According to Weisberg, the U.S. adopted a Madisonian representative democracy, with checks and balances to "slow down" popular opinion.
And although direct democracy is now possible through websites like Morris' Vote.com, Weisberg argued that it is still not desirable.
In the end, Weisberg said, all of Vote.com's tallies are essentially unscientific polls--surveys of self-selected Internet users that lack any real political repercussions.
Morris replied that a vote on Vote.com is a real vote precisely because those who use the site are self-selected, as voters are in a real election.
"In a poll, we decide that only one of you is a statistically valid sample of anemic Harvard intellectuals," Morris joked to the audience.
Weisberg was not convinced.
"It's only a vote because you say it's a vote," he said, defining a vote as something binding. "In an election, a vote has legal consequences."
Read more in News
SAA Hosts 'Art of Living' SpeakerRecommended Articles
-
First-Years Clamor for a capellaWhat was planned as a melodious welcome for first-year students turned into a cacophonous near-riot Wednesday night, as hundreds of
-
White Protestant Jews Seen EmergingJudaism isn't going to disappear, but the "nice, white, Protestant, American Jew" will be increasingly evident, his life progressively "less
-
Chess Team Trounces Elis, 6-2Although Harvard sports fans were mourning the Crimson's 34-19 defeat in football Saturday afternoon, they could at least take comfort
-
Bachrach Campaign Poll Shows Him In 2nd PlaceContrary to earlier Eighth Congressional District polls, a survey funded by candidate George Bachrach and released yesterday placed the hopeful
-
Special Day for Son of ProctorIt isn't every day that a Yard dormitory is the site of a circumcision. But eight-day-old Noah Wayne Whitehead underwent
-
TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, LAWYER?"I' m going to law school." The phrase is uttered with increasing frequency on college campuses these days. Sometimes it's
