Hi Fred,
I am not in the least offended by anything in any of your posts, my 'issue' regarding partisanship was the context in which it was used.

'Political parties are grounded in partisanship. Partisanship is natural for humans. We seek out and align ourselves with others who share our views. Through them, we hone our ideas and gain courage from the knowledge that we are not alone in our beliefs. Partisanship gives breadth, depth and volume to our voice. In and of itself, partisanship is not only inevitable, it is healthy.'

The paragraph appears to promote political parties on the basis that partisanship is healthy. Yet parties are riven with disagreement and generally campaign on only a few general issues.
I cannot reconcile party politics with direct democracy. It puts the party and the politicians in power, rather than the people. I tried in my earlier reply to agree with partisanship when it was confined to single issues. Otherwise you have a party.

Having perused many DD sites, I can see there is a great deal of debate about platforms and the exact form that DD should take. For what it's worth I'll give you my take on things.

We obviously cannot all talk at once in a parliament building. Therefore we need representatives. I think all representatives should be independant.
If they are to truly represent us, then they need to know what we think.
The technology exists to find out what everybody thinks and for all who wish to participate, to explore all angles of the issue in question. Once a majority opinion is found, of those wishing to participate, then the representative should be obliged to support and argue that position with other representatives. The issue may have to be taken back to the people if new peruasive arguments are found at this stage. Otherwise a vote of the representatives will ensure that policy/law is made according to the majority opinion of the electorate. I suggest a majority should be 75% of the participating votes.

I've noticed you're reference to myverdict.net. Thank you for that. Within the next two weeks there will be general discussion boards at the site. I hope it will generate the calibre of discussion I have seen here.
Regards
Roy