Ordinances are passed by elected officials representing their community- the definition of a republic [a rights-violating, socialistic, communistic process, which I support and I think that you should, too.]
Actually, you not only think I should support this laughable communist farce of a system, you
demand that I support it, and if I do not support it, you wish me to be kidnapped and thrown into a cage. I, umm,... "strenuously object." Or this there an ordinance against strenuously objecting, too? Well then in that case I suppose I just quietly live with it. Because we're no doubt careening towards the "Love it or Leave it" level of discourse; I can already hear the gears in your head.
And "unanimous consent" is a pipe dream. Where you have differing, independent thinking, you will always have discourse. Hence the beauty of a republic.
Hence the beauty of the
market. The type of beautiful "discourse" you get in a
socialistic system like a "republic" is the kind of discourse the OP's dog owner may have had with his dog:
"You are a dog. I have decided to beatcha and eatcha. Remember to vote on March 24th! Make your voice heard! Our system depends on citizen participation."
If you disagree with the beater-eater's policies, the Common People -- who are totally In Charge -- can elect new Representatives to the Soviet Council. If the Council is abusing them, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Unanimous consent, if it had never been tried, would indeed sound almost too good to be true. A "pipe dream," as you call it. However, this is the principle upon which the free market is built, and to the extent it is the free market it never violates that principle. So we have a very large portion of our world and our society operating on the principle of unanimous consent. The portion doing so is, very noticeably and very dramatically, the most successful, pleasant, and humane portion. And within that portion, you can indeed have "differing, independent thinking," and you will indeed "always have discourse." That discourse is the civilized, adult discourse of the type that does not bring a gun to the table to shoot any uncooperative members of the minority the head after the discussion and a vote determines which side is in the minority.
Your communistic "republic" system shoots people in the head when they peaceably disagree. That is the sort of free discourse and independent thinking that you find in a communist system like a republic.
The market allows everyone to peaceably disagree forever. It will never step in and "resolve" the argument of Mac vs. PC, or Pepsi vs. Coke. The parties can just go on disagreeing forever and ever, always trying to persuade or inform the other side of the merits of their side, but never able to (in the terminology of the republic) "
do anything about it," that is, never able to shove their solution down the opposing party's throats, and to finally put an end to their ignorant foolishness. In contrast to the communism of a republic, which periodically selects a winning group (every two years, or four years or whatever) which then gets to boss around the losing group until the next winner-selection, the market never need select a winner. In the socialism of a republic, the republic either implements A or B. In the unanimous consent of a free market, A and B are not mutually exclusive; both can flourish side by side.
The system of unanimous consent has given us peanut butter, projector screens, patio chairs, prosthesis limbs, phosphorescent sticky stars, and portable photo printers, all in such staggeringly vast quantities they are available to average and even to poor people. What has your system of socialism (which you call a "republic") given us? Dead bodies? Influenza? The celebration of torture? The glorification of mass murder? Where's the beef?
No, sorry, your preferred socialist system is a
total flop, just as all socialisms are. Unanimous consent, on the other hand, is an astounding success. It is the most successful system the world has ever seen. And you want to say it's a pipe dream? Well, true: if it had never happened, if we were not living in the middle of the results, then one could hardly fault a skeptic for his doubts. All laundry, washing, and other household chores delegated to machines, with the homemaker fulfilling her tasks via occasional button-pushing? Voyages of hundreds and even thousands of miles made with trivial ease and minimal expanse, often undertaken while the voyager is sleeping? An impossible world, an impossible dream.