• The decline of American democracy won't be televised
    13 replies, posted
[video=youtube;pF-Tdsvk0tI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF-Tdsvk0tI[/video]
Sorry but this is just a shallow video that boils down to Trump = begininning of the end of democracy. And the 'decline' doesn't need to be televised; he takes an extremely narrow look at the media. He insults the ability of viewers to piece together the news themselves to arrive at the bigger picture, as if creating the bigger picture is the job of the media. But he forgets that the media already delivers the 'bigger picture' anyways through things such as analysis and opinion pieces, documentaries, current affairs and debate and Q&A programs such as [url=http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/]ABC Q&A[/url]. Is there a decline in democracy? Undoubtedly; the health of western democracy is certainly at a low. But it isn't because of those who are elected into power. It started a long time ago, and some would even argue that it's inherent in all democracies: Democracies decline when the electors become apathetic and disenchanted. They either seek comfort in populist candidates who provide them with compassion and dignity, or they withdraw from democratic participation, therefore making it easier for those populist candidates to be elected. [quote=Antony Funnell]Noted Australian democracy scholar John Keane, director of the Sydney Democracy Network, calls it "democide". "Democracies commit suicide," he says. "They do so under great duress, when significant parts of a voting population become disgruntled, disaffected, disappointed, and they opt … for a different possibility, a different vision." And in today's world, that new possibility is often authoritarian or tyrannical, even though it wears the clothes of compassion, according to Professor Keane. "This new populism is about dignity. It's a politics that promises greater dignity to the disaffected," he says. "It's nurtured in the soil of expectations that things could be better in the future, the sense of possibility is something that all populists with a touch understand. "So the strange thing is that this old grand ideal of self-government of the people through their representatives, where there is an equalising trend, produces these perversions that actually destroy democracy in the name of the people."[/quote] [url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-14/rethinking-democracy-should-you-have-to-pass-a-test-to-vote/8612760[/url] The most harmful thing to democracy in America right now isn't Donald Trump. It's this unending cycle of hate, divisiveness and 'us versus them'. A lot of people here on Facepunch call out the political right for those kinds of things, but doing so by insulting both the politics and the voters. Ironically, by doing that, they are only helping to perpetuate that cycle themselves.
Obviously there's more nuance to this, but in the 5 minute 55 second long video where he briefly explores the idea it's hard to say he says anything I'd say is completely off the mark.
America isn't a democracy though, it never was.
[QUOTE=Jack32;52394242]America isn't a democracy though, it never was.[/QUOTE] then what is it?
[QUOTE=Jack32;52394242]America isn't a democracy though, it never was.[/QUOTE] A Republic is a Democracy.
Remember when Chuck Norris said "Thousand years of darkness" and "our country may be lost forever" because of Obama [video=youtube;7ud3pK5Wa90]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ud3pK5Wa90[/video] I'll let you decide on how different this is from that
[QUOTE=Jack32;52394242]America isn't a democracy though, it never was.[/QUOTE] it used to be
[QUOTE=matt000024;52394246]then what is it?[/QUOTE] America is a federal republic. [editline]24th June 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Sobotnik;52394305]it used to be[/QUOTE] No, the founding fathers didn't want a European style democracy, they didn't like the entire concept of democracy because they saw it as mob rule. That's why they created the federal system of states rights and electors to stop cities and certain states having total control over the fate of the entire country.
[QUOTE=Jack32;52394383]America is a federal republic. [editline]24th June 2017[/editline] No, the founding fathers didn't want a European style democracy, they didn't like the entire concept of democracy because they saw it as mob rule. That's why they created the federal system of states rights and electors to stop cities and certain states having total control over the fate of the entire country.[/QUOTE] What do you think a republic is? Direct democracy isn't the only type of democratic system.
[QUOTE=Jack32;52394383]America is a federal republic. No, the founding fathers didn't want a European style democracy, they didn't like the entire concept of democracy because they saw it as mob rule. That's why they created the federal system of states rights and electors to stop cities and certain states having total control over the fate of the entire country.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=bdd458;52394250]A Republic is a Democracy.[/QUOTE] What about this post though?
[QUOTE=Jacen;52394423]What do you think a republic is? Direct democracy isn't the only type of democratic system.[/QUOTE] There are different kinds of democracy, America just isn't anything like the mass democracy that people think it is. Democracy isn't just one thing.
[QUOTE=Jack32;52394430][b]There are different kinds of democracy[/b], America just isn't anything like the mass democracy that people think it is. [b]Democracy isn't just one thing.[/b][/QUOTE] That was exactly my point, you were the one who came in here posting as if there were only one. And practically no-one thinks the US is a direct democracy, everyone knows about the electoral college and all that stuff.
[QUOTE=Jack32;52394383]No, the founding fathers didn't want a European style democracy, they didn't like the entire concept of democracy because they saw it as mob rule.[/quote] who the fuck cares about what they wanted or not? they lived in the 18th century and a number of their ideas have been shown as unpractical and have been thrown out and what do you mean european-style democracy? what democracies existed in europe in the 1770s? [quote]That's why they created the federal system of states rights and electors to stop cities and certain states having total control over the fate of the entire country.[/QUOTE] minus the fact that democracy as a thing had been around in america for well over a century before the first of the founding fathers were born. people voted in all sorts of local elections and on a colony/state level too america has been a democracy at one point in her history at the very least - arguably (at the very least) during the 19th and 20th centuries
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.