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In reply to the discussion: The "extreme left" didn't give us Trump. The path to hell was paved by [View all]eniwetok
(1,629 posts)I've been debating liberal Dems on Usenet, here and at other "progressive" forums for close to 20 years. I know that a key obstacle is a Civic Religion that holds we have the best system in the world... and we mere mortals dare not question it.
Dems SHOULD be the party that promotes democratic values. Yet it just doesn't happen here in the US. We NEED to know why... just as we NEED to know why voting rates in the US are pathetic... about 35% of the voting age population (VAP) votes in off year elections. This means Newt's 1994 "Republican Revolution" represented the "consent" of only about 18% of the VAP.
We can expect some Dem reaction to the Trump Junta... but when you claim it may take up to 100 years to make the most basic reforms to our system... and that's akin to my saying it there should be a 50 year strategy. But THAT IS A CONDEMNATION OF OUR SYSTEM. Other western nations can deal with the defects in their system... yet we can't. Why? Because the Constitution is a straightjacket as were the Articles of Confederation. The founding generation was not bound by any Civic Religion and had the courage to stratagize how to reform the unreformable.
We lack that courage. Maybe you're different.