[lazide]

So you’re saying popular votes are not sufficient to avoid flip flops on contentious issues, and popular voting also can step on minority groups recognized rights on a whim?

What problem is it solving again?

And notably, California is one of the most consistently gay friendly states and still flip flopped on this exact topic.

The more direct the democracy (and the shorter the timeframes between elections!), the easier it is to game the population or poke people’s buttons and make them vote on things they later regret - or deeply enjoy.

The whole court system and bill of rights is to try to put guard rails, so there aren’t (for example) purges/genocides, removing a little under half the populations rights, etc. etc. but there is only so much rules can do.

There is no free lunch.

Notably, imagine direct democracy and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_panic]!

Without guardrails on the levers of power, a lot of people would have died. As it is, a lot of lives still got ruined.