
Ask HN: Can the US House and Senate be replaced with a website, should it? - ilovetux
I am very interested in discussion around this topic. Thanks for taking the time to look.
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dragonwriter
If you meant, instead of tossing out representative democracy, “can we make
the legislative branch one of virtual meetings so that representatives stay
home with their constituents rather than going to Washington, I think that
there would be a more interesting discussion.

~~~
DrScump
Pro: more difficult for lobbyists.

Con: voting fraud on roll call votes, AKA "Ghost Voting" when done in
chambers[0].

[0] [http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/09/23/ghost-voting-
cal...](http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/09/23/ghost-voting-california-
assembly-members-caught-breaking-the-rules/)

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tree_of_item
Huh?

~~~
ilovetux
I know this question is rather vague, but the basic idea is that a web-based
application could be created with every American having an account. The
purpose of the application would be to allow votes on each political issue
from participating citizens (instead of representatives and senators) as it
comes up for a vote.

I know that I am glossing over a lot of technical issues, but in theory it
should be possible. The question is mainly designed to spark discussion around
representative democracy vs direct democracy and whether politicians actually
contribute to or even help the country and its citizens.

I have purposely left out my opinions on this matter so I could hopefully see
more sides of the conversation.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
The US government was _deliberately_ not set up to be a direct democracy.
Those writing the Constitution looked at the historical examples before their
time, and concluded that direct democracy was too prone to degenerate into mob
rule. So they didn't do that - they set up a republic instead of a democracy.

Yes, you could replace the US House and Senate with a web site, at least in
theory. In doing so, though, you are changing the form of our government.
You'd better think _hard_ before you decide that you know better.

And, if you conclude that your idea is still a good one, then to actually
implement it, you have to amend the Constitution. Unless you have a plan for
doing that, the answer to the "can" question is "technically yes, politically
no".

(In fairness to the idea, though, Congress _has_ been showing a clear trend
toward increasing dysfunction and uselessness for the past few decades...)

~~~
ilovetux
> direct democracy was too prone to degenerate into mob rule

Do you think its possible that new advances in technology since 1776 might
just enable direct democracy to avoid the degeneration you cite?

> to actually implement it, you have to amend the Constitution

I think we would actually have to rewrite the constitution. The definition of
congress is a major section of the constitution and any amendment would
basically have to rewrite large swaths of the original document.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
> Do you think its possible that new advances in technology since 1776 might
> just enable direct democracy to avoid the degeneration you cite?

No. It's the people who are the problem, not the technology. (In particular,
think about all those people on Facebook amplifying false information during
the last election cycle.)

