Is Democracy Dying in the USA?

[MineralMan]

If the Republicans have their way, it is. What they want has nothing to do with a democratic republic. They'd like nothing better than to replace it with an oligarchy or with dictatorial, dominionistic despotism.

If we want to preserve some semblance of democracy in this country, Democrats are going to have to participate in that democracy at a higher level. We have enough people to stop the Republicans from de-democratizing the country, but we have a lot of trouble getting them to the polling place.

We need to fix that, and promptly. We have less than a year before the 2018 mid-term elections. Each of us needs to dedicate ourselves to getting every last Democrat and every person who is dissatisfied out to vote. If we do that, we can preserve at least some semblance of democracy. If we do not, the Republicans will work as hard as possible to dismantle it.

And that's the absolute truth.

[jrthin]

1. Democracy is dead. The involuntary movements

you see giving you the impression that democracy is still alive is just the involuntary movements of dead body.

[MineralMan]

2. Nope. You're wrong.

We still have time to save it, but defeatism isn't going to help. Please join in the effort.

[Hortensis]

11. Ask a question like that, get an answer like this.

On the internet for the whole world to read, no less!

Oh, my aching head.

[G_j]

3. comatose?

Last edited Fri Dec 15, 2017, 06:15 PM - Edit history (1)

a flicker of a chance, now
Is the time to act!

[Bradshaw3]

4. Why are people on this site if they've given up?

Yes, the oligarchs control much of our country and the world, but if thousands of Russians can still stand up publicly to Putin with the threats of jail and murder very real, we in America have no excuse for calling our democracy dead. It is not too late. MM is right. We have to dedicate ourselves entirely to electing Democrats who will fight back.

[Bradshaw3]

5. Democracy is in trouble but it is not dead

You are 100 percent right. We have to get involved at every level, and fight by organizing, volunteering, donating money and voting. I am dedicating 2018 to electing Kyrsten Sinema as the next senator from Arizona. I hope people in other states will do the same to the absolute best of their ability.

[GulfCoast66]

6. Nope

This is what it feels like when the other side wins all the elections.

They control all the levers of power and are using them.

We need to be this ruthless in enacting our agenda when we are back in power.

[guillaumeb]

28. And in following your last sentence,

do we become what we oppose?

[Blue_true]

30. It is ok to bloody people in pursuit or righteousness.

If your viewpoint is taken, the Nazis in 1939 would have gotten what they wanted because stopping them came down to killing people. Republicans ignore input for Democrats, there are no attempt at getting input from the other side. When we have power again, we should ram our agenda through and explain to republicans that we are using the same process that they used.

[mythology]

32. The problem with that comparison is that Republicans aren't nazis

Republicans have shitty ideas, but they aren't starting concentration camps or trying to militarily conquer the world. Even Trump isn't an actual nazi. He has white nationalist tendencies certainly. He's morally repugnant. But he isn't actually promoting intentional genocide like nazis and other groups have.

[Blue_true]

34. So cutting food aid and medical care to poor children is not genocide?

Millions of kids will ultimately die if republicans succeed and we don't reverse all of what they do.

[Iahotdog]

38. Given absolute power I personally think they are capable of anything.

I live in the state Steve King represents a part of.Very scary guy.

[jrthin]

42. Are you serious? Shitty ideas kill people in

Real life. Starting simple, not being able to afford cancer treatment is a killer. Cutting social programs, which people depend on to barely exist, is a killer. Tearing immigrant law abiding citizens from their family to deport them to a country they don't really know is a killer. And these are just the starters.

[zentrum]

44. I think you need to

.....undertsand what the phrase "Make Amerivca Great Again" is a dog whistle for.

It means a time when we didn't have immigrants, black people knew their place, and the white patriarch reigned supreme--heck, it was a time when we didn't even have gays. (Joking.)

The racist underpinnings of so many of his policies---from education, to health care---are the visible tip of what Bannon, Miller, Gorka and the Trump family are really about. They are racial Nazis as well as economic Fascists.

[Takket]

7. i've read articles posted here stating that we are essentially a de facto oligarchy

[RandomAccess]

8. A little support for your claim

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029987967

[shanny]

9. Where you been?

US has been an oligarchy for decades. Now it is just becoming apparent.

[WhiteTara]

10. It's not dying, it's being murdered. nt

[Hekate]

12. What you said, MinMan

[OnDoutside]

13. It's hanging by a Mueller thread. If he gets fired, Democrats need to mobilize to get people on the

streets and shut the country down until he is re-instated. I have zero confidence in the Republicans voluntarily standing up for Democracy. In reality they know (especially after voting for the Tax payoffs to the rich) that they are toast. In which case, what do they have to lose in killing democracy and being the party of power ?

[StevieM]

14. Mueller can't save our democracy because the problem goes so much deeper than Donald Trump.

Trump is the symptom, not the cause. The GOP assault on democracy pre-dates the Trump candidacy.

[OnDoutside]

15. He's the line in the sand that says the Institutions can put a halt on a maniacal President. If he

falls, and Republicans block his reinstatement, it's over.

[jcmaine72]

16. Any semblance of democracy in our society was eviscerated following the 2000 presidential election.

While we are still capable of the occasional democratic interlude, as we saw with the election & re-election of President of Obama in 2008 & 2012 respectively, we are no longer a nation that embraces democracy.

[jrthin]

43. Agreed!!! nt

[spicysista]

17. We need to get to work!

I'm with you on this and many other topics. I hope all went well with your parents. Glad to see you back on DU.

[kentuck]

18. Depressing...

But true.

[jalan48]

19. According to a study by two Princeton professors we are an oligarchy now, not a democracy.

They conclude:

"Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policy making is dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened."

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746

[INdemo]

20. As Long as the fuckng Republicans can maintain their wealth

or even increase that wealth and the Corporations are allowed to take total Control of our Government than of course we are headed toward a oligarchy/dictatorship..It may be that Russia/Putin will aid in the collapse
even on American soil..its possible All Trump,The Koch Bros's, Tillerson and many many more oligarchs could care less about this land of the "used to be free" as they think that Weatlh is all they need to live in a dream world.

[zentrum]

21. Started before Trump

Citizen's United.

Gerrymandering.

Electoral College subverting popular vote.

Refusal of Repugs to allow a sitting President to nominate a 9th Supreme Court Judge for a solid year.

For groups of minorities, there has never been a true democracy in this country.

[flying_wahini]

31. Well said.

[mountain grammy]

22. Suspending our plans to spend winter where we are

and will be back in Colorado by January. The legislature will be in session and it’s time to get active there. Also, there’s at least 2 republican House seats that can flip with enough effort and, even though he’s not up till 2020, there’s a one term Cory group getting geared up. That’s one Senator that’s got to go.

If we can’t change this in 2018, there’ll be nothing left to fight for.

[geretogo]

23. Dedemocratization started 38 years in 1980 . I still remember Ronnie Rayguns words . " The problem

with government is government " . The slide to Oligarchy started .

[Jspur]

24. Democracy has died before

in the US. There's been quite few times in it's history that America has been an Oligarchy. During the gilded age America was an oligarchy up until the great depression. Unfortunately we are going through another gilded age era but eventually it will pass. I just hope we all survive the destruction that occurs and will be able to reap the benefits of what comes after.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Winning states is where gerrymandering gets stopped cold & permanently. Independent commissions. nt

[spike jones]

26. Democracy is dying and we are the ones killing it. Voter turnout 1828-2012

Voter turnout 1928-2012
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/turnout.php

[Blue_true]

33. People look for magic bullets when the solution is obvious.

As a party, we need to sideline the Our Revolution types, they are a cancer.

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. Problem is to save it there has to be more than 5% of the public who are

engaged enough to know what is going on.

[Blue_true]

29. The Republican Party.

Is slowly peeling off people who would have never considered directly or indirectly supporting Democrats. What do you think that think like George Will or Jennifer Rubin will do in the 2020 election? My guess is they write in or vote for the Democrat. The election results in Virginia, Alabama and other places in the country say that democracy is not dead. Democrats are gaining legislative super majorities whereas republicans have lost several super majorities.
Our challenge is keeping the people who did not vote in 2016, but came out in recent special elections engaged and get more fence sitters voting. I believe honestly that the overwhelming majority of the non voters are people that are predisposed to vote for our candidates. What I don't want is to see our party leaders wasting time with the Our Revolution types, I think that is wasted time.

[struggle4progress]

35. "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good folk to do nothing"

[ismnotwasm]

36. No. Its being sorely tested

And we are going to lose some battles. Important ones. Democracy will survive, because it is by and large very successful. It’s not perfect, and some of the imperfections led us to where we are right now, but it’s not dying. In fact, unless I miss my guess, it’s spreading across the world, Democratic principles of freedom and human rights are if nothing else becoming a seed of knowledge in those places without it.

I’m a fan of cyberpunk. It’s the one genre that can paint a fairly accurate picture of what happens when Democracy is replaced or subverted by corporate control.

This has happened, to a certain degree. But Democracy comes roaring back, because it’s an ideology that says you, the individual are also important, you have a say (vote) in what happens next. You can participate. You can be heard. You can be a change agent,

Trump is clearly not a fan Of Democracy. Republican are on a collusion course with it, but I refuse to believe that either is stronger than the idea of Democracy. Ultimately they are going to lose, and they are going to lose ugly. And it will serve them right, because while Trump may be a incurious man with limited reasoning skills, many of the The Republicans who have hitched themselves to his train—all in hopes of shrinking government— are not stupid. They are caught up in a dying patriarchal culture in the midst of an information revolution. They have no bend, and therefore will break.

[Gabi Hayes]

37. Duhhhh:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Nancy-MacLean-Responds-to-Her/240699

They’re getting what they’ve always wanted, now at a red-shifting pace

Time is running out

Deal with it

[TomSlick]

39. Democracy lives.

And will not die quietly or easily.

My faith in democracy was confirmed Tuesday night. Democracy and our system will triumph. There will be pain but democracy will survive.

I must have faith. The other option is too evil to contemplate.

[Blaukraut]

40. It's been dead. We're an oligarchy, headed towards a kleptocracy n/t

[bdamomma]

41. I hope the system is strong enough

To stop putin rearing his ugly head.