Quote:
Originally Posted by Raev
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The point is that democracy may kind of work for <10 million people with a homogeneous ethnicity, culture, and life view, but in a nation as large and diverse as the United States it will simply result in one special interest group horror after another, and that has been borne out by the past 20 years. When you say 'things can be changed in this country' I hope you are not suggesting we exterminate the Blacks, Mexicans, Jews, and Bankers? Well, no one cares about the Bankers.
I don't understand how you can witness the epic political failure we have here and keep saying 'but hey, it works over there'. Also I'm not sure it does work over there. Europe is a mess right now due to all of the immigration from Syria (you're welcome Europals). Germany is currently talking about restricting all of those socialist benefits to avoid the immigrants etc etc.
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Your (and presumably the author's) argument doesn't ultimately make sense because you can't explain why things have gotten better for the working classes ever. Things have gotten better here over time. 8 hour work week etc. It is a defeatist attitude that there is nothing we can or ever can be done because of special interests. Just because multiple cultures makes progress slower doesn't mean it won't happen. Its not like universal healthcare stops working the minute you have a Black population -- its just less likely to get voted in. What I was suggesting is this video is part of a larger movement by people to reduce racial tensions. And it does with younger generations. But the problem is the old guard gets pissed and it temporarily increased tension. Whatever -- just another part of the long slow ass process.
We are better at assimilating people in this country than Europe. We are better at changing racial attitudes than Europe. Europe is better at getting the social safety net because they never had to deal with it this (and institutional reasons I wont get into). They aren't even now -- they are just gonna kick the Muslim population out or disclude them from benefits. Not that I think Discluding non-citizens from benefits is inherently bad policy.
You have a habit of thinking black in white. Killing millions of people, univserial healthcare, and raising taxes...all under the same umbrella of totalitarianism (although no political scientist would agree with you), and thus bad. You seem to imply Obama care 1) cannot possibly get better 2) is somehow the "same thing" as a single payer system, when it obviously isn't.
Power works in three cycles:
1) You lose in the decision-making process
2) The powerful in the situation block the issue from reappearing on the agenda. The powerless develop a defeatist attitude.
3) The powerful -- both intentionally and unintentionally create an ideological hegemony -- where the powerless adopt the values of the powerful.
Undoing this process is slow. And I think what we are starting to see is 3 unravel a bit in the states. This winner/loser pull yourself up by your bootstraps value is on its way out for those that don't benefit from it. It's matter of time before redistribution is on the agenda. And I'm not talking about some bs 3% tax hike on the amount you make over 250k a year. I mean closing loopholes, raising capital gains/social security cap etc. Hardly anyone agrees Romney should pay less than 15% while we fall behind on education, health, saving, and workforce skill.