Ken: Your response has a lot to unpack.

The we-voters-don't-really-know-the-candidates was the inspiration for the TDG. The names on the ballots are a mystery to most of us.

From my perspective, the HOA seems to be a discredited process. It is a good sign that if the TDG were fully implemented tomorrow, it would fail. We need to learn a few things to make the TDG work. And building the TDG is where we can learn them. For starters, the TDG won't have the "life-and-death" issues that the HOA seems to generate.

https://medium.com/tiered-democratic-governance/the-tdg-is-not-an-hoa-85ed54dfa9ce

About 20 years ago, I encountered a fellow who had "internet democracy" all figured out. You might like my review of his work:

http://www.tiereddemocraticgovernance.org/blog_details.php?blog_cat_id=20&id=34

As well, Medium contributor Allan Milne Lees has version of direct democracy. Again, my review:

https://medium.com/politically-speaking/book-review-why-democracy-failed-b63f263d325e

In general, I'm not in favor of direct democracy. When put to a decision "by the people" as a yes/no vote, it's too easy for one or both sides to use clever advertising and a big ad budget to make their case, to tug at the emotions of a majority of voters.

I understand the frustrations of representative democracy. With that frustration comes approaches that are not likely to work.

In my opinion, we need to bring our 18th century social engineering tool to the 21st century.