InExile,
that's a pretty small sample, though. what the democratic system generally offers is a -better chance- of not having a catastrophic leader, because pandering to the mean will generally get you a middling-competent leader.
Trump is pretty terrible, definitely in the bottom 5 Presidents we've ever had, but despite that the US economy continues to grow, the next world war's not been started, etc.
obviously that's not to say everything is well. but it's not so much the idea of democracy that is failing here, it is the sclerosis of the system. the founders knew full well that there were going to be a lot of idiots and populists pandering to those idiots in any democratic system, which is why the system they put into place was NOT a very democratic one. it was a democratic system for the -social elite-.
over time, that's become less and less tenable. so right now we have a kludge of a system where there's a lot of anti-majoritarian institutions (Senate, Electoral College, etc) that have none of their benefits and all of their disadvantages! the idea was to turn "ambition against ambition", yet we see Senators completely in thrall to the Executive Branch. the Electoral College was supposed to prevent morons like Trump from getting into the Presidency in the first place, but we all saw how where that went...and had the Electors actually over-turned his election, there would have been a massive Constitutional crisis.
the system worked fairly well when it came to Nixon, but it is in desperate need now for a revamp. too many of the "it just isn't done, old chap" unspoken rules and norms have been violated, and something new needs to be instituted in its place.
It has made reconsider some of my beliefs about democracy or that a republic would ensure a better quality of leaders than authoritarian regimes over the longer term. While ofcourse there are several instances from the 20th century of a fascist party (or a far left party) coming to power via a democratic election I still find it quite amazing that Trump with his clownish antics, offensive statements, petty attacks and occasional forays to fascist dog whistles would nevertheless get 46% of the vote in a country like the United States with a long history of democracy, stable institutions and a free media.
Trump is pretty terrible, definitely in the bottom 5 Presidents we've ever had, but despite that the US economy continues to grow, the next world war's not been started, etc.
obviously that's not to say everything is well. but it's not so much the idea of democracy that is failing here, it is the sclerosis of the system. the founders knew full well that there were going to be a lot of idiots and populists pandering to those idiots in any democratic system, which is why the system they put into place was NOT a very democratic one. it was a democratic system for the -social elite-.
over time, that's become less and less tenable. so right now we have a kludge of a system where there's a lot of anti-majoritarian institutions (Senate, Electoral College, etc) that have none of their benefits and all of their disadvantages! the idea was to turn "ambition against ambition", yet we see Senators completely in thrall to the Executive Branch. the Electoral College was supposed to prevent morons like Trump from getting into the Presidency in the first place, but we all saw how where that went...and had the Electors actually over-turned his election, there would have been a massive Constitutional crisis.
the system worked fairly well when it came to Nixon, but it is in desperate need now for a revamp. too many of the "it just isn't done, old chap" unspoken rules and norms have been violated, and something new needs to be instituted in its place.
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