American Democracy for all its flaws does reasonably approximate the will of the majority of Americans. Every system will have flaws and even better systems dont guarantee better things occur. The biggest issue is not our mechanisms of democracy but that voters want objectively bad things right now
Want bad things…. reasoning is off base. Brainwashing, low education are contributing factors I think.
Definitely a lot of factors. I don’t think that people in a vacuum would gravitate towards the current negative political attitudes, they’re influenced heavily in some pretty sinister ways, but really my point is that even with perfectly fair elections these attitudes have substantial followings
Perfectly fair elections? Bullshit. There are voter suppression techniques happening everywhere in this country. Especially red states and anywhere the Republican Party has any influence
Undoubtedly. My point is that even without that voter suppression the electorate is currently not as progressive as would be necessary to fix the issues plaguing this country. It doesn’t have to be that way though. In my opinion effort is better spent changing minds than changing laws
Plugging a few holes with laws won’t hurt if there is any opportunity to do so.
Certainly agreed, every opportunity to change laws should be taken, but what I'm really trying to say is that people undervalue public opinion. There is no government free or unfree that can sustain itself very long without it, and that is why even dictatorships work so hard to control public views
If we focus solely on winning the legal fight, those victories will slip through our fingers like sand when laws are either widely ignored, or conservatives change tactics and make end runs around them. By now you would think people would understand that Trump, despite operating wholly outside of
the law is able to continue. It is because he has been successful enough in gaining public support that opposing him gets nowhere. In other words, politics are above laws, and cannot be otherwise.
I certainly agree that public opinion is critical. Trumps ratings are quite low and he still gets near blind support beyond the legal boundaries at times. Look how hard it is to get us to agree on a practical approach. Key parts have to work more effectively than they are.
'Perfectly fair elections? Bullshit' I agree 100%, ncmimi...and will yet again refer all to @gregpalast.bsky.social and the excellent piece he did, re 2024 election
There will never be an opportunity to do so. America's Constitution is its Holy Cow.
You are clear about what you think the problem is. The proposal to fix our issue(s) still isn’t clear to me.
Rip it up and start again. That design for a slave state is worthless, even though the US still has over 800,000 slaves.
Laws are fundamental to how a society operates. People's minds are not.
If that’s the case then why are you wasting your time trying to convince me of it lol
I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I don't care what you think.
I see
Good.
You could then say that Lynch Mobs has democratic legitimacy.
They don’t lack democratic legitimacy necessarily, they lack moral legitimacy. Again, the moral character is the flaw not the fact that they aren’t holding a proper vote on tyranny and hatred. Democracy is worthwhile but it’s not a guarantee of Justice or goodness is all
You either haven't read the Consitution or didn't understand it. But that goes for most Americans, of course. medium.com/@colingajews...
What you think of as being democracy isn't democracy. medium.com/@colingajews...