General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe are living in age of minority rule.
The right flank is holding us down, yet again by refusing vaccines and masks.
bigendian
(1,042 posts)Low voter turnout and apathy is the usual cause. Mix in voter suppression and HELLO OLIGARCHY!
zaj
(3,433 posts)Things are dramatically different. Democracy is on the verge of collapse. This is not usual.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)as the people who stand up for it. It has nothing to do with institutions.
And this is *not new,* especially if you were around when Newt The Fuck Gingrich - of which Mitch The Fuck McConnell thinks he is like him, but he is a poor imitation - wrested power as Speaker of the House.
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)In case you didn't get the memo, the system worked. We voted Trump and his thugs out of office and Joe Biden is president.
Pick up a history book. I mean that seriously. We are not on the verge of a systemic collapse of our democratic system. It's not perfect, but it has worked as designed for quite awhile, through good times and bad and that's not going to change any time soon.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't continue pushing for change, but the sky is not falling.
zaj
(3,433 posts)He's a Yale Historian specializing in the history of authoritarianism and collapsing democracies.
I strongly encourage everyone in this thread to read his work. Here's just a taste from his most recent tweet.
Link to tweet
Elessar Zappa
(13,950 posts)We werent even a democracy until 1964, when the voting rights bill was passed. Until then, black people and others effectively couldnt vote.
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)When Lincoln was assassinated there was a very detailed and thought out plan to stage a coup. I'm not saying that makes it right but this is not the first time something like this has happened and it will probably happen again, and fail again.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)The minority being those few citizens who bother to vote.
If the majority wants to rule then they need get off their asses and vote.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,315 posts)Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Hence, we are ruled by the 50% of the 50% that voted. In other words, 25% voted the winners in.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)have to report *both sides* and/or keep up the meme that this is the first time Democrats have ever held power and we don't know what to do with it (which is looking stronger everyday) or scream questions at PJB, demanding answers to the GQP questions of the hour. Those infamous Gotcha Questions at the pressers, once again distracting from the actual issues that need to be addressed.
Having "progressives" demanding answers as to why PJB hasn't done anything in the six months that he has been in office, like saving the Voting Rights Act, etc. Trying to save humanity in the US has kept him a little busy. Also, he is no longer in Congress, so there really is so much as that he can do.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)It used to be worse, but some change to it has occurred but nearly not enough.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)It was 100 million in 2016. Both times a few hundred thousand of them could have changed everything, but they chose disengagement as their use of their power, to let others decide.
Pathetic and disgusting, but the result is the choice of a majority of the electorate.