Capitalism is to blame, not the American people. The Political Parties ultimately gain influence and power by courting the ruling class to secure funding, thus it is unreasonable to expect either the Democrats or the Republicans to actually represent the will of the people.
They have similar problems, resulting from Capitalism, but of course having a different electoral structure results in different issues. That doesn’t mean their issues don’t also stem from Capitalism, it’s Capitalism with a different structure.
At the end of the day, a wildfire in a forest and a wildfire in a prairie face different issues still caused by wildfire.
Socialist countries face different issues that are not the result of Capitalism.
States ultimately serve the class in power, if the class in power is the Proletariat, then the majority is in power. If the class in power is the Bourgeoisie, then the minority is in power.
In any system where a small group of people control the vast majority of wealth, resources, and Capital, the dominant political parties will court these people and represent their interests over the people that do not control the majority of wealth, resources, and Capital.
We have historical example of the USSR where despite being a “socialist” country it was a one party system that did not represent everyone.
You can do socialism and still get the politics wrong. That means capitalism or socialism is not the cause of every political problem. The same problem with the US can still happen even if the US was a socialist country. Similarly you can be a capitalist country and not have the problem US has, because the problem in the US is how the political system is built up not how capitalists use the system to their benefit.
Having one party isn’t necessarily worse than having 2, what matters is how accountable the parties you have are. The USSR was corrupt, but still had democratic measures in place.
The same problem the US faces, ie the 2 dominant parties representing the Capitalist class that weilds an incredibly outsized amount of power, would not exist in a Socialist country where Capitalists are suppressed or even nonexistant.
The dominant class will use power to influence the state regardless of form the state takes.
You can read up on Soviet Democracy on Wikipedia. I believe counter-revolutionary parties were outlawed, but given that they still liberalized, it can be seen that it wasn’t an inflexible, unchanging monolith.
Having one party isn’t necessarily worse than having 2
Though it pretty much universally is.
what matters is how accountable the parties you have are. The USSR was corrupt, but still had democratic measures in place.
I was unaware that being incarcerated in Siberia for disagreeing with the party was a democratic accountability measure.
The overall view of Soviet Russia is interesting. Socially, economically. Politically however, they’re as bad or worse than the capitalists they hate. Power corrupts. And yet people keep repeating their mistakes. Outlawing and squashing dissent, concentrating power and wealth at the top. Throwing a few scraps to the proletariat till the parties mistakes come home to roost. Then the wheels fall off. Those in the party and upper ranks refuse to sacrifice. Instead grinding the proletariat in to dust and disillusionment. It’s happened to every time with that style of government everywhere has ever been tried.
I think the only remote exception to that being cuba. But that’s largely because of its isolation and rather small size.
When the Kim family or Xi start holding elections. Maybe then we might actually believe there’s any democracy. When the party leaders and the upper party echelon start living in the same block houses and paying themselves the same wage as the average citizen. Maybe then we might believe the rhetoric is anything more than empty and meaningless. Only meant to pacify the proletariat as long as possible.
When you have good policy there’s no need for crushing social oppression or outlawing other parties. Nor is there any need for armies, guns, or tanks to convince people.
It is not “universally” better. If the 2 parties in question encompass a smaller scope of ideas and democratic participation than a larger single party, then the one party system is more democratic. Party isn’t synonymous with ideology.
Overall, I think you have a pretty myopic view of how foreign countries are run or were run, and encourage you to read up some more.
“It could’ve been worse” (a.k.a. the North Korea “defense”) isn’t a counter-argument to “This is shit and here is why”.
It’s at best whataboutism.
As for the Soviet Union and similar, it’s still an elite in power doing what’s best for themselves. In Capitalism the selection to the elite is by Money (and no, it mainly doesn’t come about by merit but by being born in the right family and not giving a shit about one’s fellow human beings) whilst in the so-called implementations of Communism/Socialism by working your way up within the Ruling Party (ditto in Fascism, by the way) which is a mix of smoozing and knifing others on the back.
Both systems put sociopaths in control, both consist of a elite minority in power and using it to serve themselves, and most people will neither be in it nor me served by it.
Neither option is good so we need something else.
So far, the best we have is a little bit of Capitalism tightly controlled by Social Democracy, IMHO.
Capitalism is to blame, not the American people. The Political Parties ultimately gain influence and power by courting the ruling class to secure funding, thus it is unreasonable to expect either the Democrats or the Republicans to actually represent the will of the people.
Except European countries don’t have the exact same problem that the US has, which mean that specific issue isn’t caused by capitalism.
They have similar problems, resulting from Capitalism, but of course having a different electoral structure results in different issues. That doesn’t mean their issues don’t also stem from Capitalism, it’s Capitalism with a different structure.
At the end of the day, a wildfire in a forest and a wildfire in a prairie face different issues still caused by wildfire.
So in a socialist country this could never happen?
Socialist countries face different issues that are not the result of Capitalism.
States ultimately serve the class in power, if the class in power is the Proletariat, then the majority is in power. If the class in power is the Bourgeoisie, then the minority is in power.
In any system where a small group of people control the vast majority of wealth, resources, and Capital, the dominant political parties will court these people and represent their interests over the people that do not control the majority of wealth, resources, and Capital.
We have historical example of the USSR where despite being a “socialist” country it was a one party system that did not represent everyone.
You can do socialism and still get the politics wrong. That means capitalism or socialism is not the cause of every political problem. The same problem with the US can still happen even if the US was a socialist country. Similarly you can be a capitalist country and not have the problem US has, because the problem in the US is how the political system is built up not how capitalists use the system to their benefit.
Having one party isn’t necessarily worse than having 2, what matters is how accountable the parties you have are. The USSR was corrupt, but still had democratic measures in place.
The same problem the US faces, ie the 2 dominant parties representing the Capitalist class that weilds an incredibly outsized amount of power, would not exist in a Socialist country where Capitalists are suppressed or even nonexistant.
The dominant class will use power to influence the state regardless of form the state takes.
What democratic measures USSR had in place?
And what would’ve prevented USSR from creating a second party, similarly to the US, to make it seem like the communist party was what people wanted?
You can read up on Soviet Democracy on Wikipedia. I believe counter-revolutionary parties were outlawed, but given that they still liberalized, it can be seen that it wasn’t an inflexible, unchanging monolith.
Though it pretty much universally is.
I was unaware that being incarcerated in Siberia for disagreeing with the party was a democratic accountability measure.
The overall view of Soviet Russia is interesting. Socially, economically. Politically however, they’re as bad or worse than the capitalists they hate. Power corrupts. And yet people keep repeating their mistakes. Outlawing and squashing dissent, concentrating power and wealth at the top. Throwing a few scraps to the proletariat till the parties mistakes come home to roost. Then the wheels fall off. Those in the party and upper ranks refuse to sacrifice. Instead grinding the proletariat in to dust and disillusionment. It’s happened to every time with that style of government everywhere has ever been tried.
I think the only remote exception to that being cuba. But that’s largely because of its isolation and rather small size.
When the Kim family or Xi start holding elections. Maybe then we might actually believe there’s any democracy. When the party leaders and the upper party echelon start living in the same block houses and paying themselves the same wage as the average citizen. Maybe then we might believe the rhetoric is anything more than empty and meaningless. Only meant to pacify the proletariat as long as possible.
When you have good policy there’s no need for crushing social oppression or outlawing other parties. Nor is there any need for armies, guns, or tanks to convince people.
It is not “universally” better. If the 2 parties in question encompass a smaller scope of ideas and democratic participation than a larger single party, then the one party system is more democratic. Party isn’t synonymous with ideology.
Overall, I think you have a pretty myopic view of how foreign countries are run or were run, and encourage you to read up some more.
Yeah, it is only worse if you aren’t their main demographic
Yep, in the US both parties serve different slices of the same minority that makes up the Capitalists.
“It could’ve been worse” (a.k.a. the North Korea “defense”) isn’t a counter-argument to “This is shit and here is why”.
It’s at best whataboutism.
As for the Soviet Union and similar, it’s still an elite in power doing what’s best for themselves. In Capitalism the selection to the elite is by Money (and no, it mainly doesn’t come about by merit but by being born in the right family and not giving a shit about one’s fellow human beings) whilst in the so-called implementations of Communism/Socialism by working your way up within the Ruling Party (ditto in Fascism, by the way) which is a mix of smoozing and knifing others on the back.
Both systems put sociopaths in control, both consist of a elite minority in power and using it to serve themselves, and most people will neither be in it nor me served by it.
Neither option is good so we need something else.
So far, the best we have is a little bit of Capitalism tightly controlled by Social Democracy, IMHO.