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In Romania, the last election had a plurality. This resulted in politicians believing they need to listen to voters. That is, until the top 2 parties could for

In Romania, the last election had a plurality. This resulted in politicians believing they need to listen to voters. That is, until the top 2 parties could form a majority coalition in spite of their ideologies being opposite on paper, so they can continue the degeneracy. I hope the next election leaves them with even less power.

tootie 4y ago
America's most urgent problem isn't politicians failing to heed voters. It's what the voters are saying.
- frankfrankfrank 4y ago
  It is interesting you say that, because the symptoms do not cause the disease. The problem always has been that the politicians have not heeded, let alone even represented the voters for a very long time now, hence why the voters who are the legitimate heirs are saying things you may not like. It essentially comes down to rather basic things, abuse, dishonesty, laziness, hedonism, etc. that has caused a perversion and Distortion of the whole system that means to maintain peace affairs among people through mutually agreed upon terms. Unfortunately those terms have been consistently, grotesquely, and deliberately violated for many decades now. It hasn’t even been Democracy, majority rule, for at least 60 years now; and democracy has also been perverted fundamentally by simply using psychological warfare techniques to gaslight the majority into self-sabotage.
  - tootie 4y ago
    There are elements of a vicious cycle in all this, but that doesn't absolve voters. Politicians lie about a lot of things, but in the US at least the two main parties are pretty consistent in their overall approaches and ideology. You may see opinion polls that Americans want this or that policy that never happens, but when they vote, they vote for candidates whose policies are very clear. It's like if you want government to take strong action on climate, then vote for a guy who very explicitly wants to do nothing about climate, then you don't actually want the government to take strong action on climate. And that's besides the many millions of voters who have access to all the information they could need to make an informed decision and still explicitly don't want to take action against climate change. And who is to blame for the millions of Americans who think the election system is rigged? Are they all just hapless goons under the thrall of a madman?
- cycomanic 4y ago
  I'm not sure I buy this. There's many surveys that show that there are many issues that voters across both parties agree on. It's simply that catering to some more extreme elements of the party, so-called single issue voters can be more important because the parties don't loose votes over the issue from more moderate voters.

tootie 4y ago

America's most urgent problem isn't politicians failing to heed voters. It's what the voters are saying.

frankfrankfrank 4y ago
It is interesting you say that, because the symptoms do not cause the disease. The problem always has been that the politicians have not heeded, let alone even represented the voters for a very long time now, hence why the voters who are the legitimate heirs are saying things you may not like. It essentially comes down to rather basic things, abuse, dishonesty, laziness, hedonism, etc. that has caused a perversion and Distortion of the whole system that means to maintain peace affairs among people through mutually agreed upon terms. Unfortunately those terms have been consistently, grotesquely, and deliberately violated for many decades now. It hasn’t even been Democracy, majority rule, for at least 60 years now; and democracy has also been perverted fundamentally by simply using psychological warfare techniques to gaslight the majority into self-sabotage.
- tootie 4y ago
  There are elements of a vicious cycle in all this, but that doesn't absolve voters. Politicians lie about a lot of things, but in the US at least the two main parties are pretty consistent in their overall approaches and ideology. You may see opinion polls that Americans want this or that policy that never happens, but when they vote, they vote for candidates whose policies are very clear. It's like if you want government to take strong action on climate, then vote for a guy who very explicitly wants to do nothing about climate, then you don't actually want the government to take strong action on climate. And that's besides the many millions of voters who have access to all the information they could need to make an informed decision and still explicitly don't want to take action against climate change. And who is to blame for the millions of Americans who think the election system is rigged? Are they all just hapless goons under the thrall of a madman?
cycomanic 4y ago
I'm not sure I buy this. There's many surveys that show that there are many issues that voters across both parties agree on. It's simply that catering to some more extreme elements of the party, so-called single issue voters can be more important because the parties don't loose votes over the issue from more moderate voters.