this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024
131 points (93.4% liked)

United States | News & Politics

7213 readers
517 users here now

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
top 40 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] dhtseany@lemmy.ml 46 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 34 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] zcd@lemmy.ca 28 points 9 months ago (2 children)

“Functioning democracy” 🤡

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, one could argue that a functioning democracy would prevent the kind of wealth gap we have.

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 3 points 9 months ago

Or, you know, someone who looses the popular vote to loose an election.

Or, multiple parties that actually have different platforms.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There was the big election where the sitting president was replaced. I guess that's something.

[–] jzzvid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Except when it doesn't happen:

  • Bush II did not win the election, he was appointed before the recounts were even tallied.

  • Trump was appointed to the presidency after losing the election in 2016 to Hillary Clinton by the Electoral College. Hilary won by 3M votes or 2% of the vote.

Literally two presidents during my lifetime failed to win the popular vote and every time this occurred it was to the benefit of a largely unpopular political party who used technicalities built into the Constitution to overturn the democratic will of the people. Funny how it never has worked in the opposite direction, almost as if it was built-in with that idea in mind.

We do not have a democracy, we have a sham system that puts the interests of business before the interests of people.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

But your system isn't based on direct popular vote for the president. You vote for state electors and then they vote directly and the candidate who gets the majority of those votes wins. It's not a failure of democracy or elections not happening or being rigged if one with the simple majority loses to one with more state elector votes. It's just your weird system at work.

We do not have a democracy

You've had a few swings of the balance of the parties, replacing a sitting president and now upcoming presidential elections. The elections are mostly free and fair with large enfranchisement. I'd call that a democracy, even when the system has some interesting quirks and isn't working as well as it could be.

As for Bush vs Gore, I remember it being a big and controversial thing at the time but don't really know the specifics.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 27 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I find it ironic that they chose to use an AI generated image rather than pay a photographer or an artist.

[–] thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Or a model who is actually representative of the poorest people that they are trying to illustrate the plight of.

[–] DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

is that fake old white guy not homeless-looking enough for your standards?

[–] thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No lol the fake person is plenty homeless-looking... But it's a fake person.

[–] DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 1 points 9 months ago

Ah fair enough.

[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think this is just one guy not a corporation.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

I used they rather than he or she because I did not want to assume a gender.

[–] pan_troglodytes@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago

then they'd have to pay someone. ironic indeed

[–] SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net 19 points 9 months ago

functioning democracy

doing a lot of work here

[–] giacomo@lemm.ee 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So you're telling us we're number one?

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 9 points 9 months ago

American exceptionalism baby

[–] CannotSleep420@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

The title implies we haven't been the most unequal society for the better part of a century.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 13 points 9 months ago

The article is written by a lib, so have to account for the biases there.

[–] FanonFan@hexbear.net 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

From the start, right? Like chattel slavery and settler colonialism is about as unequal as you can get

[–] CannotSleep420@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 9 months ago

Yeah. Even my comment is understating things.

[–] Hello_Kitty_enjoyer@hexbear.net 4 points 9 months ago

yeah it was literally always that way

[–] jabrd@hexbear.net 8 points 9 months ago

Functioning democracy [citation needed]

[–] purahna@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Our poor people are the poorest" sounds suspect to be honest - Haiti? Congo? If you count $200K in student loan debt as poorer than $0 across the board, sure, but if you go by actual quality of life, there's no way.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The article is qualifying it as the poorest in the developed world.

[–] purahna@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"our poor people are the poorest of any functioning democracy on Earth" - Does this mean that the author doesn't count the developing world as functioning democracies, but does count all of the developed world as functioning democracies?

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

that tracks with the author clearly being a lib

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 months ago

Saddest part is this will get no attention. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will be done about this.

[–] pan_troglodytes@programming.dev 2 points 9 months ago

USA USA USA USA !!!

[–] Tremble@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago