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Yearly Kos, The Anti-War Movement and Cooptation of The Netroots | 21 comments (21 topical)

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Rep v Dem is superficial (none / 0) (#10)
by mijj on Sat Aug 04, 2007 at 07:24:21 PM EST
as a passive observer, I should say that it seems like the US has a dictatorship where' every now and then, the people can get to select from two colour schemes and styles.  The substance, however, is not theirs to influence.  They may influence the way in which the choices are presented to make it seem as if their preferences are being attended to - but it doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny.

It looks like the democrats would like to have a go at pulling the strings and have their particular set of friends at the trough.  But i wouldn't bet on anything being substantially different.  Their electorate isn't the general public, it's the mass media and their current set of paymasters - they're the ones who get to dictate the substance.

There needs to be a very substantial change in which politics is funded, and the media is regulated before there's any chance of democracy in the US.

Til then the whole Rep v Dem thing will be entirely superficial.

Rep v Dem is nearly irrelevant (5.00 / 2) (#17)
by janinsanfran on Sat Aug 04, 2007 at 08:18:51 PM EST
The scholarly term for what we have here is "poliarchy."

From a talk by Rahul Mahajan:

This democracy is a debased polity named by the scholar William Robinson "poliarchy." In poliarchy, democratic forms become a sort of play acting rather than an exercise of political power. Elites rule, enlisting the masses of people only as extras in their dramas.
Seems about right.

[ Parent ]
Polyarchy (none / 0) (#20)
by joejoejoe on Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 09:49:09 AM EST
Thanks for the link and earlier post on your blog about "polyarchy". I had trouble finding more on the topic in a Google search until I realized the spelling had a Y not an I, not something you would have known sitting in on a speech. I think what you descibe fits exactly what we are seeing in our system of goverment, theatre and not respect for their oath to uphold the Constitution.

[ Parent ]

Yearly Kos, The Anti-War Movement and Cooptation of The Netroots | 21 comments (21 topical)

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