David Benfell, Ph.D. (he/him/his) on Nostr: In addition, we need to be clear that the U.S. is *not* and never has been a ...
In addition, we need to be clear that the U.S. is *not* and never has been a democracy.
A democracy means everybody votes on everything. #OccupyWallStreet-style consensus-seeking is in line with this.
What we have is a constitutional oligarchy. By design: In Federalist No. 10, James Madison made clear that the minority rights he wanted to protect are not those of any subaltern group, but rather the property rights of wealthy white males (often slaveholders). And he specifically wanted to protect them from a confiscatory mob. An awful lot of money is the price of admission to politics and Madison rests easily in his grave, knowing that this part of his mission has been fully and irrevocably accomplished.
Within that constitutional oligarchy, we have enacted a two-party system, which serves to 1) constrain the acceptable range of political opinion (this is the Overton Window), and 2) compel voters to choose the lesser of evils. You vote for evil, you should not be even remotely surprised that this is what you get.
I will never forgive the Democratic Party for its embrace of #neoliberalism, which has been embraced as the bipartisan "Washington Consensus" since the fall of the Berlin Wall and casts workers as oppressors and the rich as oppressed. Neoliberalism has ruined my life and when you support either major political party in the U.S., you support the brutality to which I have been victim my entire life. I will block Vote Blue No Matter Who (VBNMW) folks and people who still succumb to elementary school propaganda about our political and economic systems.
A democracy means everybody votes on everything. #OccupyWallStreet-style consensus-seeking is in line with this.
What we have is a constitutional oligarchy. By design: In Federalist No. 10, James Madison made clear that the minority rights he wanted to protect are not those of any subaltern group, but rather the property rights of wealthy white males (often slaveholders). And he specifically wanted to protect them from a confiscatory mob. An awful lot of money is the price of admission to politics and Madison rests easily in his grave, knowing that this part of his mission has been fully and irrevocably accomplished.
Within that constitutional oligarchy, we have enacted a two-party system, which serves to 1) constrain the acceptable range of political opinion (this is the Overton Window), and 2) compel voters to choose the lesser of evils. You vote for evil, you should not be even remotely surprised that this is what you get.
I will never forgive the Democratic Party for its embrace of #neoliberalism, which has been embraced as the bipartisan "Washington Consensus" since the fall of the Berlin Wall and casts workers as oppressors and the rich as oppressed. Neoliberalism has ruined my life and when you support either major political party in the U.S., you support the brutality to which I have been victim my entire life. I will block Vote Blue No Matter Who (VBNMW) folks and people who still succumb to elementary school propaganda about our political and economic systems.