So 2 years after electing Trump to the white house the electorate has returned a democratic chamber and through local referendums has reestablished the right to vote for ex-felons and legalized marijuana for recreational or medicinal use in a further 3 states bringing the total to 33 (out of 50). I'm not sure how that makes sense. On the one hand the world population seems to be increasingly socially liberal (admittedly to varying degrees) and yet at the same time we have an expanding number of unpleasant, illiberal, nationalist (if not down right racist) governments. The US, Brazil, Russia, China, Italy, the Philippines. Hungary, Israel, Poland, Turkey even India to a certain extent have different varieties of regimes with authoritarian or nationalistic tendencies. The problem is that in elections a big part of the electorate votes for a person or a party without having a clear idea of the actual policies that will be implemented. At least in ballot initiatives people are actually voting on the issue rather than a person. Maybe technology will allow us to go back to an updated version of the original direct democracy of Athens. If secure internet voting can be developed then why not just let all laws be decided directly by the people?
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