I think one problem of the US democracy is this winner takes it all votings system most states have. Here in Germany major issues that were not adressed by any established party often lead to the formation of new parties winning a good share of the votes. Usually, the older parties then also started addressing the issue and the new party vanished or found its niche. The latest example is probably the right-wing AfD which is sad and I hope they will vanish but many other newly formed parties were more on the progressive side of the spectrum.
The US system could easily open up to third parties, it already has all the frameworks to do so, but none of the incentive. As stated, our government is owned by the bourgeois class, and they manipulate the system to always be in their favour. But the issue isn’t the amount of parties in our system, nor the politics of those parties. The issue is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and our bourgeois are the worst of’em.
No way in hell is the US ever going to stack up to a European country, simply because our ruling class would never dream of it. They’d much rather ignore demands and put down revolutions, than ever fathom the thought of making a few million less a year from socializing vital industries. Our only realistic option to end this and get progressive reforms is to completely rebuild the system from the ground up as a DotP, we simply don’t have the option of using ‘democratic’ reforms.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that politicians will just kinda give us progressive reforms to forcibly quell revolutionary spirit. But the odds of it are… well… very low.
Have you ever thought of using your passive suffrage to see how that turns out? I think everything you wrote is true, but isn’t that only half of the truth? Most people seem to be fine being ruled by the bourgeoisie. Why is it so hard to convince them to try something different?
“passive suffrage”, as in voting power? Sorry, don’t wanna come down on you on that, translating between German and English can be a bit inexact and I wanna be sure I understand what you’re trying to say.
We’ve tried voting for reforms, this has been the main effort of the soft-left for generations, and nothing ever comes of it. Why? to put it simply, the American political system is a ‘democracy’ in name only, in reality, the bourgeois class own everything and only they get a real say on governance. This is the entire truth, and it’s very frustrating trying to convince people to understand this.
But, why is that hard to get people to understand? and why do Americans seem to be content with trusting the bourgeois class? well, the straight forwards answer is; we’re propagandized into believing the system works, and into worshipping wealth. We’re taught young that wealth directly equates to value, and so we don’t question or get upset when we see the rich blatantly ignore the democratic method. And, people are too blinded by indoctrination to realize they’re only supporting the bourgeois class - even if they dislike them - by saying the democratic method will solve the issues they cause. People are starting to realize the rich don’t care about them, they’re starting to realize the democrats aren’t on their side, but still believe voting does anything.
TLDR: we live in a very corrupt system, and most Americans are thoughtless drones who don’t question their political situation.
I’m not sure why I get downvoted, I really don’t want to be offensive and I probably did not choose the right words. I still agree with everything you write, but I also still just don’t get how so many people don’t see the issue. I recently saw on Last Week Tonight that there are meat factories in the US where people wear diapers to get their work done. What kind of society forces its members into such a situation and this is only one example of so many that seem just so obviously wrong that I don’t understand anyone thinks that’s ok.
I think one problem of the US democracy is this winner takes it all votings system most states have. Here in Germany major issues that were not adressed by any established party often lead to the formation of new parties winning a good share of the votes. Usually, the older parties then also started addressing the issue and the new party vanished or found its niche. The latest example is probably the right-wing AfD which is sad and I hope they will vanish but many other newly formed parties were more on the progressive side of the spectrum.
The US system could easily open up to third parties, it already has all the frameworks to do so, but none of the incentive. As stated, our government is owned by the bourgeois class, and they manipulate the system to always be in their favour. But the issue isn’t the amount of parties in our system, nor the politics of those parties. The issue is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and our bourgeois are the worst of’em.
No way in hell is the US ever going to stack up to a European country, simply because our ruling class would never dream of it. They’d much rather ignore demands and put down revolutions, than ever fathom the thought of making a few million less a year from socializing vital industries. Our only realistic option to end this and get progressive reforms is to completely rebuild the system from the ground up as a DotP, we simply don’t have the option of using ‘democratic’ reforms.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that politicians will just kinda give us progressive reforms to forcibly quell revolutionary spirit. But the odds of it are… well… very low.
Have you ever thought of using your passive suffrage to see how that turns out? I think everything you wrote is true, but isn’t that only half of the truth? Most people seem to be fine being ruled by the bourgeoisie. Why is it so hard to convince them to try something different?
“passive suffrage”, as in voting power? Sorry, don’t wanna come down on you on that, translating between German and English can be a bit inexact and I wanna be sure I understand what you’re trying to say.
We’ve tried voting for reforms, this has been the main effort of the soft-left for generations, and nothing ever comes of it. Why? to put it simply, the American political system is a ‘democracy’ in name only, in reality, the bourgeois class own everything and only they get a real say on governance. This is the entire truth, and it’s very frustrating trying to convince people to understand this.
But, why is that hard to get people to understand? and why do Americans seem to be content with trusting the bourgeois class? well, the straight forwards answer is; we’re propagandized into believing the system works, and into worshipping wealth. We’re taught young that wealth directly equates to value, and so we don’t question or get upset when we see the rich blatantly ignore the democratic method. And, people are too blinded by indoctrination to realize they’re only supporting the bourgeois class - even if they dislike them - by saying the democratic method will solve the issues they cause. People are starting to realize the rich don’t care about them, they’re starting to realize the democrats aren’t on their side, but still believe voting does anything.
TLDR: we live in a very corrupt system, and most Americans are thoughtless drones who don’t question their political situation.
I’m not sure why I get downvoted, I really don’t want to be offensive and I probably did not choose the right words. I still agree with everything you write, but I also still just don’t get how so many people don’t see the issue. I recently saw on Last Week Tonight that there are meat factories in the US where people wear diapers to get their work done. What kind of society forces its members into such a situation and this is only one example of so many that seem just so obviously wrong that I don’t understand anyone thinks that’s ok.