Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Monday, December 05, 2011

Power to the People

I agree with the ever-pithy Atrios, including the "usually":
The noble politician who is prevented by voters from doing "the right thing" is a nice conceit, but I think it's usually bullshit. Democracy is the increasingly thin check on the oligarchy stealing it all, and there are plenty of politicians who have views of what "the right thing" is which are repugnant and unpopular...for good reason.



By the way, about that "usually": the politician who does "the right thing" that is unpopular is noble only when what makes the right thing right is that she believes it is empowering to the people whether they think so themselves or not, and she believes this so strongly that she is willing to take her case to the people and pay the price of losing her position if she fails to make that case to the people's satisfaction. If she is right, they will come to agree with her and respect her vision in the long run anyway, and if she is wrong she will come to agree that the people knew better and be glad both that she acted from conviction and that the better case prevailed.

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