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Research shows that the US govt is essentially an oligarchy. The opinions of ordinary people simply don't count for the ruling elites. Yes its up to us to make

Research shows that the US govt is essentially an oligarchy. The opinions of ordinary people simply don't count for the ruling elites. Yes its up to us to make more noise and put pressure on leaders.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago
And yet, the difference between Trump or Biden winning was only in the thousands thanks to the current system. That is, it's possible that if the 'rona and Trump's mismanagement of it didn't cause >400.000 deaths, he might've gotten a second term.
- Loughla 6y ago
  Just a note, according to all major sources, Biden won by 7,060,140 votes total. Not saying those 400k deaths may not have influenced certain key swing districts. But there was definitely a much larger gap than 'thousands'.
  - newen 6y ago
    That's in terms of nationwide total vote count. That's not how the electoral college works though. Biden won by a few thousand votes in a few key swing states. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that Biden won by a few thousand votes.
ako 6y ago
Maybe the problem is depending too much on active voting rights. I feel that in the netherlands, if you really want to make a change, you have to form a (one issue) party and convince people. The impact of a single active voter is not big, and especially in a country where there is limited passive voting, e.g, a 2 party country like the US, it is hard to impact a change. In this sense, US democracy is broken compared to the Netherlands, as there is very little room for passive voting other than being part of a large existing party.
worldsayshi 6y ago
As I said, not just talking about US here... In Sweden the green party is dangerously close to getting ejected from the parliament. They need +4% of the votes to stay. The issue for them have been that they had to make a lot of uncomfortable compromises to have any influence at all. Feels like that is the fate of any party that wants to have any kind of progressive agenda. Death by a thousand compromises.

Research shows that the US govt is essentially an oligarchy. The opinions of ordinary people simply don't count for the ruling elites. Yes its up to us to make more noise and put pressure on leaders.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

And yet, the difference between Trump or Biden winning was only in the thousands thanks to the current system. That is, it's possible that if the 'rona and Trump's mismanagement of it didn't cause >400.000 deaths, he might've gotten a second term.

Loughla 6y ago
Just a note, according to all major sources, Biden won by 7,060,140 votes total. Not saying those 400k deaths may not have influenced certain key swing districts. But there was definitely a much larger gap than 'thousands'.
- newen 6y ago
  That's in terms of nationwide total vote count. That's not how the electoral college works though. Biden won by a few thousand votes in a few key swing states. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that Biden won by a few thousand votes.

ako 6y ago

Maybe the problem is depending too much on active voting rights. I feel that in the netherlands, if you really want to make a change, you have to form a (one issue) party and convince people. The impact of a single active voter is not big, and especially in a country where there is limited passive voting, e.g, a 2 party country like the US, it is hard to impact a change. In this sense, US democracy is broken compared to the Netherlands, as there is very little room for passive voting other than being part of a large existing party.

worldsayshi 6y ago

As I said, not just talking about US here... In Sweden the green party is dangerously close to getting ejected from the parliament. They need +4% of the votes to stay. The issue for them have been that they had to make a lot of uncomfortable compromises to have any influence at all. Feels like that is the fate of any party that wants to have any kind of progressive agenda. Death by a thousand compromises.