This nation would look a whole hell of a lot like modern Florida with it's politics because Republicans in general turn out way more often than anyone else to vote.

[–] SmokinStalin@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The crux of the issue is, where you see a democracy that is keeping fascism at bay, we see through the illusion of choice that keeps allowing the slow steady march towards fascism.

It's a ratchet. Gop moves everything rightward (including the Dems) and the Dems refuse to push left in the name of "bipartisanship". Then conditions get worse (because the policy is further right than before), Dems eventually lose because they allow gridlock and the ratchet suddenly frees up and cranks to the right again.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

And how much worse would it be right now if Dems never won elections due to people saying "this dem isn't far enough left therefore I won't vote"?

How far right would things have flown?

Voting for the lesser of 2 evils reduces harm now. And when the lesser of 2 evils isn't pushed that things are allowed to shift further to shit.

[–] iie@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Study: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens:

From the abstract:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

further down:

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 and/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.

What is it, like, 70% of Americans want single payer healthcare?

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