To dismantle the machinery of autocracy, you first need to understand how it works.
One thing not mentioned is the economic status of Hungary. If focusing on “dinner table issues” is the key then people need to be hurting. If they’re hurting then why would they triple or quadruple down on the status quo? If they’re not hurting then we’re back to ideology and convincing people there’s more to life than the necessities or that an even better future awaits. For the US I think the next 2 to 4 years are likely to dictate the next 2 to 4 decades.
Spoken like the DNC cares about preserving democracy, but otherwise good read.
we have elections where rich people spend money to influence the population and we do have lots of local democracy. The problem is the feds are like a pseudo democracy and the courts are explicitly anti democratic. Reforming the courts here would fix a lot of things. fixing voting methods (RCV, eliminate the electoral college) would go a long way towards the rest.
It’s much like Hungary in that respect as well. Hungary’s socialists have been running trying to be the “strongest opposition party” for nearly 15 years as well.
And the antidote to that seems to be, at least currently (we’ll see if it holds up to the election) economically left wing populism with a strict centrist noncommittal take on social issues.
So for example if you get asked about LGBTQ rights, instead of getting bogged down in the made up social issues of the right, say “this is not our current biggest problem, look at our terrible infrastructure/healthcare/wages, that’s what we want to address first, we’ll just put social issues to referendum”.
Also, we don’t actually have a democracy. I wish people would stop using that word.
I mean you do, though. Go to China (or anywhere that isn’t the West and a few Asian countries) to see what not having democracy looks like.
I live here, in America, where people are working 2-3 jobs just for the privilege of barely existing, where they go bankrupt if they have an injury or an illness, where homelessness is criminalized and people die waiting for care in emergency rooms, and whether or not you succeed is determined by the zip code you’re born into.
Hell, we just sat through a campaign where, for most of it, neither candidate had a fully functioning brain.
I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it’s like not to have a democracy.
The economy is not the means of government. What you’re describing is unfettered capitalism. But in the US that’s being done inside a representative democracy.
Now we can argue all day that it’s actually a secret oligarchy where politicians are bought by a handful of corporations, but we’re still the ones choosing the politicians who then choose to be bought, so it’s debatable what kind of government that is.
What you’re describing is unfettered capitalism
And why is it unfettered?
Because we don’t have a democracy. The wealthy control our government and its effects.
we’re still the ones choosing the politicians who then choose to be bought
No we’re not. Go read up on how much it costs to get a meeting with a presidential candidate at the national convention, and then try and tell me we’re the ones choosing the candidates.
That’s called a flawed democracy, which isn’t a good place to be but it’s definitely still a democracy. Exhibit A: You can say all that on popular social media and not get arrested.
definitely still a democracy
No it isn’t.
Neither in practice nor in essence. We’re not a democracy in part because of the electoral college, but we’re definitely not because the candidates for most offices are selected by the wealthy and you’re given a false choice between two conservatives, both of whom care only about the wealthy.
It doesn’t matter what you can or can’t say online, because unless you’re a billionaire, you have no power in this country.
