Democracy is the power to say no

Democracy is the means by which we can check with others that our actions are tolerated. We give others a veto on what we plan to do... when we elect representatives we delegate this power of veto to another person to act on our behalf. When we elect an official via one past the post this means that all of our veto powers are handed to a solitary person. With pr we can elect someone closer to our beliefs. In a sense with pr we do not delegate any powers. We hold on to the power of veto ourselves. With optp rather than to (have the ability to) protect ourselves as with pr someone else is elected to protect the group or constituency. Quite often with optp the elected official does not veto sufficient laws and so their protection is worthless. If we want to be protected by ourselves then we need pr.

To have a vote is to have the power to say no but with optp we rely on our representative to say 'no' on our behalf which they rarely do. With pr we can say no by ourselves.