Is Democracy Outdated?

If we could remove one thing from democracy to make it better, what would it be? Money.

Do we need a new system of selecting our government?

Without an informed citizenry, democracy will not work. The message is not disseminated adequately. When the electorate is not informed, they either do not vote or are influenced by soundbites and emotional ploys, not by sound policy or practices. Can we limit the electorate to those who are educated? How can we determine who is educated and who is not?

We are ultimately limited to two parties because others are not viable.

Methods of voting: scoring? Ranking?

In a democracy we listen to whomever sounds the best. Which ever candidate is the most articulate, has the pithiest soundbites. The actual policy does not matter so much as how the advertisement for it is phrased.

Money follows popularity. Good orators win. A few people are bankrolling elections. Wealthy people with foreign interests can influence elections in favor of foreign factions. Whoever raises the most money winsyists do not typically affect the electorate, because the focus on the representatives. When we elect representatives who are beholden to special interests, or dependent upon them for money, we vote in favor of those lobbies. It is more important to know where the candidate’s funding comes from than it is to know what his personal opinions are. His vote in congress will follow the money, not his conscience.

How to both inform voters, then ensure that they vote? Impose fines? How does Australia do it?

Because of qualifying requirements, it is difficult for a third party even to get on a ballot. Then, in order to eliminate that third party, a law requires the third party’s candidates to have gotten a certain percentage of votes in the last election.

By creating an elitist federal system, we’ve created an aristocratic plutocracy. But it’s still better than loosely affiliated city-states which are always going to war.

Politicians never have to back up what they say. Just by saying something, it becomes fact in the minds of the average voter, and is therefore irrefutable.

We might as well buy and sell votes on eBay.

In the most recent election cycle, job were an issue on a national level, but local people talked about taxes. Does it depend upon who you know and where you live as to whether jobs are an issue for you?  Different communities have different issues.

When we have four generations living in a single home who cannot recall a successful person close to them, they vote based on something other than personal economy. They vote on more abstract ideas: religion, for instance.

Government of the people by the powerful for the wealthy.

People often vote based on one issue: abortion, taxes – whether or not that issue directly affects them. They vote an abstraction that, in application, harms other people or even themselves.

What if we abolished all political parties, and each candidate had to run on the issues?

Alternatives: a meritocracy. But meritorious … what?… qualifies one for office? And how can we measure integrity? Money always influences candidates, especially when the candidate can put the money in his own pocket. We have the foxes guarding the hen house, because those who stand to gain personally and financially, and who stand to benefit most immediately from abuse of campaign finance, are those who make the campaign finance laws.

The candidate with the best ad company and the most ads wins.

For democracy to work, we must have educated, informed voters. In misinformation is repeated often enough, it becomes “truth” in the minds of those who hear it.

Scandinavians measure their country’s success by how well the worst off among them are doing Americans measure it by how well the best off are doing.  The view from Europe is that we are all wealthy, but we know that is not actually the case.

The people making the important political decisions MUST know what they are doing. They cannot be influenced by avarice or self-interest. They have to have altruistic natures, and an eye toward long term benefits for the greatest good.

When we elect a representative, we elect someone who displays good judgment in making decisions for the collective best interest of those he represents.

Spend a week of the legislative session at the capitol building.

Every country has the government it deserves.

Government officials should be paid well, and should be prohibited from deriving income from any source other than that government paycheck. If we truly expect them to represent the people, they cannot be on anyone else’s payroll.

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated on January 6, 2024 by Anne