• Neato@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    America still operates mostly as a democracy. Excepting a few notable cases elections matter. That’s why we had an insurrection: the fascist lost and got angry.

    You can argue it’s really controlled by special interests but it’s still a democracy. Russia doesn’t have real elections AND it’s controlled by the oligarchs.

    • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The theater of American politics operate under the banner of “democracy”, sure, but believing that it is therefore a democracy is simply naive. “Democratic republic” pedantism aside, if it were what it claims to be, several things would’ve been updated/phased out as obsolete long ago (eg. Electoral College, etc.) and others would not have been allowed to persist (eg. SuperPACs, etc.), but instead, we drink the Kool-Aid like it’s a birthright and go about our peasant lives, high on hopium and baseless dreams.

      • gloriousspearfish
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        11 months ago

        Why did the US suddenly become a part of this discussion?

        The US is absolutely a flawed democracy, no doubt about that. However the people’s vote in the elections does have a real impact on the political decisions of the country.

        The amount of influence the voters have can be debated, but it is far from nothing. Thus the US elections are not purely theaterical, and therefore there is sense in having elections in the US.