The problem’s not with our democracy. It’s television. Once you reduce elections to snappy one-liners and good hair, you can’t expect good good representation.
Ha!
I still think these (paraphrased) quote from Douglas Adams is eerily appropriate…
“The true purpose of the President is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it…”
“It is a well known and much lamented fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, least qualified to do so, anyone capable of being elected President should on no account be allowed to”
I suppose we could try the Heinlein system of reform, and make suffrage contingent on a multi-year stint in the military, or some commensurate public service.
There was a time in my life when this “earned right” made more than a bit of sense. Given the discriminating tastes of our current crop of electorate, things may be coming around again in my mind. The Service, Americorps, something like that. Maybe we do need a weeder. I’m that far gone.
The problem is that Heinlein tended to be extremely optimistic in his portrayals of systems of government of which he approves, and utterly callous toward those who, for whatever reason, aren’t able to cut it financially (i.e. the poor). In Time Enough for Love, he actually has his alter ego Lazarus Long advocating execution or sterilization for those unable to support themselves. Apparently he’d never seen or imagined an upbringing in the ghetto.
So, while the governmental system proposed in *Starship Troopers * sounds appealing, I’m not in the least sure that it would work as presented. I haven’t noticed current veterans voting any more responsibly than non-veterans.
Oh, I’m quite sure you’re right, and I’m aware (though not as much as yourself) of Heinlein’s shallowness. I just wish there was some harmless means of inculcating a sense of civic responsibility, and in my bleaker moods I find myself wondering why I need a license to catch fish, yet the mere fact I metabolize allows me the right to vote, no matter how informed or responsible I might be.
Hell, I’d go with fifty percent of our last two president George Bushes were excellent. 
I’d go with at least 50% of our last two presidents were mediocre, anyway. As in probably not doing grave and permenant damage to the nation.
Loopydude, I can’t remember if it was Heinlein or someone else who proposed that election machines only be operable if someone could go into the booth and solve a quadratic equation, but it sounded like a good idea to me. Unfortunately, it’s about as un-PC as you can get to suggest that only the intelligent and well informed (which admittedly, quadratic equation solvers don’t have to be) people be allowed to vote. Silly me, not taking into account the many other qualities that make someone’s voice worth hearing.
I’m pretty far to the left of center in many ways, but my god! I’m tired of PC!
You’re onto something here. With the advent of television it matters less and less whether a candidate has a mastery of the issues. It only matters that s/he is telegenic, or has the slicker ad campaign.