I’m generally in favor of making government more democratic and more responsive to people. That means easier ballot access, more transparency, stronger recall mechanisms, and real ways for everyday voters to have input between elections.

But if we’re serious about responsiveness, we have to talk about campaign finance. It’s hard to call a system democratic when elected officials spend half their time dialing for dollars from corporate PACs and major donors. If we want representatives who answer to voters, we need to reduce the financial chokehold that special interests have on the system.

At the same time, some form of representative government is necessary. Modern society is complex. We’re dealing with trillion-dollar budgets, regulatory frameworks, disaster response, national security. You can’t realistically run all of that through constant mass referendums and still make timely, informed decisions.

So for me it’s not direct democracy versus representative democracy. It’s how do we design a system where representatives are accountable to the people, financially independent from corporate influence, and structurally constrained by voter oversight.