Then again, the Founding Fathers tried to set up a sort of natural aristocracy, with no direct elections for leaders except for members of the House of Representatives. I think they had read The Republic one to many times, and read about how Athenian democracy and the Roman Republic went off the rails. People of that era used to read the classics a lot more than today.
If I had to say what messed things up first, it was the direct election of Senators. The Electoral College never worked as intended from the very start, for the very guys who designed it. And the slavery question was a fundamental divide too, but that could have been solved the way the British did, if the South hadn't had left the Union. .
I suppose they should have been more explicit about some things, but it's not like they really could foresee things like drag queen story hour and such. This did happen gradually, and then all at once, as the cliche goes.
People have all sorts of plans, from gradual reforms to accelerationism to lead to Balkinization. Honestly, if we had fair elections, where politicians could be held responsible for fucking things up, we'd be well along the way to fixing this nation. Voter ID laws and ending mail in voting would solve most election fraud.
However, I'm not all dour on America. You see, the states still have a lot of power. This was demonstrated by Covid responses. States can be well run places, even if the feds fuck things up, which, in my opinion, is the only reason that this country hasn't fallen apart already. Plus, you even have Democrat run states that are 99% white, like Vermont.
"Iron Law of Oligarchy" I would think.
Then again, the Founding Fathers tried to set up a sort of natural aristocracy, with no direct elections for leaders except for members of the House of Representatives. I think they had read The Republic one to many times, and read about how Athenian democracy and the Roman Republic went off the rails. People of that era used to read the classics a lot more than today.
If I had to say what messed things up first, it was the direct election of Senators. The Electoral College never worked as intended from the very start, for the very guys who designed it. And the slavery question was a fundamental divide too, but that could have been solved the way the British did, if the South hadn't had left the Union. .
I suppose they should have been more explicit about some things, but it's not like they really could foresee things like drag queen story hour and such. This did happen gradually, and then all at once, as the cliche goes.
People have all sorts of plans, from gradual reforms to accelerationism to lead to Balkinization. Honestly, if we had fair elections, where politicians could be held responsible for fucking things up, we'd be well along the way to fixing this nation. Voter ID laws and ending mail in voting would solve most election fraud.
However, I'm not all dour on America. You see, the states still have a lot of power. This was demonstrated by Covid responses. States can be well run places, even if the feds fuck things up, which, in my opinion, is the only reason that this country hasn't fallen apart already. Plus, you even have Democrat run states that are 99% white, like Vermont.