Elections and our republic: How do we avoid political gamesmanship?

We do not actually live in a democracy, we have a representative form of government. Our founders lived in a world where there was a very small middle class, only the rich had access to an education, and the working class was virtually illiterate. They were afraid to allow wholesale democracy under the circumstances.

Today is different because:

1. Most of our citizens are literate (even if we don't necessarily agree with them or how they think, they can read the ballot),
   
2. We have the technology to count each individual's vote, and (c) statehood does not have the same meaning it did in 1789.

Back then, states were like little nations that did most everything independently with only the military, the foreign service, trade policy and some small administrative functions for the Federal Government. Now, the state governments are in many ways almost irrelevant to daily functioning.
There is a considerable amount of redundancy (and unnecessary bureaucracy) because of it. Republicans would like to see 1789 again, because it concentrated power in the hands of a few. Democrats know that issues such as human rights (civil rights, women's rights, etc.) and enforcing same impact each of us so completely that the only place where we can depend on equal rights, opportunity and protection under the law is at the Federal level. If you doubt it, move to Alabama, where I live, or Mississippi or any of the Southern states.

I promise you slavery would not have been abolished without a Federal government led by Lincoln and integration would not have been abolished without Robert F. Kennedy heading the Justice Department. If you doubt the importance of the role, just remember what a disaster Gonzales has been to the Department of Justice, along with Karl Rove, et al., politicizing the department and using it for politically motivated prosecutions (i.e., Gov. Don Siegelman).

I think our voting system should be completely revamped and the national popular vote should determine national elections. Likewise with the primaries -- a regional primary system where states were grouped according to their region and congruity of population and needs would be useful.

It would eliminate a lot of bureaucracy and political gamesmanship that goes on now for both election types.