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Originally Posted by The Batlord
I think it's more fundamental than just the specifics of modern society and voting culture. I don't think the last couple hundred years of democracy have done much to change how people relate to and interact with power and the establishment. People treat the presidency as much more important than Congress because deep down we're still just peasants looking for an authority figure to make all the decisions that we have no time, power, or inclination to make while we're either harvesting crops or managing our portfolios in much the same way that people have interacted with our leaders all throughout history.
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I think you've got a good point here. More people participate in presidential elections than in local government (i.e., they're only meaningfully engaging in the political election process once every four years) and that's definitely an issue. But, at the same time, I think you would likely agree (correct me if I'm wrong) that the president does have more power than he/she should. Engaging in war without congressional approval, executive orders, judicial appointments, supreme court appointments, foreign policy, etc. The president probably has more power in modern times than ever before in US history. Though the "peasant mindset" that seeks a preferable authority figure is a real thing, the president does have serious power and is certainly an important political decision.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
The novelty of democracy is almost just a gimmick so that the populace can puff out their chests and feel important even though they have no intention of actually being civically engaged in a way that would meaningfully transfer any power from the government to us.
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This is an honest question - is the system even designed to allow us to do this (this being: "meaningfully transfer any power from the government to us.")? I mean, there are probably incremental improvements that can be made, but if I was a rich, powerful person in government or in corporate business, I'd likely make sure that the system was as geared towards me keeping power as it possibly could be. I imagine most in power think like this.