The race is this close because our gov't has failed the people for decades

[polichick]

Failed to maintain laws prohibiting Fox and other news outlets from lying.

Failed to update the system - electoral college, gerrymandering, reliance on norms.

Failed to hold high-level politicians and judges accountable - justice delayed is justice denied, and encourages more criminality.

Failed to clean out the agencies after a traitor and coup leader defiled them.

‘Our’ gov’t has done more to serve pillagers (corporations, gov’t contractors, polluters) and parasites (tax evaders) than it has the people in decades.

There’s so much work to do!
Suggested Democratic slogan: People and Planet over Pillagers and Parasites

[RockRaven]

1. Our people have failed the people for decades.

Where does this failing government come from, after all?

[marybourg]

2. Based on the OP's complaints, the "failures" come from

THE CONSTITUTION.

[polichick]

4. The system is so rigged that the people get only two viable parties...

And both have failed in the above-referenced ways.

The people want to believe their votes will lead to needed change, but the pillagers and parasites are more persuasive.

Hopefully, Harris has the guts and the will to go against the grain!

[AZSkiffyGeek]

5. Please do tell how the Democratic Party is a failure

[wnylib]

41. Multi party elections work in parliamentary governmental systems

where they can form coalition governments. Not very viable in our system.

Even in Germany, with a coalition government, Hitler was able to take control.

[jaxexpat]

6. Unbridled capitalism is responsible for the persistence of these problems.

1st law of Bartcop:
If a mistake causes a profit for the guy who made the mistake, count on them making the same mistake at every opportunity.

[WarGamer]

3. Most of your items are failure of the voting electorate.

If Democrats had the political power to change the EC or gerrymandering... they would.

[walkingman]

7. Your points highlight something that most Americans will not admit -

we are no longer living in the 18th century and it is time to make some changes in our constitution before this Democracy is gone.

Even if we like to distort American history, world history tells us this cannot last unless we make some fundamental changes.

[former9thward]

37. The question is how?

The Constitution is almost impossible to change in the modern world.

[GP6971]

9. Well Hi!! Welcome to DU...I guess.

[MineralMan]

10. Bye, then...

[FSogol]

11. When you look at the 2 parties in the country, it is ridiculous to say the problem is the Democrats.

So long.

[polichick]

12. Some uncomfortable truths here...

Surely nobody here would argue with this:

“When capital controls government, government is no more than a tool used by elites to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”

[TwilightZone]

14. You might want to read the rest of it.

It's an anti-Democratic Party screed.

Do you believe that the Democratic Party is as bad as or worse than the Republican Party? Because that's literally what it's saying.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

15. Oh, they said as much upthread...

[polichick]

18. I believe that there is a relationship between the 'establishment'...

of both parties that protects the wealthy and corporations and gets in the way of “liberty and justice for all” - as well as health for the planet.

There’s a reason that the ‘failures’ listed in the op keep happening.

Harris has the intelligence and background to tackle some taboo practices - hoping that’s what she has in mind.

[TwilightZone]

22. So, yes, you think they're equivalent.

The assertion that both parties pursue the same agenda and are therefore equivalent is laughably ridiculous and remarkably short-sighted.

[polichick]

23. Read more carefully.

[TwilightZone]

25. Oh, I can read just fine.

You are asserting that Democrats have done nothing to address any of the issues in your OP.

That assertion tests the bounds of ignorance.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

30. Source for that quote:

https://chlamor-deepintheheartofnowhere.blogspot.com/2007/12/function-of-democratic-party-in.html

[BannonsLiver]

13. Enjoy your pizza, Chud.

[Fiendish Thingy]

16. all it will take is four years of unobstructed, unhesitating, fearless progressive governance to convince the people

Like Whitmer in MI, Walz in MN, and elsewhere, all it takes is unobstructed progressive governance with tangible results that benefit the people to bring back the trust in government that is lacking currently.

[TwilightZone]

21. The difference between the last two administrations is stark.

The Biden Administration has accomplished a great deal and also gives us a glimpse of what would be possible without constant obstruction. If we could get President Harris an amenable Congress, the sky's the limit.

The claims that both sides have the same agenda and are therefore equivalent are laughable.

[Johnny2X2X]

17. Republicans, not government to blame

Republicans prevented the government from maintaining laws prohibiting Fox and other news outlets from lying.

Republicans prevented the government from updating the system - electoral college, gerrymandering, reliance on norms.

Republicans prevented the government from holding high-level politicians and judges accountable - justice delayed is justice denied, and encourages more criminality.

Republicans prevented the government from cleaning out the agencies after a traitor and coup leader defiled them.

Democrats pursued all of these things with vigor, Republicans stopped them.

[former9thward]

39. When has anyone tried to stop Fox from lying?

When and where in Congress has that bill been introduced and pursued with vigor?

[maxsolomon]

19. I really dislike this narrative.

I hear this type of rhetoric in the self-defeating "Democrats have failed the Black Community" arguments.

The sad fact is that our Govt is DEEPLY DIVIDED, and that's why it fails to address insurmountable tasks.

It's not "failing the people" on most counts. The mail still gets delivered (yes, it does); SS checks go out every month. We have freaking F35s.

It's the worst govt on Earth, except for all the others.

[BannonsLiver]

20. +1. It's the same argument most dead enders make.

[TwilightZone]

26. It's typical "both sides are bad" nonsense.

The assertion that Democrats have done nothing to address any of the issues in the OP is laughable.

[DoBW]

24. i'm guessing "the our govt thing" means Reagan repubs and that ilk

or divided scotus

[hawkeye21]

27. Sure, but look at history: People are usually upset with the government, but nothing like this has ever happened

I mean it's as stark a choice as there ever was. A competent, professional, empathetic ticket that wants to improve democracy or a ticket led by two of the biggest piles of scum in the history of the Milky Way Galaxy who want to destroy democracy and turn the USA into the world's leading dictatorship.

There is simply NO excuse for being taken in by a Trump-led cult. None. Period.

And the very thought that this could even be close literally makes my heart hurt. It's so unfair. It's so dangerous. It's so impossible.

I lived under apartheid in South Africa back in the day. You could be jailed for speaking the name "Nelson Mandela," and some people were. I visited East Germany before the wall came down. I had my papers checked by East German soldiers. You can't imagine that feeling. You have to experience it. I never want to feel it again. So I have a personal sense of what dictatorships look like and what they feel like. And it's sickening to know how close we are to that right now.

[polichick]

28. Right, there is no excuse - a lot of balls were dropped...

that led to putting the people, the country, the community of nations and the planet in this dangerous situation.

Fact: the most powerful government on earth has failed to protect its people from one tyrant.

The question of why is easily answered - wealthy powerful players did not want to hold a traitor accountable. Why didn’t they? Because they see him as a path to more money and power.

It’s not complicated - just absolutely disgusting.

[Dave says]

32. We did vote the tyrant out in 2020

We just have to do it again and again (as new would-be tyrants emerge from the right).

[polichick]

38. We have to do it again because he was given a pass by the powers-that-be...

People have been imprisoned for stealing a few pages of govt’t documents, without selling the info. The U.S. gov’t has allowed a man with close ties to foreign countries who led a coup to run for president again. It’s beyond disgusting that we - and our allies - have been put in this position.

[verargert]

29. An uneducated, apathetic crowd of people make up the United States of North America.

We've done pretty good over the last 250+ years.
Just need to clean up the mess and keep going.

No one ever said life was easy.

[Emile]

31. I blame Garland for not acting sooner

[polichick]

40. Yes - there's no excuse for not scooping up high-level coup players...

with the same speed as he did low-level expendable Americans.

Would Trump ever have been charged without the very public findings of the Jan. 6th Committee?

It’s the kind of thing that citizens should question - we have a republic if we can keep it.

Another example of high-level bipartisan ‘agreement’ to protect entrenched interests is the seating of Joe Manchin (who has long been involved in coal brokerage) as Chairman of the Energy Committee - in a Senate led by Democrats.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

33. "Failed to maintain laws prohibiting Fox and other news outlets from lying."

Failed to maintain laws prohibiting Fox and other news outlets from lying.

Just curious, what mechanism do you propose for accomplishing that?

And good afternoon.

[Dave says]

34. Protect the Commons

Reenact the Fairness Doctrine, improved to clearly cover all media space - owned by the people of the United States - that is granted private players via licensing and protected norms. That would be a start.

On edit: I assume we are aware that Fox News was born and flourished in the unprotected commons after the Fairness Doctrine and anti-attack norms were removed by the Reagan-Bush administrations? The FD is not enough, but it’s a start. But as Piketty suggests, it will take generations to dismantle the concentration of wealth that was enabled by this first step toward tyranny.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

36. I know what's coming. I'll wait.

Good afternoon to you too.

[LexVegas]

35. This is a clever way to shit on Democratic administrations. nt