Quote (JessiWan @ Aug 17 2022 05:37pm)
Apparently, some people believe that elections and especially presidental elections, actually mean anything. They think that candidates win or lose based on their own merit, and on the strength of their platforms. I cast doubt on this.
Campaigning for the presidential election costs a lot of money. And wealthy campaign donors can easily decide the outcome of the election by contributing to a certain candidate substantially. Then they probably expect favors from him if he wins. This isn't just my own paranoia, this is a widespread public perception and wikipedia also references it.
The only way I might be dissuaded is if people can actually show me the hard numbers. Show me a detailed, itemized rundown of a candidate's total campaign expenses, and then show me the total amount of campaign funds that he or his party legitimately raised. If the latter is enough to cover the former, then I will shut up. Otherwise, the shortfall can only be made up by big money and this really is just legalized bribery.
Thanks for reading.
Impressed, you cracked the system. US is a representative democracy on paper only. The reality is you are ruled by representants of oligarchy by making your choice narrow down to their candidates. How else could a "smart", "progressive" population of more than 300 mio had no one better to offer than a dementic dinosaur (Biden) and a clown (Trump) well past their prime times? Do the US not have anyone better to offer? Of course, there are, but the establishment won't allow them to become the final candidates. Your ruling class is about 2% or less of the population. Coincidentally, most of the policies of US administrations benefit those people, not the ones who voted for them. Rich become richer, poor poorer, middle class slowly disappears.
This post was edited by babun1024 on Aug 18 2022 08:34am