The Fall of Democracy

[skillzdadirecta]

This is some depressing shit.

[stepee]

Literally the first comment to this article:

 

Quote

BREAKING NEWS: I just learned that the notorious MS-13 gang that came in with the ILLEGAL ALIENS invited here by the Democrat Party, killed again; this time a resident of Maryland. Thus, in addition to being the creator and home to the Klu Klux Klan, the Democrat Party can proudly lay claim to MS-13. Congrats!”

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Pffftttt - way to be late to the party pal!  I've had this position for years!

 

And make no mistake: the "elites" themselves have played a not insignificant role in this.

[Jwheel86]

Why did the middle collapse and you'll find the problem. Democracy is hard and it has to be responsive to the population or extremes on both sides gain traction. We're still coming off the political effects of the Great Recession. The Great Depression had the exact same impact but in the US FDR provided a relief valve with the New Deal and mobilization. Swap FDR for a moderate and I'm not sure this country won't have gone Rightwing Nationalist too. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

10 minutes ago, Jwheel86 said:

Why did the middle collapse and you'll find the problem. Democracy is hard and it has to be responsive to the population or extremes on both sides gain traction. We're still coming off the political effects of the Great Recession. The Great Depression had the exact same impact but in the US FDR provided a relief valve with the New Deal and mobilization. Swap FDR for a moderate and I'm not sure this country won't have gone Rightwing Nationalist too. 

An excellent, cogent analysis!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The survival of democracy is entirely dependent on having a viable middle class to "buy in" to the compromises that are inherent within democratic values.

 

Strip away that economic security and the desire to preserve democracy dies.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

In essence, the populace is willing to defer to the "democratic elites" as long as they feel that there is a material benefit for them to do so.

 

The failure of the democratic elites to come to grips with the fallout of the "Great Recession" -- to not even truly punish anyone associated with it while insisting on a return to "business as usual" -- all but assured the dilution of their own power and influence and created the opening opportunity for the right-wing populists to fill the void.

[TheGreatGamble]

The middle class need to start hanging the elites from trees until they start working for them. Start with the Trumps, the Clintons, Pelosi, Cruz, King, everyone who has enriched themselves at the expense of the working class. CEO's, politicians, everyone who is trying to make life worse for the working poor, but especially those pretending to be champions of those people while enriching themselves and selling access behind closed doors. 

 

The company my father works for sent out a letter in February congratulating the workforce on record productivity and and profits, before forcing them on strike in late march saying that because of the economy and their economic positions, they would have to take concessions on the new contract. My dad was 8 days from retirement, now he's on a picket line fighting because pensions are one of the things they are attacking. 

 

The general managers exact words, on the news, was, "This is necessary because newly retired workers are living too long". 

 

Not "retired workers are living longer", but "retired workers are living too long". His exact words. This is a place that is detrimental to health and safety, and has caused the cancer of many employees (though the company would never admit it).  People like him are the ones that need to be strung up by the neck. And not a long drop from a short rope, thats too quick. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Sounds like we could use some fucking socialism. Guaranteed old age pensions, healthcare, the works. Who gives a shit about taxes if you don't have to count on the genetic lottery so your family isn't bankrupt on medical bills? And have a pension so that you can actually have some dignity in old age?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

It always amuses me that the first state-level social welfare policies were implemented by that rabid leftist Otto von Bismarck.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

10 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Sounds like we could use some fucking socialism. Guaranteed old age pensions, healthcare, the works. Who gives a shit about taxes if you don't have to count on the genetic lottery so your family isn't bankrupt on medical bills? And have a pension so that you can actually have some dignity in old age?

Adding on to this, here in 15-20 years when upper middle class gen x-ers and others aren't getting any sort of inheritance because dear old mom and dad had to have 24/7 long term care for Alzheimer's, there may even be some sort of shift at those rungs too. But it may be too late for that even.

 

Just now, SFLUFAN said:

It always amuses me that the first state-level social welfare policies were implemented by that rabid leftist Otto von Bismarck.

Dude knew how to placate a population

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The ostensible front-runner for the Democratic nomination is effectively campaigning on the slogan of "nothing will fundamentally change".

 

This is essentially political, economic, social, and moral malpractice for it sheer and willful failure to comprehend how large parts of the so-called "West" got to the point where virulent right-wing populism is the wolf that's either at the door or is already in the house.

[Zaku3]

14 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

The survival of democracy is entirely dependent on having a viable middle class to "buy in" to the compromises that are inherent within democratic values.

 

Strip away that economic security and the desire to preserve democracy dies.

 

This goes with a theory I have that Communist China is fine as long as they keep improving people's lives. 

[skillzdadirecta]

Just now, Zaku3 said:

 

This goes with a theory I have that Communist China is fine as long as they keep improving people's lives. 

 

Both China and Russia figured this out awhile ago. Placate the masses and you stay in power. Greed is killing Western Democracies just as much as racism, xenophobia and stupidity.

[mrbiggsly]

Machiavelli was right. Who knew?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Anti-government protests are popping off all over Russia largely because Russian GDP growth has entirely stagnated.

[skillzdadirecta]

2 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

Anti-government protests are popping off all over Russia largely because Russian GDP growth has entirely stagnated.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

11 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

Anti-government protests are popping off all over Russia largely because Russian GDP growth has entirely stagnated.

How much of the decline in GDP is due to sanctions post Ukraine invasion? (And not just drops in the prices of commodities like oil)

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Just now, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

How much of the decline in GDP is due to sanctions post Ukraine invasion?

Some, but it's largely due to the price of oil.

[skillzdadirecta]

4 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

Some, but it's largely due to the price of oil.

And the fact that the Putin and his cronies are robbing the country blind.

[Anathema-]

I mean, "you said this would make our lives better and you were wrong" is where every real upheaval starts, isn't it?

[Zaku3]

31 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

I mean, "you said this would make our lives better and you were wrong" is where every real upheaval starts, isn't it?

Or you don't give a shit about how our lives are going. (See French Revolution)

[Signifyin(g)Monkey]

I would only add that I think a contributing factor is the fact that the political structures of liberal democracy resonated reasonably well with the socioeconomic structures of industrial capitalism—particularly the large-scale growth of both a ruling bourgeoisie and a proletariat which the latter was continually forced to accommodate and reach compromise with.

 

It has not been effective in adjusting to a postindustrial capitalist economy where power is being continually centralized and concentrated around informational monopolies facilitated by the exercise  of server-power over open, globe-spanning networks.  The new mode of accumulation, if you want to call it that, is to effectively appropriate value from 99% of the population by using spying mechanisms to gather and monetize information they created and will never be compensated for.

 

Liberal democracy has not yet been able to produce sufficient institutional checks on the distributional imbalances this new mode of accumulation is creating, the way it did in the form of unions, pensions, universal suffrage and so on in the case of industrial capitalism.

 

But I’m hesitant to say it’s dead.  It took awhile for it to adapt to the disruptions and dislocations of the industrial era, too.  Liberal democracy’s failure is no more ‘evolutionarily determined’ than the supremacy of feudalism or imperialism.  And, unlike those more centralized forms of society, it at least has the advantage of having built-in mechanisms for adaptation. That’s still self-rule’s biggest asset, despite all the trade-offs it comes with.  I just hope the price of keeping it isn’t a new cycle of mass global wars.

 

Personally, I think something as simple as a universal data payments system to compensate people for the information they produce that is extracted through spying mechanisms and later monetized by super-monopolies like Google would be a start.