A few years ago the UK let their population vote to secede from the EU. The vote was barely 50/50 and the government changed everything based on a single vote. They are now measurably worse off than before, while still continuing on their path even though nobody wants to. Literally no one even wants it anymore and they can’t go back. That’s stupid.
Americans vote for guns and against vaccines all the time. They get what they want. The people are stupid but the system accurately reflects what people vote for.
“The system accurately reflects what people vote for.” …Boy I have this fun American institution called the electoral college that begs to differ. Trump lost the popular vote but he sure did become president. Further examples? Majority support for the right to abortion in poll after poll but guess what? SCOTIS repudiated decades of precedent and decided it doesn’t exist as a constitutional right, at which point multiple states severely limited the right, often against clearly expressed public sentiment. America is not a democracy and it’s national politics so not serve its people.
The people are stupid but the system accurately reflects what people vote for.
Sort of. It really depends on where we’re talking.
If we’re talking about the national government, then no, it actually doesn’t. The president is not elected by popular vote, and the Senate is a deliberately anti-democratic body that does not represent the people proportionately. The Republican party controls nearly half the Senate despite Republican senators representing far fewer Americans than the Democratic senators, and moreover, the Senate doesn’t pass most things with a simple 50/50 majority.
We have an archaic system that’s based too much on geographical lines drawn up centuries ago and not enough on what the citizens of the country actually want.
So yes, in a very loose sense, a great deal of Americans want these things and that’s why we have them, but it’s definitely not a majority.
Well, I stand corrected. That reduces my sympathy for them, which already wasn’t in a great place with them opting to become TERF island. I guess there’s solid reasons why their GDP is on par with the lowest southern states.
A few years ago the UK let their population vote to secede from the EU. The vote was barely 50/50 and the government changed everything based on a single vote. They are now measurably worse off than before, while still continuing on their path even though nobody wants to. Literally no one even wants it anymore and they can’t go back. That’s stupid.
Americans vote for guns and against vaccines all the time. They get what they want. The people are stupid but the system accurately reflects what people vote for.
“The system accurately reflects what people vote for.” …Boy I have this fun American institution called the electoral college that begs to differ. Trump lost the popular vote but he sure did become president. Further examples? Majority support for the right to abortion in poll after poll but guess what? SCOTIS repudiated decades of precedent and decided it doesn’t exist as a constitutional right, at which point multiple states severely limited the right, often against clearly expressed public sentiment. America is not a democracy and it’s national politics so not serve its people.
Sort of. It really depends on where we’re talking.
If we’re talking about the national government, then no, it actually doesn’t. The president is not elected by popular vote, and the Senate is a deliberately anti-democratic body that does not represent the people proportionately. The Republican party controls nearly half the Senate despite Republican senators representing far fewer Americans than the Democratic senators, and moreover, the Senate doesn’t pass most things with a simple 50/50 majority.
We have an archaic system that’s based too much on geographical lines drawn up centuries ago and not enough on what the citizens of the country actually want.
So yes, in a very loose sense, a great deal of Americans want these things and that’s why we have them, but it’s definitely not a majority.
Should probably add gerrymandering to the list because that’s a fucking HUGE problem.
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As I recall, it wasn’t a single vote, they ran it a few times to get the results they wanted, didn’t they?
No. That’s what the sane people wanted to do after the first vote came out as a demonstrably bad decision.
checks
Well, I stand corrected. That reduces my sympathy for them, which already wasn’t in a great place with them opting to become TERF island. I guess there’s solid reasons why their GDP is on par with the lowest southern states.