I think we have to be realistic here and talk about money in politics. To have a true democracy we have to get rid of campaign contributions and make all elections publicly funded. Think of all the money that would free up for charitable and entrepreneurial endeavors!
Secondly we must get rid of the electoral college — it’s had its time and for a one person one vote democracy to work, we have to move towards a system that allows majority rule.
China has a system in place where they believe authoritarian rule takes care of minority interests and moves all of it’s citizens forward economically as a block. Not my idea as a liberal of how I want to live. I want to be able to explore multiple ideas and make decisions for myself based on the free flow of knowledge and information, however there are pros and cons to China’s system of government. That’s in fact why we have more entrepreneurs here and why they steal our technology! A system like this might in fact save our planet.
Russia follows a mafia-style oligarchical system where people are left alone as long as they agree to turn a blind eye to Putin and his cronies making unbelievable amounts of money off the country, and exploiting workers and the environment. Let’s say a current Republican/Trump style of government. It’s what we on the left are trying to fight, but it’s now so entrenched in the American psyche it will take many years, if ever, to get rid of.
It makes perfect sense for Republicans to align themselves with Russia and for Democrats to align themselves with Western Europe. What we’re currently seeing Trump and the Republicans desperately trying to do, is create an international class of rich white men which is centered around a Putin-style plutocracy. This is in fact what might be called “the deep state.”
India will be interesting — will it go the way of Trump and align with Russia because it has China on it’s borders, or will it go the way of New Zealand and Iceland? Or will it carve out something new?
I ‘d like to turn my eyes towards the Scandanavian countries, Iceland and New Zealand as models for what good governments should look like. I’m afraid America is still adolescent and it hasn’t yet proved that it can in fact implement a system of government that protects all of it’s citizens. These citizens come in all colors, though many poor and middle class whites unfortunately don’t yet get it, since they’re so caught up in tribalism and racism.
England and Western Europe — unlike Iceland and New Zealand have to deal with economic immigrants from Africa and Asia, as we do from South and Central America. This complicates the situation, but there are many humane ways to start talking as a world about these problems.
Western European industrial countries have colonized Africa, Asia and South and Central America for years, and now we in the US have joined this legacy of greed, as we destroy their climate with our pollution and unstoppable consumption of luxury goods.
I hope we liberals win the day here in the US, and that middle class conservatives eventually see it as in their economic and health best interests to join us. And if China does would it really be so bad?
