I’ve lived in a couple of countries in Europe and always voted when I could (being an EU Citizen, I can vote in Local and European Elections in any EU country).
From my own experience, that is not at all “how democracy always works”.
It’s at best how the American voting system always works.
Merelly “having a vote” is not the same as Democracy - just look at Russia - so the question is “How far away is the American Voting System from the ideal of Democracy and is it even a Democracy or just a Theatre Of Democracy?”. Whilst I have my own belief in that, I think it’s best if each person, looks around and really thinks about and draws their own conclusions.
It’s funny that the least democratic system I lived under - Britain, which was even worse than the US IMHO (they have a King and an unelected second chamber whose membership is lifelong and in some case hereditary) - was a place were, just like in the US, policians kept going on an on about how great a Democracy their country was, whilst in the most democratic one - The Netherlands, who though they do have a powerless Monarch, use Proportional Vote for Parliament which has all the real power - politicians never felt the need to harp about how great a Democracy they had.
Oh yeah - to clarify, I meant “things take effort to maintain” is how democracy always works, not “vote for me bc the other guy is worse”, which is only a feature of those with 2-party systems in place.
The former is also simply stating that systems tend towards entropic decay, without intervention to prop them up. So it is not unique even to just political systems. e.g. Nixon was impeached, but rather than attempt to stop future such attempts, we instead allowed people to lay the groundwork for the next attempt. And then when the January 6 coup attempt failed, once again rather than take steps to prevent such in the future, we again allowed it to fester and the same exact people who tried it before are now stating openly that they would like to try again. So… third time’s a charm, anyone? 🍀
Whereas it seems an open question whether a 2-party system can even be called a “democracy” at all, but even if it can, especially at first, it definitely shifts the field away from what people consider as the foundational principles of democracy. And that too we allowed to fester, for many decades. But surely nothing bad would ever happen, ever, for any reason, right!? Nope, it seems to me that we are all permanently safe, forever… 🍀
Well, ok, that does make a lot of sense and aligns with what I’ve been discovering myself in the last few years - Democracy is a process, not an absolute inalterable state of being.
This dovetails with a lot of things such as how parties who remain too long in power become corrupt over time no matter how honest they started as, an effect that also seems to happen when it’s two parties alternating in power (were both parties become corrupt over time, just slower).
You also see the near constant attempts at undermining the independence of the Press and Judicial Pillars of Democracy and making them subservient to the Political Pillar and/or with that same Pillar becoming subservient to other, non-state unelected powers, typically those whose power comes from Money.
Similarly with religion. e.g. Jesus said: “love one another, especially those you disagree with” - love ofc is a chosen attitude towards patience, gentleness, kindness, peace, etc., and instituted the most widespread and strongest provisions for women’s rights that the world has ever seen.
Fast-forward to today’s religious christofascists taking away women’s health options and taking sexual advantage of children and it’s just… not the same. Everything gets corrupted over time, and takes effort to preserve and persevere.
I’ve lived in a couple of countries in Europe and always voted when I could (being an EU Citizen, I can vote in Local and European Elections in any EU country).
From my own experience, that is not at all “how democracy always works”.
It’s at best how the American voting system always works.
Merelly “having a vote” is not the same as Democracy - just look at Russia - so the question is “How far away is the American Voting System from the ideal of Democracy and is it even a Democracy or just a Theatre Of Democracy?”. Whilst I have my own belief in that, I think it’s best if each person, looks around and really thinks about and draws their own conclusions.
It’s funny that the least democratic system I lived under - Britain, which was even worse than the US IMHO (they have a King and an unelected second chamber whose membership is lifelong and in some case hereditary) - was a place were, just like in the US, policians kept going on an on about how great a Democracy their country was, whilst in the most democratic one - The Netherlands, who though they do have a powerless Monarch, use Proportional Vote for Parliament which has all the real power - politicians never felt the need to harp about how great a Democracy they had.
Oh yeah - to clarify, I meant “things take effort to maintain” is how democracy always works, not “vote for me bc the other guy is worse”, which is only a feature of those with 2-party systems in place.
The former is also simply stating that systems tend towards entropic decay, without intervention to prop them up. So it is not unique even to just political systems. e.g. Nixon was impeached, but rather than attempt to stop future such attempts, we instead allowed people to lay the groundwork for the next attempt. And then when the January 6 coup attempt failed, once again rather than take steps to prevent such in the future, we again allowed it to fester and the same exact people who tried it before are now stating openly that they would like to try again. So… third time’s a charm, anyone? 🍀
Whereas it seems an open question whether a 2-party system can even be called a “democracy” at all, but even if it can, especially at first, it definitely shifts the field away from what people consider as the foundational principles of democracy. And that too we allowed to fester, for many decades. But surely nothing bad would ever happen, ever, for any reason, right!? Nope, it seems to me that we are all permanently safe, forever… 🍀
Well, ok, that does make a lot of sense and aligns with what I’ve been discovering myself in the last few years - Democracy is a process, not an absolute inalterable state of being.
This dovetails with a lot of things such as how parties who remain too long in power become corrupt over time no matter how honest they started as, an effect that also seems to happen when it’s two parties alternating in power (were both parties become corrupt over time, just slower).
You also see the near constant attempts at undermining the independence of the Press and Judicial Pillars of Democracy and making them subservient to the Political Pillar and/or with that same Pillar becoming subservient to other, non-state unelected powers, typically those whose power comes from Money.
Similarly with religion. e.g. Jesus said: “love one another, especially those you disagree with” - love ofc is a chosen attitude towards patience, gentleness, kindness, peace, etc., and instituted the most widespread and strongest provisions for women’s rights that the world has ever seen.
Fast-forward to today’s religious christofascists taking away women’s health options and taking sexual advantage of children and it’s just… not the same. Everything gets corrupted over time, and takes effort to preserve and persevere.