We haven’t had real democracy since Dubya stole office; who are we even kidding anymore?
Speaking in terms of economic power, we pretty much haven’t had real democracy ever.
Sad but true; ultimately capitalism can’t allow democracy. Its end goal is just feudalism with extra steps.
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eh, democracy is fine but the current batch of politicians are fucked. we need to get a batch of under 50 year old folks in congress/senate/white house. enough of these 70+ year old geezers.
Perhaps it has something to do with how popular policies aren’t passed but unpopular policies are?
The right thinks the left is going to force their kids to get sex changes, the center and left see the right as wanting to end voting rights
the center and left see the right as wanting to end voting rights
It’s less of “see the right” and more of “has observed the right”. We just had Moore v. Harper which had republicans pushing the independent state legislature theory where they argued state legislatures had sole authority to decide how elections are conducted and could change the rules however they wanted. Even if it meant disenfranchising voters. Thankfully SCOTUS shot it down.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. By see I meant literally see it happen before their eyes. See=observe
Nah, you’re cool. A little bit of a fail on my part. I’m hyped up on caffeine and see the change in your sentence from “thinks” to “see”.
Meanwhile the actual left is largely ignored.
Right view of Left: satanist groomers
Right view of Center: sheeple
Right view of Right: “you’re white enough, you can date my daughter if I can date yours”Center view of Left: unionized HR professionals with blue hair
Center view of Center: ordinary chill folks
Center view of Right: scary uncles and/or scary incelsLeft view of Left: splitters!
Left view of Center: sheeple
Left view of Right: “you realize y’all are actual fucking Nazi pedos, yeah?”As a center person, this is how I feel as well.
They really are Nazi pedos, though.
Yeah, but the alternative is working with the union instead of against it, so…
Hard to be pessimistic about something that doesn’t exist. The US is not a democracy and never has been. Our votes are not equal and there are many institutions in place to ensure that our vote can just not matter whenever is convenient for those in power, both on state and federal levels.
Edit: remember when we voted for the Supreme Court members? Lol. It’s all a joke fam.
Quick Civics Lesson: A Representative Republic IS a form of democracy. Saying the United States isn’t a democracy is false.
Exactly. It’s an imperfect democracy with some anti-democratic institutions, for sure-- but to say it’s not a democracy is simply not accurate.
Oh no, think of the accuracy! Be blind to what your eyes see as long as you can cling to a definition you learned in grade school that was propaganda to begin with lmao.
It’s like if a nail salon is a front for money laundering and I say “hey that nail salon is a front!” and the pedants come back with “ACK-shually, that is indeed a nail salon.” No fucking shit. It’s true purpose is a front, despite the fact that it functions as a nail salon AND a front.
The US is functioning as intended, with a thin veneer of “democracy” to keep it “legitimate” in the eyes of the world.
You realize the right wing spends billions on spreading that exact propaganda line among the left, because every left-leaning person they manage to blackpill means one less vote against their candidates in the next election, right?
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Sure vote, but don’t fool yourselves that it has a very significant influence. The degree of manipulation by gerrymandering, partisan structures, bias toward rural southern states in the electoral college, and billionaire corporate dark money spending leaves the actual accuracy of voting in question.
Voting is basically the little brother playing the video game in “2 player” mode even though the controller is not plugged in scenario. That’s what being working class in the US feels like lol
American’s are caught up in so much BS that doesn’t matter. We aren’t even capable of focusing on what does matter. All the facts are right there in front of us but we ignore them. We are turning away from science and returning to superstition and religious fanaticism. This whole republic/democracy experiment thing needs competent, clear thinking people to keep it together. It doesnt matter if they are believers or not, they just need to be sane. There seems to be less and less of those people running around or at least speaking up about it. If we keep going down the road we are going now, there is no hope for us. We may have already lost the battle and just dont realize it yet.
There is no democracy in the United States, the ultra rich just gather in the same room and throw money at the table to decide the next president.
Will they get off the couch and VOTE this time?
The last two Republican presidents were installed while receiving less votes than the Democrat. If Democrats had spent the past 23 years blaming a rigged system, and trying to change it, rather than vote-shaming and insulting the general public and their intelligence (by claiming that they don’t, in fact, vote more than Republicans), maybe they’d have actually gotten something done by now.
That assumes the idea that they actually want to get anything done other than send out more emails about how your 27 dollars is vital to the fight against fascism.
Yes, and that happened because of the dismal Vote participation.
Election Voting-age population (VAP) Turnout as % of VAP
2008 229,945,000 57.1%
2012 235,248,000 53.8%
2016 249,422,000 54.8%
2020 257,605,088 62.0%8% was the entire difference between 45 having a second disaster.
No, it happened because we have an extremely stupid system, which was designed by slave owners, racists, sexists and violent criminals (men who raped their slaves, genocidal maniacs, etc) to restrict who is allowed to vote and allow someone who gets less votes to win the presidency, and the democrats have spent a quarter century not saying a word about it despite it happening twice in that period. Please try to focus the blame where it belongs. Well designed modern democracies DO NOT have this problem.
The United States was fundamentally broken, immoral and undemocratic from day one, and no amount of ranting on the internet about how it’s the public’s fault 250 years later will change that fact. This entire thread exists because people are rapidly losing faith and trust in the legitimacy of the system that was built upon that foundation.
Ribbit
Lack of voting is one problem, but the overarching problem is how we select our representatives. We have a two party system with winner takes all elections which cements the two party system. You pretty much have to vote for one party or the other otherwise you’re essentially throwing away your vote. Personally, I think a system like ranked choice would be an improvement. At least then you could vote your conscience, and if your first choice doesn’t make it then your vote goes towards your 2nd, 3rd, etc. A system like that should produce a result that is closer to the ideological center of the voters.
Ribbit
Ranked Choice is about the worst voting system designed. Possible only beaten by Plurality.
This 3-hour long video goes pretty in depth on why it’s horrendously bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-dzK3YIAf8
The TLDR is that Ranked Choice is complex, meaning that it cannot be counted at the polling location. It must be counted at a single location, which is a single point of failure. This has led to real world failures in the 2011 Alameda County election and the 2021 NYC Mayoral Election.
Note that these were direct failures that were only possible under Ranked Choice.
Then there are cases like the 2009 Burlington Mayoral election that resulted in the repeal of their Ranked Choice election laws.
Which is the main issue I have with the system. It’s so bad that it actually sets voting reform efforts back. It makes it that much harder to implement an actually good voting system.
I am currently recommending STAR. It’s easy to understand because everyone knows how 5-star reviews work. It’s easy to count, because it’s just addition, and then a second round of addition. It can be counted at the polling locations, so there’s no single point of failure.
You have to vote to change all that too. You think people would?
You have to vote to change all that too.
I think if you crack open a history book you’ll find that the vast, VAST majority of changes did not come about by voting. Historically it hasn’t done much at all, actually.
if one could vote without being signed up for a lot of ancillary bullshit, more people would vote. I personally am not registered to vote in the state I live in because I dont want anything to do with the jury system.
Voting doesn’t matter when your only choices are bevis and butt head. That is by design.
Ribbit
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The United States is controlled by oligarchs who are above the law. Big Tech is censoring everyone and gathering data on everyone for law enforcement agencies.
