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marmar

(76,976 posts)
Tue Oct 27, 2020, 10:26 AM Oct 2020

"Our real problem is that our democracy is not a democracy"

from Salon:

ANDREW O'HEHIR
OCTOBER 27, 2020 11:00AM (UTC)


Donald Trump is not the central problem in American politics, and neither is the 2020 presidential election, as dire and urgent as those things seem at the moment. Our real problem is that our democracy is not a democracy, and that many Americans — most of them, I would argue — feel powerless, disenfranchised and despairing, confronted with a dysfunctional system that thrives on massive inequality and serves the interests only of the richest and most powerful. Those systemic problems made Trump's presidency possible in the first place, and created the circumstances that make this election seem like a last-ditch struggle against autocracy.

I'm here to tell you there are signs of real hope — but they have almost nothing to do with the question of who wins next week's election. Don't get me wrong: I'm invested in the outcome too. But I also suspect that in the longer arc of history, it might not matter all that much.

If you're reading this during the last days of October 2020, almost anywhere in the world, you don't need me to tell you that the final stretch of this presidential campaign has been agonizing. It's probably closer to the truth to say that the last four or so years of our nation's history have felt agonizing, not to mention draining and dispiriting, and that the coronavirus-dampened 2020 campaign has distilled all that into its purest form.

...(snip)....

Trying to stir up drama in a race that has remained virtually stagnant ever since Biden locked down the Democratic nomination in March — at virtually the same moment as the coronavirus shut down the country — the mainstream media keeps gleefully reminding us that it remains possible Trump could win again, by fair means or foul. There's something to be said for steeling yourself against bad outcomes, but too many people in the left-liberal quadrant of politics — as in almost all of us — seem to be obsessed or paralyzed by those possibilities. We devour the latest polls but tell ourselves not to believe them, casting salt over our shoulders and muttering incantations to the numinous entities of our choosing.

Like frightened children left alone in the dark, we invent bogeymen and invest them with immense power: "Shy Trump voters" will come out of the woods and turn the tide; the Postal Service will delay or destroy millions of votes; Republican legislatures in swing states will defy the voters and appoint their own slates of electors; Justice Amy Coney Barrett, newly fitted for her robes, will write an eloquent Supreme Court opinion finding that according to the Constitution's original intent, votes in heavily Democratic precincts simply don't count. Somehow or other, Trump will refuse to yield power even after a conclusive defeat, and somehow or other — with the help of Russian propaganda, Bill Barr's devious machinations and the fine print of the 12th Amendment — he'll get away with it.

...(snip)...

America's climate of near-permanent electioneering, in which the next presidential campaign starts as soon as the midterm elections are over, is itself a symptom of unhealthy democracy. Our quadrennial search for a messiah, or for the least bad option — staged as a mediocre, long-running entertainment spectacle — sucks up so much time, so much psychic energy and so much money that it is better understood as an impediment to democracy than as its demonstration or its instrument. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/27/why-is-this-election-so-painful-because-voting-isnt-real-political-power/




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"Our real problem is that our democracy is not a democracy" (Original Post) marmar Oct 2020 OP
No doubt, there are a lot of problems that need to be fixed. kentuck Oct 2020 #1
He Is Right, Sir The Magistrate Oct 2020 #2

kentuck

(110,948 posts)
1. No doubt, there are a lot of problems that need to be fixed.
Tue Oct 27, 2020, 10:37 AM
Oct 2020

Starting with the money problem. Citizens United has invited foreign intervention in our elections.

With new technology, gerrymandering has become an art-form in how to steal legislatures and electoral votes. It should be outlawed.

In a democracy, no one should have to stand in a line to vote for eight hours. That would need to be fixed immediately.

Finally, the Court system must be reformed. It is in the national interest to expand the Supreme Court and the Appeals Courts to return balance to our democracy.

There is much to repair.

The Magistrate

(95,237 posts)
2. He Is Right, Sir
Tue Oct 27, 2020, 11:41 AM
Oct 2020

And if looked into carefully, it will be seen that was the clear intent of the people who set the place up --- that behind a facade of popular rule, property would rule.

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