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The biggest threat to democracy is the dissolution of faith in democracy caused by immensely popular politicians who fail to keep the promises that get them ele

by 34679 4y ago

The biggest threat to democracy is the dissolution of faith in democracy caused by immensely popular politicians who fail to keep the promises that get them elected. I'm not just talking about one party.

api 4y ago
Also by things like lying us into a war in Iraq or the 2008 bank bailouts where the people who caused the financial crash were all given a bonus and a raise while austerity was pushed on the rest of the economy. Also letting our infrastructure crumble while spending unlimited amounts of money on Middle East wars, restricting housing supply to lock a generation or two out of housing, allowing two generations to be saddled with unprecedented amounts of student loan debt while tuition goes up unchecked, and so on. I could keep going. Our political class has lost the peoples' trust because they don't deserve it. They've shown nothing but incompetence and corruption for decades. I'm speaking of both major political parties. That loss of trust has opened the door to a ton of insane garbage, but the blame for that rests on the political class of the past 50 years for dropping the ball in so many ways.
- sharemywin 4y ago
  I think the problem is "we the people" keep forgetting that the government is what we make of it and "hiring" a president every 4 years and then ignoring our responsibility until the next election isn't how this thing is supposed to work.
  - api 4y ago
    I agree that apathy is a huge part of the problem, but I also think our two party system is a major issue. We need something like ranked choice voting to open things up a bit and allow challengers to at least threaten the mainstream parties. Otherwise sometimes there's just no good choice.
  - Clubber 4y ago
    Yes, I don't like either party and I think they are corrupt, what do you suggest?
bryanlarsen 4y ago
That's a cure worse than the disease, IMO. The main reason that Biden isn't fulfilling most of his promises is because the Senate is refusing to pass them. Remove those checks and balances and you'd get a lot more promises fulfilled. But those checks and balances are a feature, not a bug.
- dmix 4y ago
  Often political promises don't even try to make it policy, let alone get it in front of either house.
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    Source? Republican strategy largely revolves around not changing things too much, but the last two democrat presidents have put plenty of legislation in front of congress only to have it stonewalled.
    - bryanlarsen 4y ago
      He's being disingenuous. Many of Biden's promises didn't make it to the house because a straw poll indicated that would just be a waste of everybody's time.
- llbeansandrice 4y ago
  Features can (and sometimes should) be deprecated.
- kajecounterhack 4y ago
  Most of the checks and balances are good. Senate allocation based on land-size and not population-size is pretty shit tho, imo. Electoral college pretty shit too. We just can't get anything done because a powerful minority that biases strongly white, male, and christian has disproportionate power in the US.
probIs8 4y ago

by 34679 4y ago

api 4y ago

Also by things like lying us into a war in Iraq or the 2008 bank bailouts where the people who caused the financial crash were all given a bonus and a raise while austerity was pushed on the rest of the economy. Also letting our infrastructure crumble while spending unlimited amounts of money on Middle East wars, restricting housing supply to lock a generation or two out of housing, allowing two generations to be saddled with unprecedented amounts of student loan debt while tuition goes up unchecked, and so on. I could keep going. Our political class has lost the peoples' trust because they don't deserve it. They've shown nothing but incompetence and corruption for decades. I'm speaking of both major political parties. That loss of trust has opened the door to a ton of insane garbage, but the blame for that rests on the political class of the past 50 years for dropping the ball in so many ways.

sharemywin 4y ago
I think the problem is "we the people" keep forgetting that the government is what we make of it and "hiring" a president every 4 years and then ignoring our responsibility until the next election isn't how this thing is supposed to work.
- api 4y ago
  I agree that apathy is a huge part of the problem, but I also think our two party system is a major issue. We need something like ranked choice voting to open things up a bit and allow challengers to at least threaten the mainstream parties. Otherwise sometimes there's just no good choice.
- Clubber 4y ago
  Yes, I don't like either party and I think they are corrupt, what do you suggest?

bryanlarsen 4y ago

That's a cure worse than the disease, IMO. The main reason that Biden isn't fulfilling most of his promises is because the Senate is refusing to pass them. Remove those checks and balances and you'd get a lot more promises fulfilled. But those checks and balances are a feature, not a bug.

dmix 4y ago
Often political promises don't even try to make it policy, let alone get it in front of either house.
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  Source? Republican strategy largely revolves around not changing things too much, but the last two democrat presidents have put plenty of legislation in front of congress only to have it stonewalled.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    He's being disingenuous. Many of Biden's promises didn't make it to the house because a straw poll indicated that would just be a waste of everybody's time.
llbeansandrice 4y ago
Features can (and sometimes should) be deprecated.
kajecounterhack 4y ago
Most of the checks and balances are good. Senate allocation based on land-size and not population-size is pretty shit tho, imo. Electoral college pretty shit too. We just can't get anything done because a powerful minority that biases strongly white, male, and christian has disproportionate power in the US.

probIs8 4y ago