• RealFknNito@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      7 months ago

      He’s certainly not destroying it

      Oh, yes, the only two options. Death or life support. No way to improve it.

      • nexguy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        How could someone improve democracy and who would it be?

        Edit: weird that I would be down voted for asking who and how to improve democracy.

        • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          17
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          Okay, while I think the other person’s complaints are unreasonable and dishonest, I really need to answer this sincerely, because it’s genuinely important that people understand.

          Ways that American democracy can be improved:

          1. Eliminating lobbyists

          2. Capping how much money can be spent on political campaigns

          3. Capping individual donation sizes

          4. Capping donation frequency

          5. Implementing a cardinal or ordinal voting system (such as approval or single transferable vote)

          6. Making voting more accessible

          7. Removing the possibility of gerrymandering

          8. Outlawing political parties

          9. Making voting mandatory

          10. Several other things who’s scope mean they probably don’t count (like better education, which would help citizens perform democracy better, but also clearly falls outside the scope of the list) or that I am otherwise forgetting.

          Edit:formatting.

          Edit2: I never intended to answer “who” because that question doesn’t have a single answer; the president can’t do those things, and it’s silly to expect them to.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            7 months ago

            Unfortunately, I don’t see how any president can do any of those. The best he can do is appoint competent justices and try to persuade Congress

            • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              7 months ago

              Correct; the president can’t do those things, hence why the other commentor’s complaints didn’t make sense. I was answering the question of how.

                • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  Personally, I don’t credit him with “saving democracy” however, putting Trump in the White House would endanger democracy as an institution because his faction would have enough control to implement their will without being checked.

          • nexguy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            7 months ago

            You didn’t answer who. Who is so much better than Biden that they would be able to do all of this.

            • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              Despite his age, Bernie Sanders is still the most qualified person to be president. He would get more done and made election reform a focus of his campaigns.

              • nexguy@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                8
                ·
                7 months ago

                I love Sanders but he couldn’t do all of that. He also supports Ukraine but is willing to sacrifice Ukrainians and Ukraine territory in a squabble over money to support Ukraine. This weakens democracy and strengthens Putin’s resolve to continue plowing through Ukraine.

                • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  Yes; of course there isn’t. It requires a movement, not a person. Every election season I am baffled by how everyone is willing to blame or credit the president for literally everything. You asked how, and I answered. That was the entire scope of my comment.

            • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              7 months ago

              Not only did they not answer the question of “who”, they instead listed off a wish list of things no president is able to do unilaterally. Like, those are all good things, but blaming the current incumbent / candidate for not doing those is a completely ignorant take (if not intentionally moving the goalposts).

              We need better civics lessons both in K-12 and maybe some kind of adult education classes.

              • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                7 months ago

                Too many people’s expectations of our government are way too high. We can’t even feed hungry children in school, how are we going to outlaw lobbying?

                • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  Because they need to be in the opposite order. If we can’t outlaw lobbying, then lobbyists will simply pay to undo the school lunches.

                  This is usually met with appeals to emotion - “how dare you sacrifice children, my child will starve to death tomorrow if you don’t trade everyone’s representation”.

              • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                7 months ago

                The only unilateral goal in the meme was destroying “democracy” because Trump instigated January 6th. Everything else was a goal that required bipartisan support.

          • nexguy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            7 months ago

            Great, a usual list of improvements but you didn’t answer who. Who will be so much better than Biden and would accomplish this?

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              7 months ago

              Lawrence Lessig…

              The problem isn’t that we don’t have solutions. The problem is that, collectively, we don’t have the will to implement them. It’s like effective Climate Change policy or Covid policies. At best, we’re getting half measures because people rather have their popcorn and circuses than saving their children. Biden doesn’t represent a solution, he represents a theater of a solution.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      he’s keeping anyone else from saving it. anyone whose chances are more than ’questionable’.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          13
          ·
          7 months ago

          he’s the worst dipshit that could be running here, sucking up all the support for the smallest permissible ‘better’, when you have enough bipartisan issues to get support from both the left and sane-right if you ran anyone else. biden is not defending democracy; he’s dangling it over a cliff with Donald trump at the bottom.

          • nexguy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            7 months ago

            Neirher West nor Stein would do anything different. In fact both of them want to give in to Putin and weaken democracy world wide. Who could do it better?

            • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              7
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              anyone. else. literally anyone on my block, including many of the pets.

              and if ‘west’ and ‘stein’ wouldn’t do anything different than biden, they’re shit too. your whole argument is that the entire democratic party is worthless, that none of them have any virtue to counter trump, just the exact same calculated amount of vice less, the smallest amount so we can say they’re not quite the same, following them down the intellectual lacuna, using them as a wind break?

              that seems like a party I’m literally never going to vote for.

                • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  4
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  7 months ago

                  anyone else! is al gore still alive? Michelle Obama? Bernard sanders? my roommate? my roommate’s dog? any school aged child?

                  would be better than either of these two.

                  • nexguy@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    3
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    Those people are not running and Bernie is playing penny pincher with Ukraine aid which strengthens Putin which weakens democracy world wide. Since they are not running does that translate into not voting in this election?