It's darkly humorous how conservative politicians keep gaslighting people by stating that this was the mandate of the people.
That's the beautiful thing about democracy, you get exactly the government that you deserve.
Now I think about it, that can also be the terrifying thing about democracy as well, but you get the idea.
You deserve no better, nor any worse, than what you have.
"Now I think about it..." work on that some more going forward. The country is complicated and Democracy has grades. We're getting an F at the moment.
There are democratic procedures by which the people can go about changing citizens United. You apparently believe those procedures are not part of democracy, but they are.
That the people won’t take the decision, and implement the process to change citizens united, is the fault of the people, not of the democracy. Democracy simply provides the procedures. You make the decisions.
For instance, a lot of right wing people spent a lot of time stacking the court to do away with roe v wade. Democracy provided that possibility through procedures it put in place. That’s only one way to do away with citizens united. There are others. None of which you choose to avail yourself of. How is that the democracy’s fault?
So in a Democracy, if the people vote for something different, that's anti-Democratic, and non-democratic methods may be required to fix Democracy.
When I say Democracy, I mean a form of government in which political power is primarily seated within the common mass of people, as opposed to political power being with those who bribe, cheat, scheme, lie and bribe some more to achieve more political power than their fellow citizen. This tension puts democracy on a gradient, one which I believe is currently and firmly seated in corporate command of political power. I recommend you go read Democracy Incorporated to add a little more clarity and contrast to your world view.
Next I suspect you'll try to tell me the Brooks Brothers riot was also "democratic procedures."
> None of which you choose to avail yourself of.
Oh piss off.
You're just a few steps away from a russian version of democracy if you define it so loosely in the first place
In a democracy, the educational system is a democratic practice. A civic duty. We could have changed our educational system to be better, we didn’t. That’s on us. We could change it now. We won’t. That’s a choice. A democratic choice.
The practice of democracy is not solely about voting. There are many democratic choices we make every day that concert to give us the government we deserve.
Democracy is about how the people (demos) in a state or other community coexist by negotiating their individual and collective needs and priorities. Reducing it down to "you didn't vote so you don't count", or worse still, "you voted for the losing side so you don't count" is a gross distortion. Its not just about the vote, its what happens after that.
> That's the beautiful thing about democracy, you get exactly the government that you deserve.
This makes no sense. There isn't something out there that renders a singular judgement on what people deserve. There's only us.
* The two-party system dominates the process, and actively excludes 3rd parties. Look into changing requirements for debate participation.
* The Democratic party argued in court that they have no obligation to use a "fair" primary to select candidates. This was in response to a lawsuit from donors claiming the party mislead them by tipping the scales against Bernie Sanders in 2016.
* Gerrymandering continues to enable parties to win large majorities in state legislatures while losing the popular vote at the state level.
* Many of our current troubles have been caused by the Supreme Court, which is not democratically elected.
* The Electoral College and Senate apportionment continue to give more power to voters in low-population states.
How, exactly, are our choices suddenly the fault of the democratic system?
No, it wasn't. It was what about half voted for. There was no consensus. Consensus means general agreement, not a small majority.
That they're elected by majority (never mind the indirections) is a key reason why it is important that the executive is not allowed to wield too much power unilaterally.
(And a key reason why the executive in most countries have far less power than a US president...)
Red Team/Blue Team isn't Democracy, its Oligarchy with extra steps - self-evident by the recent actions of an ultra-wealthy elite to shape political decision-making in ways that increase their wealth.
You need only look as far as the inauguration of 47 to be slapped in the face by the audacity of it - flanked by the Railway Barons of Silicon Valley - Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg - and bolstered by Tim Cook, Sam Altman, and Bernard Arnault.
The Fair Representation Act - which would solve a plethora of issues in one act - served to establish independent redistricting commissions in all states to prevent gerrymandering, whilst simultaneously introducing the proportional STV system of elections like we have in Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Representation_Act_(Unite...