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I guess this system is not without its failure modes. Sure you can get up and leave at any time and find a tribe that will accept you, but where is the incentiv

I guess this system is not without its failure modes. Sure you can get up and leave at any time and find a tribe that will accept you, but where is the incentive to seek consensus? Then comes the election time and half of the country ends up thinking the other half has gone insane.

nostrademons 9y ago
The only incentive to seek consensus is when the country is threatened by an outside nation even more hostile and foreign (i.e. Hitler or Stalin). The U.S. has a super long history of half the country thinking that the other half has gone insane. See eg. the elections of 1800, 1824, 1828, 1860, 1888, 1896, 1912, 2000, and 2016, along with other watershed moments in American politics like the Alien & Sedition acts, Hamilton/Burr duel, Compromise of 1850, FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court, Civil Rights Movement, Nixon impeachment, Whitewater, Vietnam & Iraq wars, etc. Someday we'll probably break apart, but a system based on the premise that we're all little shits who need to fight each other has shown remarkable resilience.