system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Our Democracy is Broken

The only way to understand someone's politics is to acknowledge who they are and what they want.  I will do my best to lay that out before I espouse my political ideals. I also apologize for any Americentrism in advance, but I think the problems in contemporary American society overlap with most similar Government structures in the western world. So I guess I apologize for western-centrism or Eurocentrism more than anything.


My childhood was a relatively isolated one, and my political prospects were free from the taint of my parents. I spent much of my youth reading of the greats in our history books. Augustus Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and George Washington. Acknowledging the impact they had on the world and conversely, the impact their world had on them. Of these men, one is the founder of an independent nation, another a conqueror with political reforms ahead of his time, and one a great administrator. Individual traits that make great men in history Great. 


As my schooling continued and the whole "Good Republic, Evil Empire" trope got ingrained in my brain, it was the founders of our nation that I looked to as my Heroes and men I would model my life after. 


But the faults of the system they helped design are too apparent and significant for me to see as acceptable tradeoffs, dangers the founders themselves had warned of in advance. Issues they have faced themselves in their lifetime.


 The majority of ideological and social conflict is petty. It is driven by emotion, prejudice, and impulse rather than logic and reason. Political capital is allocated to reelection rather than governing.  We produce more rabble-rousers and demagogues with selfish motives than statesman with honorable intentions. It has become evident that this nation has let democracy run amuck just as the founders had forewarned. The meaning of all this is simple to me; the uneducated masses have no business participating in the political process. 


It is evident in our state judiciary; it is evident in our state legislatures; it is evident in the caliber of today's prominent political figures.  Shadow Banking. Ghost Government. Ghost Voting. All of it disgraces the name of liberty.


That isn't to say I do respect the institutions many Democratic proponents have formed. I still have a significant respect for the early days of democracy and the people that preserved and strengthened it. Pericles, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Hamilton. Statesman unafraid of wearing their beliefs on their sleeves. Men with passion, ambition, and vision. Orators and writers.  


But...


Gone are the days of eloquent debates in elegant rooms. We live in a society where if you can't express your opinion in 128 characters it's irrelevant. 


Thomas Jefferson once said: "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." Our citizenry is neither educated or informed. And a system that by nature seeks to provide freedom is endangering it.


These are the reasons why I believe our democracy is broken, and our political system and social condition is in need of abolition or a rehaul.

Or...I'm over reacting/Wrong/Both

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Edit: It seems to me there are a great deal of people that believe I'm advocating for a dictatorship, I am not. A dictatorship is rule by one. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and even if it doesn't, one person cannot possibly have the best judgement in all areas of Governing. A system of checks and balances is important, and even now in the US there exists checks on the people. I have much less qualms about the structure of the inner workings of the Federal Government, and much more about the inner workings of the states. Also, the idea of who gets to vote. 

I believe all men who prove themselves in one way or another should have the right to vote. A Geniocracy is closer to my political ideals, the main problem with such a system is defining what intelligence is. I am not a rigid thinker, your place in society shouldn't be designated by an iq test. Everyone has a place in which they function best, and whatever that place is should be what issues they have a say in. If someone is skillful in more than one place, they can have a say in all of them. To an extent, there is some of this inside our Government as it stands now. The head of the department of agriculture, I take it, is somewhat well versed in agriculture. The system I propose just takes this to a greater level. 

But politics, as it is now, has become entertainment, this is something I despise. 

But more than these principles, are the systemic failures of our current Government. I threw some words around but I didn't elaborate. For that, I take fault. 

"Shadow Banking. Ghost Government. Ghost Voting."

Shadow Banking is essentially unregulated financial activities. The intention of our financial system is to act as the respiratory system of our economy, with the air and blood flow being capital. Instead, however, our financial system acts parasitically. They have drifted away from their function and place in society and think themselves a primary industry of their own. The proportion of our financial sector to the rest of our economy is unsustainable, this is a major problem that hasn't been solved because of money and politics and insufficient political power placed in the hands of the Federal Government.

Ghost Voting: By this, I don't mean dead people voting in elections. That's not a problem and it has been debunked. I'm talking about politicians voting in on important issues for eachother. That shouldn't warrant an explanation.

Ghost Government: By this I'm talking about special districts, excessive red tape, and essentially all the problems that accompany a large Government with insufficient oversight over its own inner workings. This is the problem I know the least about due to its vastness, but considering the numerous experts that way in, it's probably the biggest problem. 

I also dislike the amount of power the states have in comparison to the Federal Government, and I will go into detail about this in a bit.
gpt
200 years ago widespread electoral fraud ruled politics - gangs were hired to round up voters by force, many voted numerous times in the same vote and the poor were paid for their votes. Back then the average working man had little interest in politics - not the ideas the parties represented or even the expectation that anything would change. There were great politicians but many more greedy and nepotistic ones too, fraud of public finances was common where sweetheart contracting deal made to friends of politicians. 

Now things are different when most of these old fraudulent practices have been stopped, where the populace is still seen as simply voters but now they are not so easily controlled. Now a politician must walk a tight rope of public opinion making more people happy then pissing off. They are constantly scrutinized by a 24 hour news machine that will look for any way to make a story out of their mistakes. Freedom of Information act allows the media to scrutinize finances and possible nepotism. People now are hungry for change and seek it through politics. 

To me your view is simply created through rose tinted goggles, you view the success of people in the past through the history books. In their time their "approval" rating was nowhere near as high. How many people did Napoleon kill in wars,  how many people back then hated Lincoln for starting Americas bloodiest war and setting free the blacks. Now that the poor have a say and an interest in politics the Politicians must listen to them and be held accountable, one mistake could ruin their career. Politics was never perfect, never can be, but its the best system we humans have ever created for governance.