Democracy is broken in the US

[Deleted]

I'm having a look at voting turnouts for the last elections and parts of this one so far, and it's absolutely abysmal. How can anyone be called elected by the people when 48% eligible to vote in 2012 DIDNT?
Why is nobody in the US bringing up this horrendous failure? Is anyone going "Guys, what the fuck?"

On top of this is the most absurd thing called "vote registration". How can the largest, richest so called democracy in the world not know where people live? Here in my country we see on our voting papers where we can go and when. If you live in the same area as last time you voted, you just go to where you last voted.
Why is there this blatantly redundant step to voting?

Democracy seems blatantly broken in the US. What's worse is that nobody seems to care. Complete apathy reigns and soon you might facing having an Umpa Loompa as president.

Ofcourse you're gonna lose democracy when you don't care to participate in it. You can break an establishment you don't like, by voting for one that is different to it. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT!

[oxymoronic]

I'm having a look at voting turnouts for the last elections and parts of this one so far, and it's absolutely abysmal. How can anyone be called elected by the people when 48% eligible to vote in 2012 DIDNT?
Why is nobody in the US bringing up this horrendous failure? Is anyone going "Guys, what the fuck?"

On top of this is the most absurd thing called "vote registration". How can the largest, richest so called democracy in the world not know where people live? Here in my country we see on our voting papers where we can go and when. If you live in the same area as last time you voted, you just go to where you last voted.
Why is there this blatantly redundant step to voting?

Democracy seems blatantly broken in the US. What's worse is that nobody seems to care. Complete apathy reigns and soon you might facing having an Umpa Loompa as president.

Ofcourse you're gonna lose democracy when you don't care to participate in it. You can break an establishment you don't like, by voting for one that is different to it. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT!

a lot of dribble here but i'll bite. i dont vote cause i dont care.

let me repeat that

I DONT CARE

also you only register to vote once...

[Independent voter]

Those who don't vote are content. Make them mad and they'll vote.

[jackofwind]

Democratic Republic =/= Democracy

[Kujako]

Your civics teacher lied to you. The US is not now, nor has it ever been a Democracy.

[Sesshomaru]

At our last voting here in Norway, we had a total of 78.2% of eligible voters that actually voted in the election for our Parliament, meaning we also missed out on almost 1/4th (well, closer to say 1/5th, but we need some drama) of voters who could've possibly turned things around here.

Also, considering there's tons of teenage pregnancies, rednecks, Mormons and the like in the US, there's no wonder why half of the population haven't/wont vote. Also, lest we not forget who's currently in the ranks, aiming to become the next President of the United States, who's actually not a politician at all.

[oxymoronic]

Your civics teacher lied to you. The US is not now, nor has it ever been a Democracy.

a republic is a form of democracy so chill on your conspiracy theories

[Alydael]

Your civics teacher lied to you. The US is not now, nor has it ever been a Democracy.

The U.S. is technically a republic. It functions more like a split monarchy (split between two groups: Dem or Pub). That is why if you vote for an "independent" many would say "go ahead, throw your vote away!" I laugh when anyone calls the US a democracy. Think about it, how much power do the people actually have? Basically none. That is why we have the electoral college. To protect the elites from any "mistake" the "common" man might make while voting.

It was close to a Democracy during the Articles of Confederacy. In fact, Pennsylvania was very close to an actual Democracy. They used to have town meetings where regular people voted on the issues. The leadership was more organizational, not powerful. The elites at the time felt that the "common" folk had too much power so they called a new convention.

[oxymoronic]

At our last voting here in Norway, we had a total of 78.2% of eligible voters that actually voted in the election for our Parliament, meaning we also missed out on almost 1/4th (well, closer to say 1/5th, but we need some drama) of voters who could've possibly turned things around here.

Also, considering there's tons of teenage pregnancies, rednecks, Mormons and the like in the US, there's no wonder why half of the population haven't/wont vote. Also, lest we not forget who's currently in the ranks, aiming to become the next President of the United States, who's actually not a politician at all.

feels like there is a compliment in there somewhere....

nope all flame

- - - Updated - - -

The U.S. is technically a republic. It functions more like a split monarchy (split between two groups: Dem or Pub). That is why if you vote for an "independent" many would say "go ahead, throw your vote away!" I laugh when anyone calls the US a democracy. Think about it, how much power do the people actually have? Basically none. That is why we have the electoral college. To protect the elites from any "mistake" the "common" man might make while voting.

It was close to a Democracy during the Articles of Confederacy. In fact, Pennsylvania was very close to an actual Democracy. They used to have town meetings where regular people voted on the issues. The leadership was more organizational, not powerful. The elites at the time felt that the "common" folk had too much power so they called a new convention.

"common folk" are stupid, so i agree with them, too much power.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

a lot of dribble here but i'll bite. i dont vote cause i dont care.

let me repeat that

I DONT CARE

also you only register to vote once...

You cared enough to post and act like a jerk.

[phitness]

Those who don't vote are content. Make them mad and they'll vote.

Better yet give them a real reason to vote. Most people myself included feel that nothing will change no matter who is the president.

[Gorehowl]

dont worry...it can always get worse. dont believe me? vote for killery and find out.

[PC2]

It's doing fine. If your person doesn't win it's because their ideas were not good enough.

[PACOX]

If you're talking about the turnout of Democrats, a lot of them are indifferent towards Clinton and Sanders so don't feel the need to go to a primary. Democrats already have relatively low turnouts, it only makes sense that the turnout for this particular primary is low. On the other side the GOP voting scene is a mess with healthy turnouts.

People vote when they feel a need to vote, at least thats how Democrats work.

[Deleted]

Those who don't vote are content. Make them mad and they'll vote.

it's the opposite. people who don't believe they can make a difference don't vote. disenfranchised, not content.

[mvaliz]

To many people who watch South Park and believe it's a toss up between two evils... and as the forums show, it's not.

Then you have the "edgy" crowd who think they'll loose some sort of individuality if they vote, that they are smarter than the rest - believe it's fixed and then call those who vote "sheep"... which is ironic considering a) how much they share the same delusion, thus making them "sheep" who wander in a different fold and b) they allow the very VERY low-inteligent angry "people's of wal-mart" kind to vote for their leaders by proxy.

[PC2]

Well, OP, does one of your major parties actually consider it a good use of their time to make it as hard as possible for people that don't support them to vote rather than try to sensibly address their concerns and win their votes? Because one of ours sure as hell does.

If a person can't go through such a simple process, they are far too stupid and lazy to know anything about the economy or politics anyways.

[derpkitteh]

we need to force people to vote. make it illegal not to, and charge people steep fines if they don't.

also make it illegal to write in a stupid choice, like cat or something. it has to be someone on the ballot.

[apepi]

Those who don't vote are content. Make them mad and they'll vote.

I disagree, get better people to actually run and people might be willing to vote more. Honestly unless Bernie wins the primary, I am not going to vote for the general election. They are all bad no matter what choice I get.

[PC2]

we need to force people to vote. make it illegal not to, and charge people steep fines if they don't.

also make it illegal to write in a stupid choice, like cat or something. it has to be someone on the ballot.

Nope, some people vote against a system they don't support by abstaining.