The American system of democracy has crashed

https://www.theverge.com/policy/697301/trump-supreme-court-founding-fathers-july-4

45 comments

  1. We have the same problem as in the 1860s – ignorant, racist white folk

  2. This is a really great article, but quoting from the end in particular (which is poking at the “textualism” SCOTUS is wielding to carry out Trump’s oppression):

    “What’s a red-blooded American to do when their government becomes destructive to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? The Declaration of Independence has some notes about “the Right of the People to alter or to abolish” its existing government “and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

    But that was another time, right? Surely nobody wants to take the Founding Fathers’ original words literally. Their original meaning and original intent can’t just be superimposed on American life today, not when American values are very different from the values of 1776. In Trump’s America, the national ethos is simply a boot on your neck, forever.

    Happy Independence Day!”

  6. A Republic, if you can keep it. We failed long before this to get us to this point.

  8. Classic American media. 

    “American democracy is crashing!”

    Also please ignore the last 10 years of complicity in that crashing because we needed clicks. 

    100% in the midterms these se outlets are gonna be like ” why it’s not such a bad idea to keep trump’s majority” 

  9. Maybe having 535 members of congress for 340,000,000 people is part of the problem. If they spoke to every person they represent, each person would get about 2 seconds. More people also makes it harder to just buy them.

  10. It ended when trump was reelected. Thats the moment i lost all hope in this country. Any country that would choose this fucking loser dictator again after doing such a shitty job is one that has no interest in being a respectable democracy.

  11. It has not. The system is working, people elect their representatives, the representatives carry out their constitutional duties. One may argue that the system is imperfect, but it is working within the rules as have been established for the last 249 years. Everything that has happened in the last decade or so, the Supreme Court, the extremists in Congress, a convicted rapist as president, has happened as a result of elections. This is the will of the people, this is democracy.

  12. Congresspeople are celebrating a bill that the majority of Americans despise…this is an oligarchy. Not a democracy.

  13. What do you expect when you’re constantly running a 1.5 party system

  17. Crashed? It’s a full-send Plutocracy with no action plan.

  18. Always remember, the government and politicians that represent you hate you and want you live in pain and misery.

  19. The problem isn’t really Trump.

    It’s republicans.

  20. It crashed a while ago. Billionaires and corporations pre-vet the candidates before voters get to choose between them and have done for a while.

  22. Sandy Hook was **13 years ago** and we are further away from stopping school shootings than we were then.

    What is a system of government that cannot stop the slaughter of our children in schools? Why keep it alive? Why insist on its ossified traditions and outdated concepts that rely on shame and honor to enforce its most vulnerable ideas?

    We spent centuries venerating a broken down jalopy of a government and its slaveholder class, exclusive male founders, and now the party that’s supposed to save us is “playing dead” so they can come back into power and do nothing and fail to stop the next Sandy Hook or Climate Change or this downward spiral into Fascism. How can this country solve the existential crises of the future when it can’t even get over its morally repugnant old-timey white supremacist bullshit?

  24. You need to understand what a democracy is and how it works.

  25. If you were to remove all propaganda and the giant cult and think about an individual supporting Trump on his own terms… it’s hilarious to think about. At its core, our problem was not our people, it was our information environment melting everyone’s brains. Now it’s really hard to imagine the scenario we could reboot America and start over, because the brains are already rotten, and Republican politicians can’t get off the dictator’s treadmill and just admit oops, it was all a big con sorry. There’s a momentum that can’t be conquered with persuasion—we basically have to wait until it ruins us completely, then stamp out the rotten ideology by force. There’s no clean straight line back to true representative democracy, because anyone who supports this regime can’t be included in this process. We’re talking about Republican majorities needing to be treated like the confederates, but while they have a stranglehold over power. I don’t know what the path forward is, but I do think it starts by recognizing this mutated force as an enemy to be conquered, not reasoned with. The era of performative bipartisanism needs to die. Democrats need to stop describing Republicans as colleagues, and instead label them as a hostile occupying force and illegitimate government and party.

  26. My favorite line was the one about “flacid cowards.” Brought to mind the stern letters Chuck Schumer threatens.

  29. People are stupid to believe there will be some major response to Trumps politics caused by people. Most likely it will be like Russia. Where are the protestors? Dead or in prison….

  31. The appallingly misleadingly named Citizens United is the poison. US ‘democracy’ is now just institutionalised bribery.

  33. Honestly, it crashed a long time ago. It’s just utterly undeniable now. Neither party has had any interest in what the electorate wants for literal generations at this point and the two party system is so locked in there’s nothing anyone can do about it. 

    And yes, I know Dems are better than Republicans. Still not good, though.

  34. The only way to make a real change is for a national general strike. Completely bring the economy to a screeching halt. Pretty much the only way to do anything at this point.

  36. And this from the fuck that want use “antisemitism” as an excuse to take control of universities

  37. I so sad for the US. Use to be such a proud country. Freedom and opportunity my ass.

  39. Our economic system has won out over our political system. Ethics, morality, and a sense of obligation to our fellow man and Mother Earth have been strangled by greed

  40. The future will not be peaceful. And the Christians cheer it on because they want the end times to begin.

  41. It was doomed from the beginning because of how white, rural people were over-represented in Congress and the Electoral College. They were able to partner with moneyed interests and use their combined bigotry to reverse progress and dismantle democracy

  42. I read that as, “The American system of decency has crashed.”

    Both would be true.

  43. Well. Part of this is realizing a couple of real practical goals.

    First is realizing the more you go online and bitch and moan the less you do something. Real action starts now.

    Second is real actual rebellion and revolution goals. All to make things really difficult for the state to do what it needs to do.

  44. To call America a democracy has been a bit of a stretch for quite some decades by now. Voter suppression and minority rule and so on.

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