Do We Even Still Have A Democracy?

[Ingomike]

I went to high school in the early 1990s. If you called the USA a democracy my senior year government teacher would start yelling. We learned it was a republic, at least at my rural high school.

I have never thought of the USA as a democracy because I understand the difference.

By the authors standard China is a democracy. It has a constitution and elections.

In my rural school we were taught that the USA was a democratically elected republic, a hybrid of the two. Some republics the representatives are the wealthy, landowners, party members, or combinations of them and others.

 

[smokingman]

In my rural school we were taught that the USA was a democratically elected republic, a hybrid of the two. Some republics the representatives are the wealthy, landowners, party members, or combinations of them and others.

It is not true though. Did you vote for anyone in the electoral college? Were you among the leadership of the Democratic or Republican party who appointed electors? Did you vote for any of those leaders?

The house and senate,sure you can vote for those as representatives of you in government. The president and vp, you really have zero say in. Honestly I am not sure why they even have popular elections. Delegates could/do pick who runs for each party(along with party leadership and their sometimes made up on the spot rules), and the college chooses who wins. It is the way it is.

It is the leadership of the two main parties that decide who presidents are.

 

[Lucar186]

Imagine growing up in something roughly resembling a democracy and then deciding that what we need is a few hundred useless bureaus to badger the public with and turn normal people into criminals. Couldn’t be the boomers.

 

[DefenseInsight]

I think the question can be reworded as "do we still have 'rule of law'"?

We do not.

 

[bgcatty]

The problem is that the US is run by lifetime politicians and not true patriots. We have nobody like Jefferson, Adams, or Lincoln living in the present time, period! None of the idiots who have been president over the past few decades can hold a candle to these aforementioned patriots. We can only hope and pray that the original concepts upon which the USA was created are not so far gone as to cause the downfall of the greatest nation on earth.
God save America, please?

 

[Shadow01]

The odds of burning it down and restarting do not favor the new situation being more freedom…

What backs up this statement? Have people been surveyed? or is this conjecture? To have odds, there must be some sort of measurement that results in your conclusion.

 

[Shadow01]

Imagine growing up in something roughly resembling a democracy and then deciding that what we need is a few hundred useless bureaus to badger the public with and turn normal people into criminals. Couldn’t be the boomers.

It’s the hippies

 

[Lucar186]

What backs up this statement? Have people been surveyed? or is this conjecture? To have odds, there must be some sort of measurement that results in your conclusion.

I think he might be referring to the French Revolution which did not end particularly well.

 

[10mm]

We will soon be a third world country.

"Soon".
I have bad news, friend.

 

[Ingomike]

What backs up this statement? Have people been surveyed? or is this conjecture? To have odds, there must be some sort of measurement that results in your conclusion.

Fnnn history shows the odds. There never has been more freedom than than we have had in our lives…

 

[Magyars]

 

[BigRed]

The odds of burning it down and restarting do not favor the new situation being more freedom…

There is less and less with each passing year on the sinking ship of central state.

I'm good with the State revoking their delegated powers and dissolving it.

There are plenty of States that are more freedom and liberty oriented than the central state.

 

[Tombs]

View attachment 335465

I feel like not enough effort is made to convey the true difference between a republic and a democracy.


In a democracy you directly vote for anyone in office, or possibly even directly vote on law.

In a republic, you vote for some offices, usually lower ones, which themselves vote for other offices and laws. It works as a safe guard against majority rule, and is supposed to provide a higher degree of accountability.

One of the biggest mis-steps in our nation's history was the 17th amendment, which was ripping the guard rails off the cliff edge.

 

[smokingman]

What backs up this statement? Have people been surveyed? or is this conjecture? To have odds, there must be some sort of measurement that results in your conclusion.

History.
Failed governments end in dictatorships or some form of ism. Point out any failed government in history that resulted in a representative republic or even a "democracy" of the mob.
I can name one failed state that became a democracy that then voted in a dictator. Just one though, but want to avoid Godwin's law so will decline.

 

[Tombs]

Point out any failed government in history that resulted in a representative republic or even a "democracy" of the mob.

The United States failed and became a democracy.

Why? Neoliberalism perverted the minds of the people to such an extent they lost all concept of civic virtue and surrendered all authority and agency to "experts," but it's okay because they pushed a button to select that expert after the flashing picture box told them to.

 

[Magyars]

You may not like this guy, but you should hear what he says.

 

[foszoe]

There is less and less with each passing year on the sinking ship of central state.

I'm good with the State revoking their delegated powers and dissolving it.

There are plenty of States that are more freedom and liberty oriented than the central state.

Right up until Canada and Mexico invade.

 

[Shadow01]

History.
Failed governments end in dictatorships or some form of ism. Point out any failed government in history that resulted in a representative republic or even a "democracy" of the mob.
I can name one failed state that became a democracy that then voted in a dictator. Just one though, but want to avoid Godwin's law so will decline.

Point out a representative republic with a constitution that turned into a dictatorship.

 

[smokingman]

The United States failed and became a democracy.

Why? Neoliberalism perverted the minds of the people to such an extent they lost all concept of civic virtue and surrendered all authority and agency to "experts," but it's okay because they pushed a button to select that expert after the flashing picture box told them to.

The United States has not failed since it became a Republic, after the people rejected being a colony for the British.

 

[smokingman]

Point out a representative republic with a constitution that turned into a dictatorship.

The Roman Republic became the Roman empire after nearly 500 years of being a republic in 27 bc.
thus began the rule of Roman emperors and the fall of Rome.