[PaulDavisThe1st]

California could not win any popular vote about any matter whatsoever on its own.

The only thing that wins popular votes is ... having a majority of voters voting for it. Doesn't sound so bad does it? At least until you start to introduce the petty tribalism of "I don't want those folks who ain't from round here telling us what we can and can't do".

The real question is: there are obviously different "ideal sized bodies" for a popular vote controlled democracy, depending on the issue at hand. It probably is right that "folks from round here" get to decide a bunch of issues, without having to convince the whole country. And there are issues where you really should only be able to move forward with a popular vote across the whole country. So the question is: what's the right scale/scope of the voting entities for different kinds of issues?

I don't know the right answer, but I'm fairly sure that the states we have right now are not the correct choice for a lot of issues.

[edmcnulty101]

Direct democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

tyranny of the masses is equally as bad as tyranny of the one especially considering how tribalistic people are.

That's why the framers of the Constitution decided against what you're proposing.

as to the right size question. there is no right size. it's totally arbitrary. States are what we have and that's fine.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

Direct democracy can come with and without a constitution that says the wolves cannot eat the sheep. I like the version with the constitution.

"Tyranny of the masses" is a red-herring. If your constitution (and its enforcement mechanisms) are good, the masses can't do anything to the minorities other than make them irritated (which is a condition we all live in from time to time). And if your constitution isn't good, then your "republic-not-a-democracy" is going to suck for some (or even all) people, too.

I don't agree that there are "no right sizes". I do agree that we don't know what they are yet.

States are not what we have, states are one-sized thing that we have, but we also have villages, towns, cities, counties and even in some cases and for some purposes, regions. And while you may think that its fine, others do not.