[pm90]

....And it’s currently run by a fossil fuel lobbyist.

While I’m not arguing for the US to not be a democracy, it’s important to accept that democracies are not perfect, have many flaws and require constant vigilance to ensure the knobs of State power don’t end up in the hands of incompetent idiots (as they are in the current administration).

[mikeash]

I think most of us accept that democracy is imperfect. There’s a reason for the popularity of the quote that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

The main, perhaps only, advantage of democracy is that it is resilient. A dictatorship can easily decide to plant a ton of trees and shut down dirty factories. It can just as easily decide to dump toxic waste into the rivers and shoot anyone who complains. A benevolent dictatorship is much better than democracy, this is pretty widely accepted. It’s better until the dictator dies or is overthrown, then you don’t know what you’ll get.

To quote Scott Alexander, “If you remember nothing else about the superiority of democracies to other forms of government, remember the fact that in three years, we will have a change of leadership and almost no one is stocking up on canned goods to prepare for the inevitable civil war.”

[Wowfunhappy]

I suspect that instituting very strong campaign finance laws would get us 90% of the way towards solving this problem.

[BrendanD]

And not just _this_ problem.

[whatshisface]

I don't see why you couldn't have a fossil fuel lobbyist as a dictator, or even as a dictatorial appointment motivated by the same reasons that got the current EPA head appointed.

[pm90]

It’s a good question. Notably, most dictatorships are this way and rarely do we find benevolent totalitarian regimes (Park Chung Hee, Lee Kuan Yew etc).

The CPC is different in that at its core it still seems to a) believe in science and b) wants to uplift China. The bargain is that CPC will take China down a path of prosperity while suspending democratic freedoms. It’s entirely possible they don’t hold their end of the bargain, but it would likely lead to social instability on a massive scale.

[whatshisface]

>wants to uplift China

Why would they want to do that? To stay in power, presumably - the same as any other political organization. If they are ever faced with a situation where the best way to stay in power is to destroy China, they will take it; an option that US politicians might sometimes wish they could take, but are unable to because of limits on their power.

[ixtli]

There are a million CPC officials, and 2200 elected representatives. The party claims 89 million members. I’d be critical of attempts to view it as a somehow monolithic entity that exists separately from “the rest” of China.

[jolfdb]

When joining the party is required if you want to get a job in your career field, you'll join the party.

[aaronbrethorst]

require constant vigilance

i.e., y’all need to vote.

[umadon]

People keep voting, meanwhile nothing's getting better.

[aaronbrethorst]

Who are you voting for in your municipal and/or state elections in November? Yes, this year. Do you know there are races?

Federal elections are incredibly important, but on a day-to-day basis, city and state elections will affect you just as much, if not more.

Here in Seattle, for instance, seven of our nine city council members are up for reelection, and the outcome will determine how $6 billion gets spent every year. It will help determine whether Seattle can keep pace with its huge influx of tech workers. It will determine whether housing affordability gets addressed.

And not that many people are really aware of these elections. Even fewer are aware of the primary that will determine who's on our November ballot.

So, if you've made a plan to be a voter in your forthcoming municipal elections, then bravo—I'm incredibly happy to hear it. And now get to work making sure that your friends and family members have up-to-date voter registration information on file, and that they have plans to be voters, too.

Vote Save America makes it easy to check if your registration is up to date: https://votesaveamerica.com

[coldtea]

That's because people just vote once every few years on election day.

Vigilance includes actively following politics (not just the sensational BS headlines in TV news and newspapers, but the real deal), marching and demonstrating when needed, participating in your preferred party and making sure the right people get its nomination, and so on.

Don't just "write your congressman" about issues, for they could not care less. Write online, influence others, organize, and make them care (whatever your politics, this is just so the politics are closer to what people want, not so that the politics are "the right politics", which doesn't exist).

[arthurbrown]

It's true. Australia just had a federal election, and re-elected a party running on an anti green, pro-coal energy strategy. Voting here is compulsory

[Loughla]

What were the voter turnouts in the last presidential election (which had the most people vote in recent memory)?

What about the most recent mid-term, off-year elections?

People don't vote. Well, old people vote. But that's about it.

[ixtli]

democracy is not a spectator sport

[_bxg1]

has done, not is doing

[basementcat]

That is one of the reasons why we have the Electoral College.

[Wowfunhappy]

How does the electoral college prevent this problem?