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Originally Posted by OccultHawk
Because it’s exactly what we’ve voted for
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^ In light of our recent debate, I had to raise my eyebrows when I saw your pronoun, OH - no need for you to shouder so much of the blame.
Also, I'd suggest, don't be so hard on Democracy because this is only part of the equation:-
Quote:
Originally Posted by OccultHawk
The end result = America (most war monering greediest environmentally destructive country on earth)
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USA is internationally ranked as "Flawed Democracy", but (from memory) Britain, the Scandanavian countries, New Zealand and others are down as "Full Democracy" and by most people's standards they are pretty enviable places to live with some enlightened policies about health care, human rights, environmental protection, etc.
If the USA wants to get back into the Full Democracy club, they need to address the counter-democratic practices of the electoral college, gerrymandering and voter suppression. Then, as elphenor says, guys like Ted Cruz & Brian Kemp wouldn't be winning elections imo. - which, I just realise, is what 66Sexy is saying:-
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Originally Posted by 66Sexy
The pitfalls of the American electoral system are not secret. The American public either knows or stays willfully ignorant. If the public as a whole made a concerted effort to be civically engaged (even on a basic level that I imagine all but the most overworked could manage) then we could make gerrymandering, the electoral college, voter disenfranchisement, etc into issues that politicians would be forced to listen to. We do not. Apathy is a vote too and the people have voted to let politicians act as aristocrats.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OccultHawk
Americans who still believe in democracy are like a battered woman beaten to a pulp everyday for years. Eyes blackened. Bones fractured. Repeat. Genocide slavery war war war stolen oil stolen palm oil stolen rubber products - bikini atoll Vietnam drug war prisons for profit weapons proliferation arming Angola arming Iraq arming Afghanistan Obama arming Vietnam Central America Cold War nuclear testing in Nevada chemical weapons plant in Utah - biological weapons research - rain forests destroyed coral reefs destroyed mass extinctions- and finally the granddaddy of them all global warming- every last drop of oil - fracking strip mining mountain top removal “clean” coal LBJ Nixon Reagan Bush Bush and ladies and gentlemen Donald J Trump. But this battered woman still clings to the ideal she had in her head of who this man was when she married him the way we lovingly look at the dreams of our founding “fathers” - still without scorn because we can’t bear to face the horror that everything we believe and cling to is a goddamn lie.
All brought to you by the American Voter.
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^ I respect your passion about the worst sins of the US, but there are positive signs too, e.g. the Civil War came to an end, there is no longer slavery, women can hold office, etc.
Also, two quibbles about your list of horrors:
- that nuclear stuff looks terrible in hindsight, but was a reflection of how threatened the US felt at the time.
- "rain forests destroyed": where were they, exactly? Perhaps they were cleared away to build Route 66, he asks facetiously.