> That's a good argument for being really well versed in local politics. Even in
> a flawed representative democracy system, you can put people in office who have
> the potential to be better politicians, and hopefully continue that to the next
> level.

But then you have a problem if they succumb to corporate lobbying. People can still be corrupted... you have to find really scrupulous people. Lobbying should probably be eliminated, the only way to do that is to make campaign donations illegal, even if you make them anonymous they'll probably have donations that are "understood" to be representing a certain entity... Like that'll happen though.