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> The only way for this system to be fixed starts at the ballot box. Where are you going to find politicians to vote for who cannot be influenced by money? N

by MCRed 11y ago

> The only way for this system to be fixed starts at the ballot box. Where are you going to find politicians to vote for who cannot be influenced by money? Not on your ballot, because the one-party-with-two-wings has effectively made it illegal to run a campaign as an alternative. Greens and Libertarians are kept from the debates, kept from the ballot with restrictive measures, and certainly aren't owning the machines that "count" the ballots and determine the elections. (The election fraud from 2000 has never gone away, it just stopped being headline news. It happens in a recent past political election one of the presidential candidates called my house on election night to report their observance of the fraud- in some cases the absolute number of votes they got went down as more votes were counted. A mathematical impossibility.)

rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
This is how our political system wants us to feel: ineffectual and powerless. Don't bother voting because none of the options are good. The system can't be fixed so you shouldn't even bother. You end up falling into the trap they set for you. I refuse to give up on democracy, just as I refuse to give up on America.
- SeoxyS 11y ago
  The USA is not a democracy, it's a representative republic. That's the fundamental difference which means that you can't simply go to the ballot box to fix something. You can go to the ballot box to support people who you believe share your values. Sometimes it works, oftentimes it doesn't. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the USA will ever become a real democracy, so we have to make the best of the system we currently have.
  - Kinnard 11y ago
    We could create a new system. Why is that never thought to be an option . . . people do do that.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > The USA is not a democracy, it's a representative republic. The US (by Constitutional form) is both a (representative) democracy and a (federal, and democratic) republic. > Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the USA will ever become a real democracy You seem to be using "real democracy" to mean "direct democracy", buy direct democracy is no more real than representative democracy. (And there's a good case to be made that the problems the US has with being an effective democracy are curable while remaining a representative democracy, and that the problems lie largely in the particular electoral system.)

by MCRed 11y ago

rm_-rf_slash 11y ago

This is how our political system wants us to feel: ineffectual and powerless. Don't bother voting because none of the options are good. The system can't be fixed so you shouldn't even bother. You end up falling into the trap they set for you. I refuse to give up on democracy, just as I refuse to give up on America.

SeoxyS 11y ago
The USA is not a democracy, it's a representative republic. That's the fundamental difference which means that you can't simply go to the ballot box to fix something. You can go to the ballot box to support people who you believe share your values. Sometimes it works, oftentimes it doesn't. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the USA will ever become a real democracy, so we have to make the best of the system we currently have.
- Kinnard 11y ago
  We could create a new system. Why is that never thought to be an option . . . people do do that.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > The USA is not a democracy, it's a representative republic. The US (by Constitutional form) is both a (representative) democracy and a (federal, and democratic) republic. > Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the USA will ever become a real democracy You seem to be using "real democracy" to mean "direct democracy", buy direct democracy is no more real than representative democracy. (And there's a good case to be made that the problems the US has with being an effective democracy are curable while remaining a representative democracy, and that the problems lie largely in the particular electoral system.)