As we head into a Trump versus Biden rematch nobody really wants, it’s hard to argue that the American electoral system is really a democracy.
That’s Democracy
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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All the various forces have combined. From the rise of Intelligent Design in the 1980s to the current antivax fanaticism, as an electorate, way too many of us are ignorant of essential scientific knowledge. Neoliberalism has carefully washed away the fundamental nourishment that was a high school education and we can see the results quite clearly now.
The pliant, corporate-owned media conditions many of us to obsessively focus on surface minutiae and cult-of-personality distractions over unifying issues such as healthcare, college, and stagnant wages. I’d argue this can be traced back, at least, to the classless, imbecilic harbinger who asked Bill Clinton whether he wore boxers or briefs rather than use the opportunity to press an important issue. (Possibly, a case could be made that it goes back to the televised Kennedy/Nixon debates.)
We no longer, collectively, weigh issues. We made snap judgments and mindlessly support party designation. A SocMed mob of hyperfocused professional offense takers has chased most of the remaining thinkers out of the marketplace of public discourse and scared off all but a wisp of a remnant of qualified politicians.
Biden/Harris versus Trump/Carlson or Trump/Trump or Trump/Inanimate Carbon Rod. All I know is that Biden reminds me of another old joke that isn’t very funny: Writer gets reply to manuscript from a publisher: “Your manuscript is both funny and original. Unfortunately, the parts that are funny aren’t original, and the parts that are original aren’t funny.”
On a positive note, it can’t get much worse before the revolution comes. And with all that AI-level tech, we’ll be able to round up those responsible in record time. And we’ll have lots of prisons to put them in.
@alex_the_tired writes “On a positive note, it can’t get much worse before the revolution comes.”
No, no, no. The last thing we need is a revolution. If too many people cannot figure out how to vote for their own interests, how do they have a chance at figuring out whom to shoot?
Perhaps that’s the idea. Revolutions are not made by “the people”, or even by the majority. They are made by a small, disciplined, focused minority. It is to their benefit if the majority is too distracted and confused to fight back. That’s how it went down in Russia.
You just wrote the entire history of the Revolutionary War.