I would much prefer direct democracy within a sharply limited scope of government powers. A laboratory of the states, with a couple dozen hellholes and a few places I'd be eager to live. But I don't see a path from here to there.
From the RIAA and MPAA's points of view, it is a very necessary bill, and every little group thinks their bill is very urgent. So, there are thousand of opposition groups who think the proposer's bill as being very bad or unnecessary.
Then you got politicians elected by the constituent to do what they wanted to do, and damn everyone else. It's the reason why congress sucks, but our representative rocks.
We hate all politicians but I voted for that politician because he brought us jobs.
Isn't that the reason why our government continue to do nothing and everything in the worst possible way?
Indeed, it seems strange that the legislative branch make laws that take away our freedom and judges, despite being appointed by congress, protect our freedom.
Overly participatory democracy leads to government of the busy bodies, the people with too much time on their hands and too enthusiastic about government power to solve problems.
For every worthwhile public uproar like SOPA, there hundreds of little groups out there trying to get the government to listen to incredibly stupid demands.