Some thoughts on democracy and government

@RonaldLewis keynotes at the 2012 Colorado Libertarian State Convention Colorado.

Lewis makes some time-honoured arguments for increasing democracy by moving power from a few to the many - his vision is of a second declaration of independence from a faulty government.  It is hard to argue with a value-laden statement like this, "concentration of ego and power in the hands of few is never good for humanity."  Lewis, slightly surprisingly, makes a big deal of the US constitution - however, this is a document that constituted a political order based on representative government, and what Lewis goes on to describe is a very direct democracy.  The "greatest constitution in the world" restrains the forces of democracy rather than unleashes them.
I think he is right when he says that technology and the internet will create a future government that we won't recognise, that the opportunity for movement along the democratic continuum will happen because of technology - indeed, "government in the palm of your hand".
Not many Americans vote, there is huge political apathy - I'm reading this book by Nina Elliasoph - so I'm very cynical about what Lewis says.  If you listen again to the words he uses as the beginning of his speech, he singles out the very few who might make a difference; "here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently, that are not fond of rules and have no respect for the status quo" - on this group his pins humanities hopes for a better future. He finishes by saying "We must have bold ideas, bold thoughts and bold initiatives.", and I wouldn't disagree with that.

In mid 2009 the then PM Brown and leader of the opposition David Cameron made similar public declarations about how to heal the trust of the people in a broken government in the aftermath of the expenses scandal - their political rhetoric makes reference to a transfer of power to the people, Cameron actually said "we need a massive sweeping radical redistribution of power.  From the state to the citizens, from the government to parliament, from Whitehall to communities [...] from bureaucracy to democracy."  This is of course a political performance and the reality is very different.  Lewis is an activist, he probably means it, but I guess the reality will be the same.

One final thought, I never knew there was a verb "to keynote".