Worse, imagine the incentives for activists and terrorists to stage disasters, if instant democracy were in place. But there are more mundane problems with instant referenda. Conservatives have long lamented that the problem with old, functioning institutions is that people forget why they work. Social planners come along, thinking they can improve schools, families, etc., even though they are entirely ignorant of the thinking that went into creating these institutions in the first place. An election day, for example, is a vital tool for candidates and voters alike.
Informed voters focus their judgments only in the final days of a campaign.
Candidates and journalists know this. To overturn this system would have unpredictable consequences. These people might indeed vote, if they could do it during a commercial break. Dick Morris and Jesse Jackson Jr. think that would be great. For good or ill, the deliberative mechanisms of our Constitution have been greatly diminished over the past century.