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on the other hand, US has been a democracy for by far the longest. Other European countries pale in comparision, with the possible exception of the UK.
by tomp 9y ago
on the other hand, US has been a democracy for by far the longest. Other European countries pale in comparision, with the possible exception of the UK.
- dkural 9y agoIf black people don't count, sure. I would argue that the US has not been a full democracy until Civil Rights. Jim Crow laws were in effect until 1965. Also, black people could not exercise their vote, were not allowed to attend university, eat in the same restaurants, or even sit on the same section of the bus. As far as black people were concerned, the US was not a democracy.
- dkural 9y agoHere's an article describing some of this: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/07/13/presumption-of-guilt/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/07/13/presumption-of-gu...
- Retric 9y agoEven then 4 million Americans don't get a vote because they don't live in states. Residents of DC, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa all get Taxes without representation. Thus, America is still not an actual Democracy.
- Jesus_Jones 9y agoThose people are free to move to the us, free to petition to join as states. How do you think Hawaii and Alaska did it? I can move to those places. A better argument might be that poor people are actively disenfranchised by people they don't politically support.
- Retric 9y agoThese people live inside the United States. This is not some far off land these are people living in our nations capital we are talking about. They simply don't have voting rights due to politics so an area can be part of the United States but not a State.
- malnourish 9y agoDon't forget, the US didn't allow women to vote nationwide until 1920.
- refurb 9y agoI can play this game. You don't have freedom of speech in Germany because there are hate language laws. Thus, it's not a democracy. See how silly that is?
- amclennon 9y ago> You don't have freedom of speech in Germany because there are hate language laws. Thus, it's not a democracy. I don't understand the point you're trying to make? The German people can always vote to overturn the laws they've imposed on themselves. For a large part of American history, black people were literally unable to vote (or were considered 3/5th of a person). That is by definition the opposite of a democracy.
- smackay 9y agoI think the good people of Iceland might disagree with that, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althing
- tomp 9y agoInteresting, I wasn't aware of Iceland's democratic history! Although admittedly it's far harder to govern 200M people rather than 200k.