Destroying democracy is the GOP’s goal: Obstruction, dysfunction and the sneaky, decades-long plan t

[DonViejo]

Destroying democracy is the GOP’s goal: Obstruction, dysfunction and the sneaky, decades-long plan to steal your vote

It's not hyperbole: There's a dangerous plan behind GOP hardball in Congress & disenfranchisement efforts in states

PAUL ROSENBERG

In early March, Matt Yglesias wrote a Vox article warning “American democracy is doomed,” not right away, perhaps, but eventually. The main reason, he argued, was the essential instability of our presidential system, in which both the president and Congress—especially the House—can plausibly claim popular legitimacy while opposing one another—a theory advanced by the late Yale professor Juan Linz back in 1990:

Since both the president and the Congress are directly elected by the people, they can both claim to speak for the people. When they have a serious disagreement, according to Linz, “there is no democratic principle on the basis of which it can be resolved.” The constitution offers no help in these cases, he wrote: “the mechanisms the constitution might provide are likely to prove too complicated and aridly legalistic to be of much force in the eyes of the electorate.”

There’s obviously something to be said for this idea, starkly contrasting potentially brittle and conflictual presidential systems with more fluid parliamentary ones. But as a systemic explanation, it tends to absolve individuals and groups of bad actors of any blame, and there very clearly are some bad actors involved in our politics. Both sides are not just doing the same thing.

There are pragmatic asymmetries as well: The kinds of policies advocated by each side are not equally suited to actual governing challenges. Denying the existence of climate change is not comparable to a preparing a response involving international emission-reduction agreements, domestic renewable energy policies and local planning. Finally, the presidential system explanation doesn’t tell us why this should become such a problem now. It’s not that America hasn’t faced serious systemic problems before—we had an extremely bloody Civil War, remember? But the presidential system wasn’t the problem. For a clearer picture of the dangers facing our democracy, we need to consider two other factors.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/30/destroying_democracy_is_the_gops_goal_obstruction_dysfunction_and_the_sneaky_decades_long_plan_to_steal_your_vote/

[2naSalit]

1. K&R