If you look at it from a historical perspective, it’s not so much that the US has democracy as a fig leaf, but rather that we are approaching an inflection point. As we have done so several times in our relatively short history. There were Federalists. There were Whigs. No longer. In the 60s/70s, the Dems/Repubs flipped roles for the most part. Now that we’re on the far side of the 2020 election, I think we really are seeing a splintering of the GOP. That tension that’s been building for 40+ years is going to be released. We don’t yet know how. But ever since they held that fateful meeting that decided upon the Southern Strategy, we have been on a course for this moment.
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The USA is a representative democracy, and a republic. But it is a badly damaged, imbalanced and flawed democracy. As long as rich white dudes write all the rules, it will remain so. The grand experiment ain’t over yet, but it sure is on the ropes. Things aren’t looking so hot, except for the 1%, which is the problem in a nutshell.
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Agreed. I do think there are most certainly people looking to turn back the clock on the expansion of rights seen over (especially) the course of this century. It can, of course, always happen, but that’s why we all have to remain vigilant on these issues, and not just narrowly defined for the rights that apply to us as individuals, but to the rights of all our fellow citizens, whatever their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, etc, etc. The hard fought rights of people marginalized in American history have benefited all of us, primarily by expanding the definition of what it means to be a free citizen.
I don’t know… maybe.
This!
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I am not sure the question of whether or not we are a democracy matters so long as we are not actually governing ourselves.
Our will is carried out begrudgingly, if at all, by our own parties. The fact that we get to vote on who ignores us really doesn’t matter, we’re still ignored. The idea of democracy really isn’t that we get to choose our dictators. The idea is government by the people, for the people.
Our laws are written by people who want to utilize our labor, giving as little as possible in return, and sell us as much as they can for the most money they can. So long as that is true, it doesn’t matter if we have 20 candidates for every office to choose from, the end result is still fixed against us.
It doesn’t help that problem in that so many of us see the government and the people who work for in it (from elected officials down to unelected career public servants) not as an “us” but a “them.” It a distinct lack of not taking responsibility that the republicans are constantly whinging about, in fact.
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OK, sure, that’s pretty much congruent to my own beliefs.
What’s going on here?
The US is a Democratic Republic.
It is a type of Democracy. It usually is not a Direct Democracy, but on occasion it is when specific issues are voted on.
Quote minded texts from the Founding Fathers that are disparaging Democracy as “mob rule” are talking about Direct Democracy. Since then the word Democracy has changed to mean any system of government where the people are the government. This is seen when the US tries to justify nation building as “introducing Democracy” to a part of the world.
I see FB posts by my moms cousin disparaging Democracy and I have to slap them down as stupid and dangerous.
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Most specified rights in the US Constitution relate to voting. The US is indeed structured as a republic (representative gov’t) whose officials are chosen by popular vote i.e. democracy. USAnians hostile to democracy should relocate to a republic where popular votes are irrelevant. China would be a good choice, or North Korea. Start packing.
Excuse me? What have I said, that makes you think I’m “hostile to democracy”?
I will say it again: the US was set up for the benefit of old, white, landed men, and has remained UNrepresentative of varying but large swathes of its population, since its inception. No, we’re not a democracy, the trappings aside; the country was set up to keep “undesirables” out of power, and that’s still a problem today.
Noting our own country’s rather tangential approach to “democracy” does not somehow imply I hate democracy or approve in any way.
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