Real democracy

[TaraJo]

Democracy has problems, but so does any type of government system.  Democracy is probably the best option, but we need to know and understand the shortcomings of the system if we expect it to continue working.

Unfortunately, to do that, we need a well educated, well informed public and we've got a large portion of the population that is hostile towards education and any news that doesn't parrot their conspiracy theories is dismissed as "fake news."  Therefore, nothing will change any time soon.

Reminds of a remark by Churchill (I think) that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other ones that have been tried.

Boru

It's a pretty accurate statement.

I think some amount of government is necessary and even inevitable.  If no government exists, people with big guns will make their own rules for everyone else and become the new government.  

And, yeah, it's not like democracy is perfect.  It's better, but there are still flaws.  Unfortunately, America is unwilling to make the changes to fix those flaws because the ones making the rules rose to power under the existing rules and eliminating those rules could remove them from power.

Doesn't help that so much power and money is in the hands of just a small number of people.  If you're rich, you can do whatever you want.  Billion dollar corporations invest ridiculous amounts of money into the campaigns on both sides to make sure they win no matter what happens with the elections.  They own all the media outlets and therefore limit what messages they'll allow to spread (it's a form of mass mind control, if you ask me).  

Our unwillingness to accept and fix the problems with democracy in America could easily threaten the entire democratic system.  I don't doubt if Trump had won re-election, he would already be trying to change the law so that he can continue being president.  I also don't doubt that if he wins in 2024, he'll try to insist that he can run again in 2028 because the constitution only forbids him from two consecutive terms and he never had that; and the Republicans, who are spineless when it's a question of standing up to Trump, will give him the green light to do it.  

And, yeah, republicans are going to stay in power.  Dems are too weak and spineless to fight for anything and between their ridiculous lies and "voter fraud" laws, they're going to disenfranchise millions of people who otherwise would be voting.  And since the people who won't be voting would otherwise vote for democrats, the republicans will stay in power for a very long time.  

So, yeah, American democracy is fucked up.  I just hope it doesn't end soon.