Matt Bennett, co-founder of national think-tank Third Way, tells The New Abnormal why a second Trump presidency would be a “catastrophe” and leave America “unrecognizable.”

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r/politics

“It seems like every cycle we say that and we kind of mean it but this time I think we are in a category change where I believe the United States and the way that we think about ourselves as a nation has not been in danger like this since 1865. I think the only comparable moment to this was the Civil War,” he tells The New Abnormal co-host Danielle Moodie.

  • footfaults [none/use name]
    ·
    11 months ago

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

    What do our findings say about democracy in America? They certainly constitute troubling news for advocates of “populistic” democracy, who want governments to respond primarily or exclusively to the policy preferences of their citizens. In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.

    • Luft@lemm.ee
      ·
      11 months ago

      Oh cool, thought you were one of those, “we live in a republic durrr” people.

      Yeah USA is an oligarchy fosho, but there’s still a long way down lol, which is what i meant by dismantling completely

      • footfaults [none/use name]
        ·
        11 months ago

        I would only note that the people who do the "We're a Republic, not a democracy" bit only say this because it justifies the repression and disenfranchisement. It's a feature, not a bug, to them.

        Even on the ground of their own choosing, most Americans do not actually want democracy, and they never did.

        • Luft@lemm.ee
          ·
          11 months ago

          Yeah, agreed. Really irks me and I’ve been hearing it alot. Hence my earlier sarcasm.

          I don’t think it’s most americans though, idt most are active in politics lol

          • iie [they/them, he/him]
            ·
            11 months ago

            I agree with you, it's not most americans.

            around 70% of Americans want single-payer healthcare, and under a democracy they would have it

            I think the dorks aggressively defending the status quo online tend to be well-off, whether liberals or conservatives.