I never said that participating in a democracy was effortless. It takes a certain amount of time and energy to make a pluralistic society work. A dictatorship is so much easier: someone just tells you what to do, and you do it - or else. So I never minded much that the voter pamphlets (perhaps pamphlet is a misnomer) were so long.

With regards to their being esoteric, I never found that to be the case. What I did find esoteric was trying to make up my mind on issues and propositions based on the information given in the campaign commercials and piecemeal through the media. Perhaps the voter information booklets could be improved, but the idea of attempting to explain issues and propositions in plain language and presenting pro and con arguments to them by responsible parties is I think on the whole a good idea.