Do we live in an actual democracy, or an oligarchy with the trappings of a democracy?
With the largest-ever electoral studies from Princeton and others concluding that “90% of the population has essentially no impact on government” and “Public opinion has near-zero impact on US law”, I believe it is the latter.
I personally rate it at 5/10 in the democracy scale (ranging from -10 to 10 where -10 is a totalitarian regime and 10 is a flawless democracy)
One of the major flaws is First Past The Post voting system, this results in 2 major parties, one of which is obviously worse than the other. The major parties are heavily influenced by rich people. Primary votes are still legit for most races, but money can buy propaganda that sways votes, but ultimately its still the voters choice. Voters are just easily manipulated, unfortunately. In terms of presidential primaries, those are very very flawed since there are superdelegates. After 2016 Democratic National Convention, the convention rules are changed to remove superdelegates from the first round of voting, making it much less flawed, but still, money can buy propaganda.
That said, AOC ran against a status quo democrat and won the primary and went on winning the election. Other progressives could do it too. In the presidential primary, its harder, but as long as the democrats don’t change the rules again, its possible. In non-presidential primaries, they are governed by state laws, so its even harder for a party to unilaterally change the rules. Currently, all non-presidential primaries are all decided by First Past The Post who ever wins most vote become the party’s nominee. Money can sway minds, but with enough support, the propaganda can be overcome, as AOC did.
The US was way worse in terms of democracy in the early days. I’d rate it at 1/10 democracy in the early days, where only white male landowners could vote. Eventually all white male could vote, then Black men could vote, then women. Americans have more rights today than in the country’s beginning. A revolution could risk all those progress made.
Right now I see a path to fix the issues:
Replace First Past The Post with Ranked Choice Voting
Eliminate the Electoral College, replace with Ranked Choice Popular Vote
Abolish the Senate and give its powers to the House
Your post ignores all of the flaws pointed out in the Princeton study that I mentioned. If you take more flaws into account I think the score will be far lower than 5/10.
But I am more curious about how your “path to fix the issues” will actually get implemented. I agree with your solutions, but they have no chance of being passed by Democrats or Republicans.
I think you are doing the meme of “How to draw an owl. Step 1: Draw the owl.”
Well, the first two (replacing first-past-the-post and eliminating the Electoral College) can be done on a state-by-state basis. There were ballot initiatives in a few states on the ballot in 2024 regarding instant-runoff voting. All of them failed, including one in Alaska that would have repealed instant-runoff voting and replaced it with first-past-the-post.
The Electoral College can be defeated using the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
So then, the obvious followup question:
Do we live in an actual democracy, or an oligarchy with the trappings of a democracy?
With the largest-ever electoral studies from Princeton and others concluding that “90% of the population has essentially no impact on government” and “Public opinion has near-zero impact on US law”, I believe it is the latter.
Tl;dr: do your civic duty and murder an oligarch
The US is an flawed democracy.
I personally rate it at 5/10 in the democracy scale (ranging from -10 to 10 where -10 is a totalitarian regime and 10 is a flawless democracy)
One of the major flaws is First Past The Post voting system, this results in 2 major parties, one of which is obviously worse than the other. The major parties are heavily influenced by rich people. Primary votes are still legit for most races, but money can buy propaganda that sways votes, but ultimately its still the voters choice. Voters are just easily manipulated, unfortunately. In terms of presidential primaries, those are very very flawed since there are superdelegates. After 2016 Democratic National Convention, the convention rules are changed to remove superdelegates from the first round of voting, making it much less flawed, but still, money can buy propaganda.
That said, AOC ran against a status quo democrat and won the primary and went on winning the election. Other progressives could do it too. In the presidential primary, its harder, but as long as the democrats don’t change the rules again, its possible. In non-presidential primaries, they are governed by state laws, so its even harder for a party to unilaterally change the rules. Currently, all non-presidential primaries are all decided by First Past The Post who ever wins most vote become the party’s nominee. Money can sway minds, but with enough support, the propaganda can be overcome, as AOC did.
The US was way worse in terms of democracy in the early days. I’d rate it at 1/10 democracy in the early days, where only white male landowners could vote. Eventually all white male could vote, then Black men could vote, then women. Americans have more rights today than in the country’s beginning. A revolution could risk all those progress made.
Right now I see a path to fix the issues:
Replace First Past The Post with Ranked Choice Voting
Eliminate the Electoral College, replace with Ranked Choice Popular Vote
Abolish the Senate and give its powers to the House
Make the House use Proportional Representation
Overturn Citizens United decision
Overhaul money spending in politics
Your post ignores all of the flaws pointed out in the Princeton study that I mentioned. If you take more flaws into account I think the score will be far lower than 5/10.
But I am more curious about how your “path to fix the issues” will actually get implemented. I agree with your solutions, but they have no chance of being passed by Democrats or Republicans.
I think you are doing the meme of “How to draw an owl. Step 1: Draw the owl.”
Well, the first two (replacing first-past-the-post and eliminating the Electoral College) can be done on a state-by-state basis. There were ballot initiatives in a few states on the ballot in 2024 regarding instant-runoff voting. All of them failed, including one in Alaska that would have repealed instant-runoff voting and replaced it with first-past-the-post.
The Electoral College can be defeated using the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.