I mean, just, Devil's Advocate, but it kind of was the consensus will of the people that voted. And we live in a democracy, so the people who didn't vote don't count.
That's the beautiful thing about democracy, you get exactly the government that you deserve.
Now I think about it, that can also be the terrifying thing about democracy as well, but you get the idea.
You deserve no better, nor any worse, than what you have.
This is a common refrain but logically empty. It implies, for example, that the minority deserves any hypothetical persecution by the majority simply for being fewer in number at the ballot box. Failing to convince the majority that your rights matter doesn't mean you deserve to be punished.
Democracy is about how the people (demos) in a state or other community coexist by negotiating their individual and collective needs and priorities. Reducing it down to "you didn't vote so you don't count", or worse still, "you voted for the losing side so you don't count" is a gross distortion. Its not just about the vote, its what happens after that.
> That's the beautiful thing about democracy, you get exactly the government that you deserve.
This makes no sense. There isn't something out there that renders a singular judgement on what people deserve. There's only us.
Hell no. A country in which the Citizens United decision is in effect is extremely less democratic than a country without such a corrupting influence in play.
"Now I think about it..." work on that some more going forward. The country is complicated and Democracy has grades. We're getting an F at the moment.
There are democratic procedures by which the people can go about changing citizens United. You apparently believe those procedures are not part of democracy, but they are.
That the people won’t take the decision, and implement the process to change citizens united, is the fault of the people, not of the democracy. Democracy simply provides the procedures. You make the decisions.
For instance, a lot of right wing people spent a lot of time stacking the court to do away with roe v wade. Democracy provided that possibility through procedures it put in place. That’s only one way to do away with citizens united. There are others. None of which you choose to avail yourself of. How is that the democracy’s fault?
If you think the way Roe v. Wade was killed reflects democracy in action, I don't think we will ever see eye to eye. "Democracy provided that possibility," no Democracy as we implement it failed to resist the authoritarian attack built on broken oaths. Did you and I watch the same confirmation hearings? That wasn't democracy.
Next I suspect you'll try to tell me the Brooks Brothers riot was also "democratic procedures."
When many people use the word "democracy" today, they're not referring to a system of government where laws reflect the will of the people as determined by votes. They're talking about Democracy, a civic religion where the rules match their own personal beliefs and the current-year beliefs of their class.
So in a Democracy, if the people vote for something different, that's anti-Democratic, and non-democratic methods may be required to fix Democracy.
Perhaps you'd like to put some more words in my mouth.
When I say Democracy, I mean a form of government in which political power is primarily seated within the common mass of people, as opposed to political power being with those who bribe, cheat, scheme, lie and bribe some more to achieve more political power than their fellow citizen. This tension puts democracy on a gradient, one which I believe is currently and firmly seated in corporate command of political power. I recommend you go read Democracy Incorporated to add a little more clarity and contrast to your world view.
Consider gerrymandering. It literally makes some votes count for less than others. Yet the only recourse is the courts, and if the courts are stacked, it means that minority elected by padding their votes in this manner can retain control despite will of the majority.
No, it wasn't. It was what about half voted for. There was no consensus. Consensus means general agreement, not a small majority.
That they're elected by majority (never mind the indirections) is a key reason why it is important that the executive is not allowed to wield too much power unilaterally.
(And a key reason why the executive in most countries have far less power than a US president...)
Maybe in a perfectly functioning democracy, but the U.S. has been actively separating policy from politics maybe for my entire lifetime. Just for starters:
* The two-party system dominates the process, and actively excludes 3rd parties. Look into changing requirements for debate participation.
* The Democratic party argued in court that they have no obligation to use a "fair" primary to select candidates. This was in response to a lawsuit from donors claiming the party mislead them by tipping the scales against Bernie Sanders in 2016.
* Gerrymandering continues to enable parties to win large majorities in state legislatures while losing the popular vote at the state level.
* Many of our current troubles have been caused by the Supreme Court, which is not democratically elected.
* The Electoral College and Senate apportionment continue to give more power to voters in low-population states.
Everything you’ve listed here was a choice made ultimately via the process of following democratic procedures. Everything you listed can also be undone via democratic procedure. That we don’t use this democratic procedures to undo these structural impediments to fairness is a choice. A democratic choice that we make.
How, exactly, are our choices suddenly the fault of the democratic system?
Are you arguing that since voters elect representatives, voters are ultimately responsible for everything those representatives do, even if it is contrary to the interests and desires of those who voted for them? If the process is flawed, are the results not also flawed? Unless we started with a perfect system, and voters clearly chose to make it less perfect. That doesn't match the history I know.
Ah yes, "democracy", voting once every 4 or 5 years and accepting whatever the government does because "we voted for them"... while disregarding 49% of the population (+ people who changed their mind) just "because". Some people have a really limited conception of democracy... You're electing representatives, not Lords and Kings lmao.
You're just a few steps away from a russian version of democracy if you define it so loosely in the first place
America doesn't live in a Democracy, it lives in a bipartisan and increasingly sectarian dissolution of Democracy originally based on gerrymandering, now based on establishing Unitary executive theory through force.
Red Team/Blue Team isn't Democracy, its Oligarchy with extra steps - self-evident by the recent actions of an ultra-wealthy elite to shape political decision-making in ways that increase their wealth.
You need only look as far as the inauguration of 47 to be slapped in the face by the audacity of it - flanked by the Railway Barons of Silicon Valley - Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg - and bolstered by Tim Cook, Sam Altman, and Bernard Arnault.
The Fair Representation Act - which would solve a plethora of issues in one act - served to establish independent redistricting commissions in all states to prevent gerrymandering, whilst simultaneously introducing the proportional STV system of elections like we have in Ireland
If enough people believe it, then you failed in your democratic duty to create an educational system that produces citizens able to separate fact from non fact. Relevance from irrelevance. And so on.
In a democracy, the educational system is a democratic practice. A civic duty. We could have changed our educational system to be better, we didn’t. That’s on us. We could change it now. We won’t. That’s a choice. A democratic choice.
The practice of democracy is not solely about voting. There are many democratic choices we make every day that concert to give us the government we deserve.
I’m sorry but in 2025 that type of thinking feels extremely naive. There is an education issue, but that’s such a detail compared to the level of propaganda, misinformation. People have been groomed by entire networks of misinformation for such a long time. It’s a complete take over of the democratic system, by nefarious actors, to their own benefit. Doing so fully in the open
That's the beautiful thing about democracy, you get exactly the government that you deserve.
Now I think about it, that can also be the terrifying thing about democracy as well, but you get the idea.
You deserve no better, nor any worse, than what you have.