Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy Anymore(Barfy atlantic pos, but)

theatlantic.com ^ | 9/15/2018 | Yoni Appelbaum

[rktman]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series that attempts to answer the question: Is democracy dying?

Democracy is a most unnatural act. People have no innate democratic instinct; we are not born yearning to set aside our own desires in favor of the majority’s. Democracy is, instead, an acquired habit.

Like most habits, democratic behavior develops slowly over time, through constant repetition. For two centuries, the United States was distinguished by its mania for democracy: From early childhood, Americans learned to be citizens by creating, joining, and participating in democratic organizations. But in recent decades, Americans have fallen out of practice, or even failed to acquire the habit of democracy in the first place.

[rktman]

Well, it's the atlantic so what would one expect? Anyway, seems like the author didn't participate in civics either. Otherwise he/she/them/they may have know that we are NOT a democracy. Folks who read this POS fish wrapper most likely don't know any better either. Read at your own risk.

[PGR88]

If so, the statists, SJWs, socialists and deep-staters killed it.

[Interesting Times]

To leftists, “democracy” only occurs when leftists are put into power. QED.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“Democracy” is predicated upon the voters accepting the results of elections, especially the results of elections they lose.

Democracy dies when Democrats refuse to accept the result of an election they lost.

[outofsalt]

" we are not born yearning to set aside our own desires in favor of the majority’s"

That's not even democracy. That's socialism, at best. The guy's an idiot.

[50mm]

Democracy: two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.

[Telepathic Intruder]

The Constitution describes ours as a Republican form of government. Democracy is not mentioned.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Correct. That’s a good example of how we are not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic.

Even alleged constitutional law professors such as Obama, say we are a democracy. I seldom hear anyone call us a republic except the people here on this site.

[ckilmer]

the atlantic suggests that its republicans who have got out of the habit of democracy. when in truth, its the democrats who have done so.

[eclecticEel]

"set aside our own desires in favor of the majority’s"

That's just groupthink.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

It’s interesting if typical that the author asserts without evidence that Trump is violating the norms of democratic governance. Um . . . as far as I can see he’s doing his best to restore democratic governance in the face of a relentless assault from the Deep State.

[libertylover]

In 2016, a presidential candidate … drawing his core support from Americans who seldom participate in the rituals of democracy.

He could hardly be more wrong it he tried, Trump's core support comes from Americans who vote in almost every election. It's true that Trump supporters seldom participate in the "rituals of democracy" if he means riots.

[arthurus]

Leftists define democracy by the results of the elections, not the process.

[x]

It sounds like this would have been a great article in 1918. Most of the author's examples come from the years before that. In a more urban, industrialized country, the kind of participatory democracy that was possible in a rural, agrarian land becomes impracticable.

Face to face interactions or meetings that will fit into an auditorium become rarer and less effective when millions of people and millions of dollars are involved. The loss of ethnic homogeneity and values consensus also makes it harder for people to work together. That may be a bad thing but it's something we have been living with for a while. If not for a century, then certainly for the last 20 or 30 years or so.

I don't see Trump as undemocratic ("building an autocracy"). In some ways he is more democratic, cutting through layers of bureaucratic impositions and elite-imposed consensus that voters never actually agreed to. I suppose it's true that rampant populism can be an enemy of republican government, but so can the administrative state and the rule of elites. That, of course, is something you won't hear from elites or would-be elitists.

Are we (or were we) a democracy? We all know about representative government and direct democracy, I hope. But if Britons, Swedes, and Spaniards can talk about their governments as democratic, in spite of the monarchical figureheads, then in some sense we are (or were) a democracy too.

[Rockingham]

Even as we revere the great men and women who fought and won the American Revolution, we should not forget that their struggle and success required the active support of ordinary Americans. The Atlantic is late in waking up to the problem of declining democracy -- and is behind the curve in recognizing the revival that is already well underway.

About fifteen years ago, my youngest brother, a local government activist and, at the time, a small town mayor and city councilman, noticed that citizen interest and participation in government was on the wane. He attributed it to a general sense of complacency, the decline of local news coverage, and a lack of galvanizing issues. Reporters I knew said the same, as did state and national conservative activists.

The tide has now turned. My brother was recently drawn into yet another local issue. To his surprise, this time the issue, a foolish and permissive new sign ordinance, has stirred local public interest based solely on word of mouth and a new willingness of people to take action to rein in government when it goes wrong.

More broadly, this forum, the rise of the Tea Party after Barak Obama's election, and the extraordinary success of Donald Trump, all reflect a new rising of citizen interest and activism.

The dedication of Americans to democracy and self-government is essential to who we are. Those reflexes and interest in government may seem to diminish from time to time, but that they do so is a sign not of weakness but that Americans are taking time to recharge and gather strength for new effort to come.

We were giving up, you say? The Hell we were -- we just reloading and waiting for better targets!

[Kickass Conservative]

Democracy, two Wolves and one Sheep deciding what’s for Dinner.

[Rummyfan]

What a lot of BS. Trump gets elected so democracy must be dying. Right up there with the Washington Post adapting the motto Democracy dies in darkness, after eight years of Obozo trampling on The Constitution and attacking the free press. Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy Anymore is just the left saying we lost the election.

[a fool in paradise]

from the left who argue that democracy isn’t (shouldn’t be) for everyone

[a fool in paradise]

democracy educational film from the 1940s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhiwswf4Jlg

[SanchoP]

Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to Say that Democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious or less avaricious than Aristocracy or Monarchy. It is not true in Fact and no where appears in history. Those Passions are the same in all Men under all forms of Simple Government, and when unchecked, produce the same Effects of Fraud Violence and Cruelty. When clear Prospects are opened before Vanity, Pride, Avarice or Ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate Phylosophers and the most conscientious Moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves, Nations and large Bodies of Men, never. - John Adams (1814)

America's demise began after the Civil War and we are witness to it's final death throes.