My take away from this is that most Americans think that "democracy" is a great idea. If only we could practice it here. If you ask most Americans they would probably agree with Trump that the system is rigged. The perception that money runs everything, that lobbyists have more power than constituents, and that having power to control is more important than using power to govern is pretty wide spread.
Most of us have had the thought "If I were king..." and wish that we could just will that things can be ordered in our particular preferred way. I think this spills over into our political thinking because we get so frustrated by the messiness that representative democracy with majority rule but also minority rights can be.
Even our rhetoric around the presidency reflects this. Presidents are the Caesars of the Free World not the first among equals. We expect them to run the economy which they cannot do unless they actually have a magic wand. We expect Presidents to do for us what Congress and the Courts cannot or will not do. There was a time, to be honest, when it really didn't matter who the President was and we were lucky to have Presidents capable of rising to a crisis. The power and expectations of the President were more modest. Since Calvin Coolidge the Imperial Presidency has grown into the monster that it is today where someone like Trump can be a catastrophe because of the power the office has accrued.
And this is a bipartisan temptation. I got an authoritarian vibe from Bernie and the Sandernistas back in 2016. Their policy priorities sounded more like demands than debatable positions where compromise might be possible. Hillary was the elitist Queen which the populist saviors tried to overthrow. Even the expectations of these people to turn foreign policy on a dime because they demand it reflects this populist thread.
In our heart of hearts everyone wants a dictator as long as he is OUR dictator.
So boring. I think I will un-subscribe from The UnPopulist. THis kind of Substack is just trying to show us that they are professional writers. But are not "most" of us pretty SICK of the professionals and their hubris? I think so. Read MY Substack. It is not so slick and it gets to the damn point a lot faster! You will feel better, to!!! STOP BORING READING. (I will copy this in case these people delete me)
What if our elites are actually out of touch? I note that ~70 percent of Americans disagree with Joe Biden's blinkered campaign to let males cheat at women's sports, for example.
> As a theoretical ideal, representative democracy—described by Pew as “a democratic system where representatives elected by citizens decide what becomes law”
Note that *governing in the best interests of the public* is not a condition for democracy, literally just going through the motions meets the definition.
I continue to believe that "democracy" is the biggest psy op in the history of mankind.
My take away from this is that most Americans think that "democracy" is a great idea. If only we could practice it here. If you ask most Americans they would probably agree with Trump that the system is rigged. The perception that money runs everything, that lobbyists have more power than constituents, and that having power to control is more important than using power to govern is pretty wide spread.
Most of us have had the thought "If I were king..." and wish that we could just will that things can be ordered in our particular preferred way. I think this spills over into our political thinking because we get so frustrated by the messiness that representative democracy with majority rule but also minority rights can be.
Even our rhetoric around the presidency reflects this. Presidents are the Caesars of the Free World not the first among equals. We expect them to run the economy which they cannot do unless they actually have a magic wand. We expect Presidents to do for us what Congress and the Courts cannot or will not do. There was a time, to be honest, when it really didn't matter who the President was and we were lucky to have Presidents capable of rising to a crisis. The power and expectations of the President were more modest. Since Calvin Coolidge the Imperial Presidency has grown into the monster that it is today where someone like Trump can be a catastrophe because of the power the office has accrued.
And this is a bipartisan temptation. I got an authoritarian vibe from Bernie and the Sandernistas back in 2016. Their policy priorities sounded more like demands than debatable positions where compromise might be possible. Hillary was the elitist Queen which the populist saviors tried to overthrow. Even the expectations of these people to turn foreign policy on a dime because they demand it reflects this populist thread.
In our heart of hearts everyone wants a dictator as long as he is OUR dictator.
Pretty much.
Many Americans feel their leaders answer to lobbyists and private executives, not the people who elect them.
Americans’ negative views of representative democracy are due to 2 main factors: gerrymandering and right-wing propaganda.
So boring. I think I will un-subscribe from The UnPopulist. THis kind of Substack is just trying to show us that they are professional writers. But are not "most" of us pretty SICK of the professionals and their hubris? I think so. Read MY Substack. It is not so slick and it gets to the damn point a lot faster! You will feel better, to!!! STOP BORING READING. (I will copy this in case these people delete me)
What if our elites are actually out of touch? I note that ~70 percent of Americans disagree with Joe Biden's blinkered campaign to let males cheat at women's sports, for example.
> As a theoretical ideal, representative democracy—described by Pew as “a democratic system where representatives elected by citizens decide what becomes law”
Note that *governing in the best interests of the public* is not a condition for democracy, literally just going through the motions meets the definition.
I continue to believe that "democracy" is the biggest psy op in the history of mankind.