The Republican Party Is Succeeding Because We Are Not a True Democracy
The Jan. 6 attack would not have happened in a genuine democracy.
The attack was the most acute symptom — so far — of the political crisis that Donald Trump incited by refusing to admit defeat in the 2020 election. But the roots of the crisis run deep into the undemocratic features of our constitutional system.
The arcane scheme that Mr. Trump’s lawyers hatched to disrupt congressional certification of the vote and perhaps persuade Republican state legislatures to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in states like Pennsylvania was conceivable only because the Electoral College splinters presidential elections into separate contests in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and skews the totals toward small states. In a simple system of majority rule, Mr. Biden’s thumping margin of more than seven million votes would have been the last word. For that matter, so would Hillary Clinton’s national margin of nearly three million votes in 2016: Mr. Trump would not have had a 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue address in which to barricade himself in 2020.
Would Mr. Trump’s big lie about election fraud have sent the rioters to the Capitol anyway, even without his lawyers and fixers trying to overturn the results? Maybe. But there would have been no constitutional machinery to jam. And even the big lie received a huge constitutional assist. Thanks to the Electoral College, Mr. Trump could have tied Mr. Biden and forced the election into the House of Representatives by flipping just 43,000 votes in three close states, a gap narrow enough that any number of toxic fables can claim to bridge it.
At a more basic level, today’s Republican Party succeeds only because the Electoral College, the Senate and the Supreme Court all tilt in its favor. That system has handed conservatives a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, despite the fact that only one Republican has won the presidential popular vote after 1988. A party doesn’t have to persuade majorities that it has the best vision for the country. It only has to persuade a selective minority that the other side is a mortal threat. Its grasp on power may be too tenuous for the party to govern effectively, but it has offered conservatives a fine perch to weaken economic and environmental regulation, appoint conservative judges and launch attacks on the democratic system itself.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/opinion/us-democracy-constitution.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhkSVUbACbSRdkhrxqAwuXUhbAxg3j1NiGeWHNJyOIOH4mc5lvMYqwlZ8c2237TYu59B4IVZa44yP5DbQsqQhO0o5CAldNcLn8899m4VCZo1c7AGO1iqGGvPzDpI6ImlO214R_ZbjTrC6DPwDZ2clYe1Jhudlmo2XYNxL6UUbImn4kjgopyQ8xyVjwCZyKVvvH3Ch8YONiObR7U6ABeSPgOEHiI3obas-RcBV0UXVHWT3p_4nI-6MdfPr4UOaX_KB0heanukMm9B5z-uqyFAFm8ZmYu3W8&smid=url-share
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who can argue against this comment from way long ago, with how the populace now reacts on social media? I mean, just because you can read headlines, follow who has the most likes, have two thumbs and can almost spell, you have a truly intellectual opinion or can lead?
"Walter Lippmann, perhaps the most prominent intellectual of the short American Century, reckoned that citizens were ignorant, confused and emotional. Democracy brought “an intensification of feeling and a degradation of significance” to whatever it touched. "
Just an observation, not necessarily a position 
The assumption that the more educated, enlightened political leaders could only get to office went out the window long ago. I'd say Reagan. Elected 'cuz he was a cowboy. Then the aristocrat political families and the "You're fired" orange aristocrat from NYC from a stupid wealthy family who was on TV. Now his demon offspring and the religious minions who attend regular social media gatherings instead of going to church lead the way. I mean, when people talk of Kardashians and the like running for office because they're so popular. ugh...
