I wonder what fraction of the electorate thinks "I want my party to win, and if some dirty tricks are required to accomplish that - so be it" .. or .. "the other party's voters are being tricked, so we shouldn't respect their votes". I also think efforts to limit political spending must, to a large extent, be motivated by a belief that voters aren't competent to make their own voting decisions.
I that GOP'ers who deny the accuracy of the 2020 election think no such thing. They just want victory at any cost. But what does it mean for a democracy when a large portion of the electorate does not believe in it?
Is the main bug with our democracy that our government keeps focusing on zero-sum issues to divide us? For example, college grads are a pretty-well off group in our society as are people making over $400k. But when dems get power they give their college grad supporters $10k off their loans! When the gop get power it is "tax cuts for the rich"! These games seem calculated to infuriate the other side to the point where they question democracy ...
It's quite a turn of events. However, I have to say we impute a lot of interpretation to a change of just a few percentage points. The problem is that with such polarization, the consequences swing wildly.
I wonder what fraction of the electorate thinks "I want my party to win, and if some dirty tricks are required to accomplish that - so be it" .. or .. "the other party's voters are being tricked, so we shouldn't respect their votes". I also think efforts to limit political spending must, to a large extent, be motivated by a belief that voters aren't competent to make their own voting decisions.
I that GOP'ers who deny the accuracy of the 2020 election think no such thing. They just want victory at any cost. But what does it mean for a democracy when a large portion of the electorate does not believe in it?
Is the main bug with our democracy that our government keeps focusing on zero-sum issues to divide us? For example, college grads are a pretty-well off group in our society as are people making over $400k. But when dems get power they give their college grad supporters $10k off their loans! When the gop get power it is "tax cuts for the rich"! These games seem calculated to infuriate the other side to the point where they question democracy ...
The electorate may not be as wicked as it seemed …
It's quite a turn of events. However, I have to say we impute a lot of interpretation to a change of just a few percentage points. The problem is that with such polarization, the consequences swing wildly.
As I have said, most of the electorate is being bought off by their favored party stealing money from the other side.
Yet we still have hope from the few percent that will swing based on the moral abominations of their own party’s more detestable candidates.