• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    It’s realpolitks - not a popularity contest

    Uh…

    Democracy is kind of just a popularity contest. Direct democracy would literally be a popularity contest.

    But in our current system, it’s more like a couple popularity contests in a handful of states.

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Direct democracy would literally be a popularity contest.

      Democracy is not a popularity contest - if that’s what you’ve got, the people organizing the popularity contest have already neutralized democracy a long time ago.

      The concept of democracy is compatible with any consensus-based decision-making process that happens from below - once it’s dictated from above… well, you get the picture.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Mate…

        It’s whoever gets the most votes (offer applies only in select states).

        It 100% comes down to a popularity contest in a handful of states.

        And Michigan is one of them. This weekend Biden was in LA raising money with George Clooney and trump was pandering to the masses in Michigan, who are giving him millions of dollars for it.

        Like, that’s the rub. A billionaire can give about a million to the BVF, and they can bundle by getting their friends to do the same. All for a running chain of favors or access.

        But every person still only gets one vote.

        And I think the DNC is doing the math wrong prioritizing the money over the votes and a little less money.

        Because they still have to get those votes eventually

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I don’t disagree with anything you’ve typed here.

          But if you call any of what you described democratic, I will say that your bar for what qualifies as democratic or not is so low you’d need a bathyscape to see it.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              See, this is why you don’t get your politics from a dictionary.

              a: government by the people especially : rule of the majority

              If a was true, where is your universal healthcare?

              I could ask a book’s worth of, “If a was true, (insert blatantly obvious contradiction here)” questions that this worse-than-useless dictionary description doesn’t provide answers to.

              And that’s just a… it just gets worse from there on in.

              Let’s rather try this - why do you think labor unions have been historically necessary? After all… if it wasn’t for labor unions, you wouldn’t even have the week-end - or anything resembling safety regulations. Labour unions are a democratic force (in theory - and sometimes in practice) acting on an anti-democratic power structure (ie, a for-profit, privately owned corporation - in this instance)

              If you lived in a democratic society, such a force wouldn’t be necessary, no?