Does America need an upgrade to Democracy 2.0?

I was surfing the web today (checking out news sites, digg, and the other usual suspects), and I read a bunch of stories that got me thinking about the state of the government. It seems to me the government likes to give the illusion of a fair democracy. However, in the purest form of the word, we do not actually have a democracy per se. The government uses this to their advantage to pass laws and bills that would do nothing but give them more power (i.e. Patriots Act). The real meaning of democracy is very litterally a government of the people, by the people. It does NOT mean a government of the people, by the selected few.

With that said, I propose what I’m temporarily calling Democracy 2.0. We need to bring the power to the people. Let the people get much more power over how the government is run. I suggest, for lack of a better reference, something similar to American Idol but more extensive. Congress can still come up with bills and laws and whatnot, but in order to pass there must be a majority vote for them by the people. In the same sense, the people could also take down current bills and laws by voting against them. Along the same lines, the people could also propose bills and laws, and if they get enough votes they can get passed.

This would all mean that people would be going to the polls constantly. We could come up with a method of securely voting, and proposing or taking down laws/bills via cellphones and the internet. It would have to be secured very well so that nobody hacks into it, that’s the problem. One other problem with this entire theory is that a lot of people don’t have faith in what the average person thinks is best for the country. However I fell that, given the chance, the country as a whole can successfully run the country.

A large advantage with Democracy 2.0 is that it gets rid of picking between the lesser of two evils. The government makes you believe we have a democracy by giving you (ussually) two choices. However, a lot of the time you’re picking between the lesser of two evils. It’s not a fair system. Democracy 2.0 would let the people decide what they really believe is best for the country, not what is better than the other option.

Can you expand on this, have an alternative idea, or wish to express your like of the current system? Then please post.