This is the catch that the greek philosophers warned about. Democracies are vulnerable to manipulation, demagoguery, and shortsightedness. A functional democracy requires maintaining a high level of societal quality, education, ethics, stability, and aggressively restricting consolidation of wealth and power. The US failed to do any of these things, and has descended into neofeudalism, where the govern_ed_ no longer have any influence over their govern_ment_.
The US didn’t fail to do those things, it never had any intention of even trying to do those things. This is because the people in power fundamentally do not want actual democracy. They want a system where those with wealth are able to dictate the rules. And funnily enough, the system they created is perfectly designed to allow them to do so.
If the people actually want political democracy, then they need to democratize the economy first. No more private ownership of the means of production, no more rampant inequality, no more capitalism.
This is the catch that the greek philosophers warned about. Democracies are vulnerable to manipulation, demagoguery, and shortsightedness. A functional democracy requires maintaining a high level of societal quality, education, ethics, stability, and aggressively restricting consolidation of wealth and power. The US failed to do any of these things, and has descended into neofeudalism, where the govern_ed_ no longer have any influence over their govern_ment_.
The US didn’t fail to do those things, it never had any intention of even trying to do those things. This is because the people in power fundamentally do not want actual democracy. They want a system where those with wealth are able to dictate the rules. And funnily enough, the system they created is perfectly designed to allow them to do so.
If the people actually want political democracy, then they need to democratize the economy first. No more private ownership of the means of production, no more rampant inequality, no more capitalism.