Wondermark is rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but funny is only one thing comics can be. I like it because it’s smart, zany, and artistically interesting (every comic is made from Victorian woodcuts).
But the premise of the comic is that the politicians are themselves pressured by the voters to represent positions they think are insane (and are actually insane?) and hope won't actually become law, yet they do become law because the conspiracy to pretend to do something while doing nothing fails. With direct democracy you would assume those same laws would pass for the same reasons, not a different outcome.
No, it's about politicians who knowingly court dangerous and extreme voters.
And now that's all they have left, and that's how we ended up with Donald Trump and these fucked up weird Republicans.
Some of them leaned into birtherism to keep their seats back in '07 and '08. Now half the people at their rallies are carrying around swastikas and Confederate flags and clamoring for a race war.