[padjo]

I dislike this habit of blaming “leaders” in democratic countries. The problem is that the electorate either don’t care or won’t accept anything that might inconvenience them or require them to change their habits. Not much leaders can do in these circumstances.

[pessimizer]

The electorate's information is limited to what their rulers feed them. When elites decide they want to do something awful, the population starts 80% against it, and over time they're worn down.

[bamboozled]

Not blaming them, stating the same thing as you are.

[salt-thrower]

You’re not wrong, but also: the electorate’s opinions are shaped by the media they consume. And media is easily bought by disinformation campaigns from oil companies to muddy the waters and convince voters that climate change isn’t a big deal, or is an outright hoax.

You only need to propagandize about 40% of the electorate to completely sink the chances of making real political action on an issue.

Add to that the fact that elected leaders don’t really represent the majority of their “constituents,” they represent the interests of whichever corporations fund them. Democracy has been bought and sold and is controlled by an unaccountable minority, at least in America.

[padjo]

I live in a pretty representative democracy so that’s not really the problem here. At least for now anyway.