• Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Conversely, as democracy is perverted by moneyed interests, government will more and more resemble the will of the short sighted shareholders obsessed with the next quarterly gains. Leading to a useful idiot government selling the country to corporations through regulatory capture and privatization.

    That’s what happened in the real world. Not the will of the broader populace, but the will of the few people who pay the politicians in charge of both parties.

    • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      What about the Northern peoples? Sadly I think they may be voting for the wannabe Trump. I really hope not.

      • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 days ago

        What a dumb thing to say. Australia has the same things said about it, yet we aspire to be closer to the NZ system. Neither of us is anywhere close to the disaster of US politics. It would take fundamental changes to our voting laws to “catch up” to them.

  • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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    6 days ago

    implying that an election to choose a single representative for 300 million people with a 2-horse race is particularly democratic

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Yep, America has only ever had the least democratic system that can possibly exist before it’s essentially classified as a dictatorship… and Americans are like “peak freedom”. Lol. No wonder it’s a failed fucking state.

  • TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Honestly, Trump isn’t that much dumber than most presidents. He actually understood how to break the system, mostly because he wasn’t clouded by love for it. I wouldn’t call him a mastermind, but he has better political instincts than anyone. He’s an idiot, but he’s fully aware what he’s doing.

  • psmgx@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Mencken had a lot of good one liners

    Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

    • BluesF@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      If the purpose of a system is what it does, then it seems the purpose of democracy is the self flagellation of the masses.

  • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    E.A.Poe had similar concerns. He called the then hypothetical president “King Mob”. On the other hand, he was a fan of Andrew Jackson.

  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    The US is not a perfect democracy lol. I’d hardly even call it an imperfect one, atleast for the working class.

      • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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        6 days ago

        Did I misunderstand it? He is claiming that in a perfect democracy the leader would eventually be an idiot because the people are idiots no?

        I’m claiming that thats a stupid fucking way to view society and that it isn’t even close to being reflective of our reality.