Can one still claim that the USA is a liberal democracy? Where do you draw the line?

  • Bacano@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Lol this post made me appreciate Lemmy so much.

    There was a question on dead-it asking something about why the American middle class seemed to suffer so much since the mid20th century and it was full of obvious bots pointing to the positive but temporary effects of WW2. It took quite some scrolling before I saw any mention of the stagnation of real wages since then.

  • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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    6 days ago

    It’s been an open oligarchy since Citizen’s United. Seems like a lot of people are just now seeing the effects of what that decision allowed. Our Supreme Court was already corrupt, but because they at least maintained an air of dignity, people just looked past the death of our democracy.

    • pdxfed@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Late 19th century. There was some pushback, some anti-trust laws with teeth, and then decades of bloody union battles to secure rights workers and their elected officials have thrown away for 50 years.

      The concentration of wealth and influence of 10-16 people trumps that of hundreds of millions and is as bad or worse than it was during the robber baron era.

      Political representatives are bought and paid for which means the poor have no voice against the wealthy.

      We have a justice system that is incapable of prosecuting the wealthy and powerful, when it isn’t being stocked by ideologues.

      Meritocracy is dead; Birth has much greater correlation to wealth and power.

      Media is fully captured by the wealthy; they own the vast majority of media consumed: TV, film, news, social junk.

      Nice country you got here.

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    When Eisenhower warned of Military Industrial complex, US was already an oligarchy, and the warning was the declaration of defeat.

    JFK assassination was deep state stuff, followed by more pandering to oligarchy with Regan. Media was always in charge of who won elections. That the veil of pretense for liberalism is removed doesn’t change the nature of US empire, and its autocracy over meaningful rulership. Trump simultaneously threatens the US empire’s covert colonization of world, while threatening to subjugate world even harder. Naked Oligarchy, and explicit anti-liberalism as treason, is a hallmark of incoming rulership through.

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    The USA has always and forever represented the will of the Bourgeoisie. The issue we are seeing now is further and further separation between the Proletariat and a smaller and smaller concentration of the Bourgeoisie due to Capitalism’s centralizing nature. The silver lining is that this same centralizing process makes Socialism even easier to implement once the Proletariat siezes control, as these large intricate networks have already developed their own infrastructure for planning that can be folded into the Public Sector, the hard part is getting over that threshold of power.

    • Hegar@fedia.io
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      6 days ago

      There was a study from Princeton showing that no major policy has aligned with public opinion since the civil rights era.

      There is no measurable way that our government has reflected the will of the majority in over 50 years.

      • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        By demonstrating the facts which make the system meet the definition. Look it up there’s plenty of articles citing studies. Someone else linked a major one here.

          • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            “Look it up” is not an argument, it’s a suggested course of action. I explained my point and then suggested you look it up in order to see it more elaborated and supported.

            I wasn’t aware there was an argument taking place; certainly not one involving me.