I hate democracy. (Rant)

General Discussion
1

First of all, this isn’t really a thread about the solution, merely the problem. If that bothers you, then fine. I hope you whine about it extra hard so I’ll be amused, I even encourage you to take pot shots at my character.

I’d like to start this off with a question, how many of you vote on a regular basis? Also, ‘every four years’ isn’t a regular basis. If you only vote on the presidential election then frankly I don’t know how you can expect your vote to count in the first place. I ask this because I’d be willing to bet than less than 10% of people in their 20’s vote on congressional, gubenatorial, and other smaller elections.

…but it’s the people who win these elections who will inevitably show up in the next 10-20 years to contend for the presidency. The very act of not voting in the preceding elections guarantees that the choices you’ll have for president won’t be the choices you would’ve made had you been paying attention prior. Please try to consider that notion for a while if you haven’t before.

Here’s the thing, I don’t want most of you guys voting anyways. Statistics show that a clear majority of Americans don’t research shit before they show up and vote. Most votes are cast as single-party ballots and plenty of votes are cast based on who has the more attractive name. Lots of people vote on whoever’s signs they see more. The very act of advertising is so powerful for candidates that they don’t need to be right, simply appealing.

Take Barack Obama. Whoever was his campaign manager deserves a multi-million dollar mansion fully stocked with a staff running that place. He didn’t need a strong campaign basis, he just simply needed to be as ‘not Bush’ as he could. What better way to do that than with a half-black dude with the word “CHANGE” under his head every 50 fucking yards? If you asked the average American what he believed in the most they could do is spout out some typical rhetoric of a democrat. Don’t get me wrong, that’s where a lot of his ideas are based but to most people he could’ve been any ol’ black democrat. That’s what mattered.

I also don’t exclude myself from this ignorance and name-calling. I am far from a knowledgable person when it comes to the inner-workings of various government facilities. All I’ve done is taken a few government classes to brush up on the general procedures. That didn’t stop me from not knowing what the fuck to vote for on 80% of the questions on Prop 81 a couple of years back. I’m sure almost no one in that room grasped every question but everyone showed up because they had heated feelings about gay rights.

In fact, when you consider the electoral college system, the lack of paper ballots in many voting booths now, the level of education of most voters, the general voter turnout, and the two-party system, I don’t see how most people looking at democracy under a fair light could even give it credit. The only thing that democracy does for us as a country is make us feel better about ourselves. It gives everyone a sense of responsibility when it shouldn’t be everyone’s, and it fills people with a sense of satisfaction.

Flame away.

P.S. I’m not a communist.

2

Your new avvy is nasteh.

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I try to keep abreast of whats going on in my state and vote when I can. I wasn’t able to vote on the recent congress seat sadly because I didn’t know enough about either candidate to make an informed decision but I do try to.

4

What made you wanna post this?

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Truth be told, this was one of the threads I had always wanted to make. The original inspiration was public service announcements telling people to just ‘go vote’. It doesn’t say ‘do some research and vote!’, just go vote. I always thought that was ironic.

I found out a few minutes ago that Australia actually FORCES their residents to vote. WTF. They just want any ol’ douchebag to show up and mark something down? Are you fucking kidding me?

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I always wonder if our elected representatives should do what’s best, even if it’s against our will, or if they should simply do whatever we ask them to do, regardless.

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The problem with modern democracy (or should I say, democrazy) is that people have forgotten that power comes from violence. People’s opinions aren’t valid because they exist, but because they are another warm bodies capable of ganging up on a smaller group of people. People have become complacent and no longer wish to be part of the angry mob. They want justice and representation, but they aren’t prepared to lose themselves in a howling fury. People think “Oh, what difference does it make if I participate or not? A couple extra stones won’t bring back that girls virginity”. But its a chain effect, people start thinking people don’t care about stringing up crims and expanding your territory and they stop wielding torches and pitforks, start letting dissenting voices be heard. Then when things get bad they complain about how nobody is willing to take the matters into their own hands. Hypocrites.

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Amen to that, agreed on all counts. I believed that Obama only got elected because of Bush and his nonsense… People wanted anything and everything but. I could go on but, quite frankly, my post would be much like Irennicus’. So I’ll hand it over to one of my favourite drunks:

?The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.?

You the man, Winston.

9

the US educational system actually does a lot towards shaping how we vote, and not in any malicious way, just that it helps people set up an idea of opinions existing on a linear spectrum and how any person’s vote is supposed to contribute or not contribute, and of course it also teachers an appreciation of authority. The two-party system and electoral districts make no sense compared to the rhetoric of democracy, but the republic system does pretty well compared to the shitstorm that was European democracy before WW2. The structure we’re in isn’t great by any means but it does streamline the process enough for government to function, because when there’s 20 political parties and people voted for whatever the fuck, it usually meant guillotines or Hitler were just over the hill.

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it’s working extremely well, i’d say

in terms of allowing people to stay in the dark it’s just great

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Democracy isn’t really the problem, it’s the apathetic willfully ignorant citizens.

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democracy is just tyranny of the majority. Every 4 years they get to impose their misinformed stupid opinions on a minority. The problem is you simply can’t educate en masse. You only can persuade, and that’s why politicians are so dangerous. People are rationally ignorant, and simply can’t bother with actually learning about the things they support or whatever current politician is proposing. So this creates a vicious cycle of stupidity, which basically never ends.

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i am sad for myself and for america (fuck yeah).

14

In this democracy at least, voting for something is also voting against something.

I think people don’t realize that when you vote someone in (and if they get in), that you voted to force the other group to follow under someone they probably didn’t want to follow (duh that’s why they voted for the other candidate). And as we all know, people usually hate being forced into believing/following someone they dislike.

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There is no ethics behind majoritarianism…its simply violence.

16

What america needs is a good, solid monarchy.

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Just one correction, every election they get a chance to bring in a group of people who then will either enforce the “tyrany of the majority” or simply do whatever the hell they like until the next election looms.

Shame the Monster Raving Loony party is probably never going to end up in power over here, I mean if people just want to vote for interesting stuff, at least give us 99p coins!

18

What do YOU propose? It’s easy to criticise, but you’re only doing that because it’s not gone your way.

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What America needs is the true HNIC at the helm. That’s right, America needs Morgan Freeman.

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the problem with democracy is that it’s inefficient, especially nowadays. the main reason china is bulldozing over the rest of the world is bcuz they have a single party and they know when to stfu and fal in line. the nature of our multi-tiered legislature doesn’t really allow for this to happen in america without some sort of catastrophic event (eg 9/11 and to a much lesser extent wall st.'s collapse).

people get caught up in trendy things to bitch about like the electoral college, uninformed voters, etc… but do you ever think about how stupid it is that the top of our representative legislature’s food chain is the most un-representative body ever? if i had the power to change any one thing about our democratic system i’d get rid of the senate and let the crazy folks in the house run shit.