As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. — H. L. Mencken

Writing an essay, need your help.

eltigrechico:

maxlibertarios:

I’m writing an argumentative essay and my topic is ” Representative democracy is detrimental to society.” 

My reasons for this include 

  • Creates a false sense of control over the government
  • Since leaders come from society, people have a false notion that they too can be a leader one day
  • Creates a group of ruling elite

I need to cite outside works. I need quote from “experts” to back these reasons up. If anyone has any ideas, I’m all ears.

I’m LITERALLY just about to go to bed.

but if you have time I’ll post some stuff from Mencken’s Notes On Democracy tomorrow 

also Felix Morley’s Freedom and Federalism (which I JUST finished) has a lot to say about democracy, most of it negative but very insightful

I’d also check out the CPGrey videos:

Problems with FPTP (our voting system) and how we’re doomed to be stuck with 2 parties.

Gerrymandering

Problems with the Electoral College

eltigrechico:

Is America Too Big?

Perhaps it’s time for… umm… a few states to…ummm… leave? I think they call that crazy idea secession. 

This may be a moment in Senate history, when a senator made a proposal that, when given an opportunity for a vote on that proposal, filibustered his own proposal…I don’t think this has ever happened before.

Sen. Dick Durbin, after Mitch McConnell’s latest scheme blew up in his face. McConnell introduced legislation today that would allow the president to unilaterally raise the debt limit, suspecting that Democrats wouldn’t have the guts to vote for it. When it became clear that Democrats did indeed have the votes to pass the bill with a simple majority, McConnell filibustered it, preventing its passage. The United States Senate, ladies and gentlemen. source (via shortformblog)

SugaShane: American politics in a nutshell. It’s like running in place while punching yourself in the face and kicking yourself in the ass. 

(via shortformblog)

Every day we all vote in the consumer marketplace. We buy or decline to buy. We do this by choice. Our choice makes a difference. How we use money determines which companies rise and which ones fall. Unless government jumps in to put companies on life support, consumers themselves can vote any company into non-existence simply by failing to buy its products and services. Ludwig von Mises described this as market democracy. It is the only kind of democracy that really works. Jeffrey Tucker - You Will Be Betrayed (via laliberty)

(via laliberty)

Imagine buying cars the way we buy governments. Ten thousand people would get together and agree to vote, each for the car he preferred. Whichever car won, each of the ten thousand would have to buy it. It would not pay any of us to make any serious effort to find out which car was best; whatever I decide, my car is being picked for me by the other members of the group. Under such institutions, the quality of cars would decline.

This is how I must buy products on the political marketplace. I not only cannot compare the alternative products, it would not be worth my while to do so even if I could. …

— David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom (via laliberty)

(via michaelangerlo)

Obama on tax cuts

At first Obama was against tax cuts for the top 1%, today he said he wants to deny cuts for the top 2%. The size of the demographic that he is going after is increasing and it will have to increase to fill the $1.1 trillion gap in our budget.

How long until it’s the top 49% that he wants to increase taxes on? Given how the majority rules in this country, it wouldn’t be that hard to work your way from vilifying the top 1% to splitting the country in half and having the bottom half attack the top half. 

asker

missnorris asked: can you provide some links/texts/authors on your topic in the Democracy Fails Again post? Would love to read more. Interesting and devastating topic/reality.

Sure, what exactly would you like to get information on? Numbers behind my stats? More righting on the failure of our democratic system?

For now, here is a video on how our single-vote democracy will always have us selecting the “lesser of two evils” from a two party system: 

How Democracy Fails Again and Again.

I laugh every time I see someone outraged that a Presidential candidate received the majority of the vote but didn’t win the election yet those very same people never complain that the majority of our presidents are elected without ever receiving the majority of the popular vote. For these people, the system is only broken when it doesn’t return the results that they desired. 

The real issue here is that most presidents are elected without receiving the majority of the vote. Not just the majority of all citizens or even those who were eligible to vote, but of those who were actually willing to partake in the scandal-laden process. We don’t want to admit, or are oblivious to the fact, that only about 15% of the population is in charge of selecting who is the most powerful man in both this nation and on the planet.

No one brings this to light, not the media, not the Republicans, not the Democrats and not even the Independents because that would underline the failure of our democratic system and government itself and it would highlight the painful fact that all government is the use of force where a portion of the population elects who will enforce the laws over all of the citizens of the country regardless if they approve or not. 

Yet people will continually blame different cogs, like the electoral college or the chads or the media, for the failure of a system that is flawed by design. 

@Suga_Shane

anarchei:

Nobody For President
Check out these articles on why you should vote for nobody:
Abstain From Beans
Against Woman Suffrage
Is Voting An Act Of Violence?
Only Cowards Vote
On The Meaning Of Voting
Statist Reasoning: Non-Freedom For Non-Voters
Non-Voting
Here are some quotes on the subject of voting:
Jeffrey Tucker
H L Mencken
Murray Rothbard
Voltairine de Cleyre
Wendy McElroy
George Carlin
Frederic Bastiat
Finally some videos on the subject:
Message To The Voting Cattle
The Truth About Voting

This is a fantastic reading list. 

anarchei:

Nobody For President

Check out these articles on why you should vote for nobody:

Here are some quotes on the subject of voting:

Finally some videos on the subject:

This is a fantastic reading list.