Patine
Deity
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2011
- Messages
- 11,083
My lord, are you by chance an Anarchist? We are a two party majority state, however that is not to say that we are intolerant of a multi-party state, our closet ally on the planet is the United Kingdom. You can scream from the roof tops that the system is corrupt but by and large the system is manned by a great many good people who are simply doing what is best for the American people. Sure do some individuals in the system take advantage, do some far overstep their authority, do some violate rules and laws, yes on all accounts. This is not an indictment of the whole system. There is corruption in every government, the US has had its fair share but by and large the system works as intended and in the best interests of the American people.
On a similar note the best thing I can say about President-Elect Biden is that he understands that to move the country forward in the right direction it needs to be small incremental change over a long period of time. Mass changes to the system spark some of the fiercest partisanship and result in some of the worst regression on a national scale. Every generation on average has one or two moments where a massive change can occur which will result in a significant leap forward but this is almost always followed by a slap backward, ala the election of President Trump.
First of all, I am not Anarchist, unless you define someone who believes equal justice for all - including officials in government - and full accountability, transparency, and representativeness of Government to be a true goal to strive toward, and not just declared to be out of reach and to fall back on and never attempt to reform or improve a broken and oft abused system to be "an Anarchist," by some bizarre contrivance or twist of phrase. And, I don't believe EVERY SINGLE elected or appointed official, or employee of the U.S. Government is irredeemable, or even a bad or malign person, or doesn't have noble or good intention, in many cases- I do have a sense of perspective, just tempered with realism. And, "two-party majority state," (as opposed to rigged, suppressive Duopoly, like the Turno Pacific of late 19th Century Spain or the Gentleman's Agreement of early 20th Century Argentina and Colombia) implies Third Parties and Independents should have a CHANCE to take Government - that it should be remotely possible - but the last lime a new party took Government in the U.S. and old competitive party died was in the period of realignment in 1854-1860 - that was a LONG time ago! The last Third Party candidate in a Presidential Election that got electoral votes was a defender of Segregation 52 years ago, for crying out loud! That doesn't give me much faith that the two major parties are not unscrupulously abusing their incumbency and pulling tricks (short of arbitrary beatings and arrests, and even shootings on lonely bridges at night and polonium in coffee of upstart political opponents) done by Emerging Democracies the U.S. Department of State likes to scold for such acts. I admit, I may have been a bit hyperbolic in the post you quoted, but, the U.S. System does need serious reform and overhaul (like almost every Government in the modern day), and I'm convinced the lack of political will to do so is NOT because the great majority of Americans are satisfied with the way their Government works (and doesn't work, depending), but because the "powers that be," (which the paternalistic Founding Fathers gave all power over Amendments to, at least to the lawmakers, Federally and at the State level, with no binding power of initiative, consultation, approval, or veto by referendum of the will of people involved in that process - even though "You, the People of the United States of America," are supposed to the sole empowerment and source of legitimacy, along with the States as entities - but not necessarily State Governments - of the United States as a nation - quite ironic) do not want such change, because they're comfortable with the flawed system that keeps their collective unchallenged stranglehold on power, in a partisan manner, and not having to be burdened with accountability, transparency, or criminal or civil liability for their actions in government *gasp - what a horror that would be* - and, thus, the big self-perpetuating problem. Oh, and the corrupt and undue (and unacceptable) influence of plutocratic oligarchs - corporate donors, and moneyed special interest and lobby groups, are a big problem as well, and while that problem is certainly not unique to the U.S., it still compromises the integrity of the proceedings.
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