You treat democracy as a single form of government. It is not, there are several different versions of it. The archaic US system elects a potential dictator every 4 years, but most of the previous incumbents have had a concern for the nation. Trump doesn’t. You now have a full-blown dictator.
One of the basic problems with the American version of democracy is the weakness of the party system. The drafters of the 1789 Constitution naively believed political parties to be anti-democratic and that elected officials should stand as individuals - again reinforcing individuality instead of collective action. In a democracy, however, coalition building is the key to accomplishing anything. Hence the formation of political parties by like minded individuals.
For most of the county’s history the nomination of political candidates was a strict matter of party decision. That system broke down in the 1960s with the advent of open primaries where anyone can run regardless of party affiliation. It’s not clear our candidates, especially at the presidential level, have improved: the first product of this system was George McGovern and it has produced radical candidates and presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush along with non-entities like Michael Dukakis and Robert Dole.
In other countries Party leadership is controlled by the parties themselves. Were that the case here we would never have seen Donald Trump anywhere close the presidency. From an American viewpoint, it seems amazing that two party leaders in Canada just lost their seats in Parliament, including the leader of the Conservative Party. Such a result would be near impossible here, because Americans vote for individuals with party affiliation often coming a poor second.
That party based system in parliamentary democracies tends to focus on ideas and party platforms rather than individuals. It a far healthier system and tends to avoid the kind of dynastic holding of seats that is all too common here.
The US needs much-needed reforms but it is ignored whenever American Exceptionalism is invoked because they truly believe they can solve anything in their American way.
The problem in America is that enslavers like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are, in effect, civic gods whose wisdom must not be questioned. Young people here are conditioned to ignore 230 years of practical experience.
Much of America’s immediate problems can be laid squarely at Obama’s feet. Unlike FDR and LBJ, he let a perfectly good crisis go completely to waste.
Freedom of speech has never been an absolute right—yelling “FIRE!!” in a crowded theater has never been considered a legitimate exercise of first amendment rights. But never in American history has it been so abused by an entire political structure that is disemboweling our democracy and replacing it with systemic gaslighting, so that roughly 77,000 people are cheering on the end of the republic. A society of ignorant, misinformed people has, from the time of the country’s founding, been recognized as a threat to its furtherance. And seriously, the way trump is attempting to undermine free speech, withholding funding or eliminating entire departments and agencies and programs because they are DEI or some other completely deranged nonsense, like diversity, equity, and inclusion are bad things? In retrospect, if trump succeeds in his current course of actions, we will damn sure wish we’d restricted the free speech of liars and seditionists. **reply to kathryn hopping**
Had we banned Fox News decades ago, or reinstituted the Fairness Doctrine scuttled under Reagan, we would not find ourselves here. Likewise, allowing people like Limbaugh, Jones, and Bannon to spew their bile over radio waves for hours daily was just a stupid idea. Trump and co. have no problem attacking the first amendment in every way, but the left has been too liberal in not limiting it, even in the face of sedition. We became complacent in believing that the American experiment was invincible and overestimated the critical thinking skills of thousands of people. At the same time, democrats dropped the ball 2020-24 by not passing more stringent qualifications for presidential candidates, like no felons. To this day, democrats cling to the idea that our norms and institutions will save us, if we just wait til 2026. Everything about this administration including the majority GOP congress is so repugnant and vile that the hardest thing to accept is the majority of republicans—and evangelicals! God help us—still support it.
Instead of just restricting people’s speech, how about controlling and limiting their thoughts? John Christopher wrote The Tripods sci-fi trilogy about aliens that controlled the human race by putting metal caps on their heads that controlled their thoughts and emotions. Maybe you can develop that technology to help you implement your Big Brother utopia. It worked great for the tripod aliens until the humans rebelled.
You treat democracy as a single form of government. It is not, there are several different versions of it. The archaic US system elects a potential dictator every 4 years, but most of the previous incumbents have had a concern for the nation. Trump doesn’t. You now have a full-blown dictator.
It's what the plurality of actual American swing state voters wanted again
One of the basic problems with the American version of democracy is the weakness of the party system. The drafters of the 1789 Constitution naively believed political parties to be anti-democratic and that elected officials should stand as individuals - again reinforcing individuality instead of collective action. In a democracy, however, coalition building is the key to accomplishing anything. Hence the formation of political parties by like minded individuals.
For most of the county’s history the nomination of political candidates was a strict matter of party decision. That system broke down in the 1960s with the advent of open primaries where anyone can run regardless of party affiliation. It’s not clear our candidates, especially at the presidential level, have improved: the first product of this system was George McGovern and it has produced radical candidates and presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush along with non-entities like Michael Dukakis and Robert Dole.
In other countries Party leadership is controlled by the parties themselves. Were that the case here we would never have seen Donald Trump anywhere close the presidency. From an American viewpoint, it seems amazing that two party leaders in Canada just lost their seats in Parliament, including the leader of the Conservative Party. Such a result would be near impossible here, because Americans vote for individuals with party affiliation often coming a poor second.
That party based system in parliamentary democracies tends to focus on ideas and party platforms rather than individuals. It a far healthier system and tends to avoid the kind of dynastic holding of seats that is all too common here.
The US needs much-needed reforms but it is ignored whenever American Exceptionalism is invoked because they truly believe they can solve anything in their American way.
The problem in America is that enslavers like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are, in effect, civic gods whose wisdom must not be questioned. Young people here are conditioned to ignore 230 years of practical experience.
Much of America’s immediate problems can be laid squarely at Obama’s feet. Unlike FDR and LBJ, he let a perfectly good crisis go completely to waste.
Lack of reform and need to be inoffensive did it
Freedom of speech has never been an absolute right—yelling “FIRE!!” in a crowded theater has never been considered a legitimate exercise of first amendment rights. But never in American history has it been so abused by an entire political structure that is disemboweling our democracy and replacing it with systemic gaslighting, so that roughly 77,000 people are cheering on the end of the republic. A society of ignorant, misinformed people has, from the time of the country’s founding, been recognized as a threat to its furtherance. And seriously, the way trump is attempting to undermine free speech, withholding funding or eliminating entire departments and agencies and programs because they are DEI or some other completely deranged nonsense, like diversity, equity, and inclusion are bad things? In retrospect, if trump succeeds in his current course of actions, we will damn sure wish we’d restricted the free speech of liars and seditionists. **reply to kathryn hopping**
Had we banned Fox News decades ago, or reinstituted the Fairness Doctrine scuttled under Reagan, we would not find ourselves here. Likewise, allowing people like Limbaugh, Jones, and Bannon to spew their bile over radio waves for hours daily was just a stupid idea. Trump and co. have no problem attacking the first amendment in every way, but the left has been too liberal in not limiting it, even in the face of sedition. We became complacent in believing that the American experiment was invincible and overestimated the critical thinking skills of thousands of people. At the same time, democrats dropped the ball 2020-24 by not passing more stringent qualifications for presidential candidates, like no felons. To this day, democrats cling to the idea that our norms and institutions will save us, if we just wait til 2026. Everything about this administration including the majority GOP congress is so repugnant and vile that the hardest thing to accept is the majority of republicans—and evangelicals! God help us—still support it.
Instead of just restricting people’s speech, how about controlling and limiting their thoughts? John Christopher wrote The Tripods sci-fi trilogy about aliens that controlled the human race by putting metal caps on their heads that controlled their thoughts and emotions. Maybe you can develop that technology to help you implement your Big Brother utopia. It worked great for the tripod aliens until the humans rebelled.