[Here's a paper I enjoyed writing for Rhetoric. Hope you guys enjoy it.]
The end of democracy is freedom, and freedom is sweet. People are right in saying that was the reason our nation was founded, why our fathers did what they did. But it wasn't free-for-all freedom. It wasn't do-anything-you-want freedom. It is easy to see that is what we call anarchy, and its results are chaos. That is why we created a constitution, and by its conditions a body of lawmakers, who in turn create the laws of the land. It's you–are-ruled-by-what-you-tell-us freedom. Or at least it should be.
If we now replaced the representative system currently in place by a pure democracy with a vote by internet democracy, it would be insanity. The government has grown tremendously complex. A vote on everything that congress would normally be voting on would have to be taken by the people. Every single one. That would get tiring very quickly (and most people might "who cares!?" over some of the seemingly more trivial decisions). Furthermore, the discussion that Congress has everyday they convene cannot viably happen among all the citizens. For one, there would be by no way be enough time to hear what everybody who had something to say say it. Another concern is the more technical and geographical aspects. It is obviously also impossible to get all the citizens together in one place and yack about stuff every time something comes up (which is constantly). Web forums and the like are more viable, but still do not guarantee access to every citizen eligible to vote (and what about citizens not allowed to vote? Would they be allowed to interact with voting citizens in this way, and possibly influence them?). The most pressing concern, however, is that what our representatives do is a full time job. They put research into deep matters, ponder issues, and vote. Many people in America who would be making these democratic decisions have jobs to work and a life to live. Our representative also have a lot more experience and knowledge than the average joe in matters political, economical, environmental, and well... a lot of other things. Yet another concern: if all Americans are voting, doesn't that mean that anyone (including children) could bring up a measure? The ideas brought up would surely be flabbergasting in content and volume.
It is not to say that our representative system is perfect (though perhaps as perfect as it ever may be), but the problems of congregation, discussion, time, knowledge, experience, and of course voter fraud, would result in a system that would shortly become perfect insanity.
Representation therefore wins.
