite a while too.

Let's look at the original constitution.

• Executive branch elected by the electoral college, not the direct vote (Still in effect, much to Al Gore's chagrin).
• Senate appointed by the state legislatures, not the direct vote (Changed to direct election in 1913, which was also the same year that gave us the federal reserve bank).
• Supreme Court appointed by the President (not directly elected) and confirmed by the Senate (not directly elected).
• The House of Representatives was the only branch of government that was to be directly elected. This was also coupled with the shortest term.
• Even consider the concept of Initiatives. It is my firm belief that the concept would have caused the framers to shudder. There is no provision for direct initiatives in the Articles of Confederation, any of the original State Constitutions, or in the Constitution.
  

I would suspect that this was set up this way for a specific reason. Currently, we here in the US have this odd idea that all people are smart enough to know what is good for them. I don't know where we got this myth. Everyday life seems to go out of its way to disabuse us of this concept. We pay no attention to the constant lessons of our collective stupidity and cling resolutely to the myth that most folks are smart enough to pound sand.

Folk, don't get pissed at me here, I'm just asking you to think about it. The definition of average IQ is 100. That means that 50% of the population is <100. We give those folks the vote.

My feeling is that the framers of the constitution had this in mind when they wrote the thing.

Have a happy election day.