Panelist Mehdi Hassan, a British Broadcaster, wrote: “Is this really what we define as democracy? Or is this, to quote the president-elect, a “rigged” system? Rigged not against Trump and the Republicans but against the poor, against ethnic minorities, against Democrats but, above all else, against basic democratic norms and principles and pretty simple notions of equality and fairness? This isn’t a time for denial or deflection. The American political system is broken. Far from being the “world’s greatest democracy,” to quote President Obama, representative democracy in the United States seems further hollowed out with every election cycle."
Mr. Hassan points to many factual particulars indicating that the United States has become a singularly dysfunctional democracy where we have normalized many bizarre governmental practices (like "shutting down the government") that would be inconceivable in any other country on earth, most notably the functional countries of Europe.
Mr. Hassan is also enlightening at the 35:00 mark, pointing out that if a country Uncle Sam didn't approve were to elect a president with fewer votes than his political opponent (as the United States has done twice in the last 16 years) the U.S. State Department would protest this brazen contradiction of the popular will more vigorously than Trump has ever Tweet stormed.
In the following audio file, don't miss Elaine Kamarck's illuminating analysis of California's gross under-representation in American politics. The passage begins at the 36:00 minute mark.
"Does It Matter If The Government Is Dysfunctional?"
Joshua Johnson's 1A
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