Is democracy doomed in the USA?

Er hmm…I don’t get how this kind of stuff works…but isn’t that kind of how it worked in medieval times or whatever when the church had more power than anything else? Or when kings really weren’t kings unless they followed, to the letter, instructions given to them by high councils and shit? Bit of a scary thought. :/

Yep. You are doomed.
Doomed!
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED.

I agree absolutely. Democracy in the United States has become corrupted by the influence of big money. The voters are beginning to recognise that but it won’t be easy to change. Most politicians are quite happy with things the way they are.

All democracies will fail eventually. How can they not?

You may be surprised to learn that I actually agree with this TED Talk. I know I’m surprised. He makes a few good points. One that strikes home is the point that the best way to increase fund raising is to create controversy. Even where no controversy should exist. If I tell you that the world as you know it is ending, I am more likely to get your vote and your wallet. That is what this TED Talk is doing. Telling us that democracy is going to end.

The problem seems to be that getting your message out to the voters is an expensive proposition. You can no longer give stump speches and reach enough perople to have an impact. Most of America does not follow politics and shows like SNL or the Daily show, maybe Jay Leno, will have more influence and get more attention than a stump speech. We are putting our future into the hands of a very few influential people but the money only serves to counter balance that influence. How do we get the political influence out of the movies, the classroom, or entertainment in general. The truth is Hollywood will continue to exert more influence than the Captains of Industry could ever hope to.

@Jaxk
Well, reading this, it seems clear that you are part of the problem, seeing the influence of money as a good thing.

@ragingloli

You may be right but what is really scary is that I get the same number of votes that you do.

(Probably) Democracy is doomed in America. None of us have the finances to combat the SUPER PACs & running for office is prohibitively expensive, & the conservative element has been working tirelessly to suppress the Voters. So you may as well stick a fork in us, we are done.

@Jaxk Kill me now; I agree with you 100%!

@Jaxk
And neither of which matter, because the only available candidates are those selected by Corporations.

There has never been meaningful “democracy” in the USA. The USA was designed as a small-r republican state, modeled on the authoritarian “pre-imperial” Roman Republic, intended to insulate the powerful from the will of the rabble. The small-r republican party, which cynically calls itself the Democratic Party, still lives by that code, preferring shady dealmaking to open elections. The more fascist party, cynically calling itself the Republicans, disregarded the part about maintaining some semblance of stability, more or less completely disregarding the rabble’s basic material needs and even deriving pleasure to from the fact that it can get away with being vicious, cruel, and sociopathic.

This is the only meaningful difference between the two parties: the Democrats will throw the wider public a bone to keep them from starving, while the Republikans are stupid, incompetent, and vicious enough to ignore or even enjoy watching people suffer.

Gah. I’m sorry I asked. @ragingloli is certainly right.

Our democracy has certainly peaked and has gone over to the down side. It’s still salvageable. Kind of depends on what happens in the next twenty years. If the government continues in its incessant battle, I see little hope for us, unfortunately.

@Sunny2 I think it is salvageable too. And I took Mr. Lessig’s message about “What would you do to save a your child?” to heart. I love America, and I’ll do anything I can to save it. But so long as so many even here on Fluther think to Hell with it, it’s not doable, it may well be beyond my reach to do anything meaningful. We need a sea change.

@jerv

That scares me as much as it does you.

@ragingloli

You can always vote for the Green Party. Corporations won’t be selecting thier candidates.

I don’t know about that. In countries where they have actual power, green parties tend to be center-right on economic questions, more akin to what would be called classical liberalism in academic circles. They just take those positions while simultaneously being concerned with the environment. In other words, their economic ideology is the ideology the USA Republikans pretend to follow, except technically more conservative.