but the fact that he has more influence than someone whose family has lived in America for generations but currently lives in a mobile home is not good at all...
It doesn't necessarily mean it is bad. Money alone shouldn't be the only indicator, but I don't think everyone should have an equal influence in the world, especially currently. Some people should have far less influence than they do, some a bit more. But just imagine if someone living in a trailer had the same influence over your health choices as your doctor.
but yes, the system is incredibly, incredibly broken - which wouldn't be such a bummer if the US didn't also affect every other country on the planet.
Exactly. I think the RoW should be doing it all it can to break ties. Yet instead, they are doubling-down in a hope to keep a single market alive, instead of building a diverse and robust group of markets where many more people could benefit.
I'm not at all suggesting that everyone should have equal influence in the world. That is a bananas idea that goes against the whole idea of education, expertise and qualifications.
The idea of a democracy is that everyone (of voting age) gets an equal say in which experts are granted administrative power to improve the lives of those voters.
Gerrymandering, Voter ID Laws, Campaign Finance Laws all diminish that equal say, including obviously billionaires contributing massive finances to sway voters towards policy that benefits them over the voters themselves. I think it is bad. I'd much prefer that corporate and individual donors were not allowed and campaign finances were tax payer funded.
You obviously have been in the US a while, so how do you see it in comparison to AUS, where voting is mandatory? In my opinion, it should be mandatory, otherwise it is far easier to swing votes one way or another.
FYI, I'm back in Aus now. I didn't want my tax dollars funding Trump's ICE and I couldn't trust that he wouldn't blow up my work visa overnight.
I agree that it should be mandatory and I think it would change everything in the US.
With voluntary voting, politicians have to appeal to the highly motivated loud minorities because they're the ones that show up. With mandatory voting, politicians appeal to the centrist majority.
The US also needs a non-partisan (and non-corruptible) Electoral Commission like Australia's AEC to properly referee elections. Republicans often shut down voting booths in areas that would vote against them, so richer people spend 5 minutes voting but poorer people might have to stay in line 8,9 maybe 14 hours to vote, on a workday.
The US has an extremely religious component that is a really strong voter block that holds a lot of power, I think mandatory voting would dramatically reduce that power.
Yeah, this is a problem.
Yes, it is pathetic. And voting on a workday, how idiotic... Mandatory means that it is in everyone's best interest to make it as easy as possible.