Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
Elections Corrupt the Democratic Process [video] (youtube.com)
2 points by hammock on Aug 30, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments


The long and short of this is the idea that elections are inherently the driving factor in the corruption of government, and that the solution is to randomly select citizens to govern...

I'm sorry but the conclusion is built upon faulty logic. What makes elections inherently corrupt? He is looking at the symptom and not the underlying causes here. Like how tf are you not even going to mention the "Citizens United" ruling in the case of US. This allowed corporations to be seen as "people" with the rights "of the people" and allowed them to create Super PACS (political action committees) that can hold billions of dollars and spend that money on swaying public opinion with ads and campaigns. You literally cannot run for election in most cases and beat a candidate who can dump 100 million dollars into your opposition because you oppose something like regulating toxic chemicals in the water/food or sending weapons to foreign nations.

This is literally happening right now. In fact we just broke the record for money spent in state elections, all by a foreign nation as well. You cannot have a Democratic system when elections are this intertwined with money. But the problem is not elections, its how we conduct them and the laws surrounding them (if we are to think along the lines of modern neo-liberal civic policy and not another framework)

the solution is pretty simple, repeal Citizens United, regulate money in politics strictly, give people a lever of power to enforce that regulation and make campaigns grass-rootsand publicly funded endeavors.


Ranked choice, open primaries, would be nice too

Primaries tend to select for those that appeal to the most politically active of a party, which also tends to be the more polarizing elements of the party.

RepresentUs (https://represent.us/) also has more problems listed

- moratorium of 5+ years from govt to lobbying

- gerrymandering reforms

https://represent.us/policy-platform/

They got a bit off message in 2015-6, but seem to be coming back to their core lately


That's a great point. It's at least nice to know that there are actionable steps and goals (no matter how hard it is to fix a broken system with a broken system)


RepresentUs has a plan that works its way up, because we all know those at the top aren't likely to implement restraints on themselves




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: