Comments on Notes on American Democracy
America is not a democracy. It's a republic. People elect representatives who vote and make decisions about policy.
Am I the only person who stayed awake in my U.S. government class?
You beat me to it Greg. We are a representative democracy.
Now a question: The host’s recommendation—focus on the things you can control—correct or incorrect? The answer: Correct. To tell the truth is to tell the poor woman that she does not live in a democracy, she is uncounted. If this were not the case, if she counted, if she had permission to participate in the state’s management of war, health, and energy issues, then she would have to worry about the most important things in her life.
She does live in a democracy, she is counted, and she does have permission to take part in the management of the state. It's just she's counted as one of 300 million, which mean she's counted with people who live other kinds of lives and have other kinds of needs.
Your notion of "democracy" seems not so much to be that everyone's vote is counted, but that everyone's vote should, on its own, be a mandate. That's not democracy, it's an impracticable libertarian fantasy that would -- just as a point of order -- preclude collective action and reduce society as a whole to a Hobbesian nightmare of predators and prey.
You abstracted self-righteous cunt, you.
An excellent summation. The problem is this: The primary reason so many of these things are out of our control is that the vast majority of America has decided that all of these matters are out of our control, and have thus collectively decided we can do nothing about them. Because we take the rest of the nation's stance on this for granted, we plod along for minimal gains. It's a real-life instance of the Prisoner's Dilemma.
Didn't Bush's Tax cuts for the Ultra Rich solve all of her problems?
America isn't even a republic.
It's a monarchy imposed on top of a republic.
You should pay attention to current events, Charles.
how infantilizing of you charles. it seems you are telling her "don't trouble your little head with big issues, because, after all you can't control them." How about instead prioritizing the immediate and and working toward the long term. she could both work on what she can control and get involved in movements that work on the larger issues. the latter might be able to give her a sense of support and agency.
America isn't even a republic. It's a monarchy imposed on top of a republic.I'm so sick of this kind of rhetoric.
The United States is a democratic republic and, by most standards, a fairly high-functioning one. The problem isn't that bad guys have hijacked the system, the problem is that most Americans are bad guys: most Americans have allowed ourselves, without even realizing we were doing it, to become exactly the kind of avaricious despots the Soviets used to accuse us of being back during the Cold War. And a significant part of that process has been down to people like you, Will in Seattle, who throw up your hands and give up on the system when the political outcome of the voting process isn't to your liking.
The United States is a seething pit of ignorance and greed, but the political process hardwired into our system of government is better by a mile than the one operating in most other countries -- particularly those European countries American lefties are so fond of.
@8,
It's also a fallacy to assume that all Europeans love their systems and feel that their governments are immediately responsive to their needs.
@9
...okay.
I'm sorry, what are you referring to exactly?
@ #8
"We have met the enemy and he is us".
Great, circle closed.
Next item...
Aside from the overreach mentioned above, this isn't true either:
The fact that Americans voted to end the war nearly a year ago
To pretend that even the Democrats knew what they were being elected "for" as a body is a fantasy.
Judah, are you sure you live in the US?
Because, if so, I don't think you've been paying attention.
Will, have you ever been outside the US? Because if so, I don't think you were paying attention.
Lol, good one. But my point still stands.
"disrumption"? A term of art?
My name is Matthew and I am a retired Desert Storm Veteran. I retired to Florida, bought a nice little house, and decided to just enjoy myself. Until one day that something said on television bothered me.
"We, in America have the greatest democracy in the world......."
NO, we do not!
We are not a democracy, we are not a representative democracy, and if this trend of calling our Republic a democracy continues, then every word that James Madison spoke may very well come true.
Democracy is the most vile form of government... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
James Madison
I am getting older and slower... but I still fought to preserve the Republic. I still made an oath to this republic to defend her and I still take that oath seriously! If this trend that has our Republic called and attributed to be a democracy continues, then mob rule (democracy, where 51% tell 49% what to do) will eventually be supplanted by state rule and eventually you will need a permit to brush your teeth.
This woman is suffering a democracy right now. 51% of the people tell her that she has to suffer, so she suffers. Democracy in action.
President Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and
our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...
[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers...And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for [another ]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and
oppression."
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