If only we had any historical examples from, say, the past century, showing that the way to stop fascism is NOT by voting the socialdemocrats/liberals into power...
The majority voted for the candidate I don’t like. That means democracy is broken.
Don't worry, the US democracy was already broken. That became painfully clear when Trump started whining about not winning the popular vote when he was elected the first time. Being able to lose while having the support of the majority of voters is proof enough:
Hillary: 65,853,625 votes
Trump: 62,985,106 votes
Not every vote has the same weight, which is just completely bonkers and proof that your archaic system is due for a retrofit. Let's just hope it won't get chucked away entirely in the coming years.
Why? Trump won fair (proverbial at least, I don't think all the misinformation that has been spewed on X counts as 'fair') and square this year, but that doesn't mean your system isn't flawed. Votes from certain states still carry less weight due to improperly distributed electors. Same happened with Gore vs Bush by the way.
What part of "he won the popular vote" did you not understand? Across all states, more people voted for him than for Harris. Even if there was no electoral college, he would still be president.
Unless you're arguing that electoral college votes should be redistributed in a way that ensures the winner will always be a Democrat...
Across all states, more people voted for him than for Harris.
I never said otherwise.
Unless you're arguing that electoral college votes should be redistributed in a way that ensures the winner will always be a Democrat...
No, I'm saying that your system needs to be fixed so every vote has the same weight, that's all. The fact that the term 'popular vote' exists at all is the flaw. Who won this year is irrelevant to the argument.
I think us non-USians are alluding to the clusterfuck of only having an either/or choice. That’s not how democracy works in most democratic places. There’s only ever two runners and riders that stand any real chance of winning over there. Most people would call that a fixed race.
While there technically might be more choices available in other places (for instance, in Germany there's usually at least 2-3 smaller parties that have a legitimate chance to make it into the Bundestag), de facto it still boils down to the two major parties (conservatives and social democrats) duking it out amongst themselves, and voting 3rd party is merely a matter of choosing who their junior partner will be. It might help sway the resulting coalition's direction on some minor issues but the overall direction is still very much decided by the 500 lbs gorilla.
Someone downvoted you for spitting facts? Interesting. The two US parties are both right of centre, which gives an immediate imbalance. Small parties can have some bearing on their senior partners policies, like you say. I’m assuming Germany has local elections, mayoral elections etc. surely some of the smaller, more niche parties, pick up seats in those if they happen. Trends identified by smaller parties will get picked up by bigger parties, so they serve their worth there, too.
Unfortunately, the day after Trump was elected, coalition talks between the non-nazi parties in Saxony, a German state, failed. Which means there is no likely way to build a government coalition without a re-election or admittting the far right party in that state now.
And the day after that, the center-left federal government coalition broke apart, leaving it without a majority, which will trigger an early federal election next year.
And with current sentiments, the result of that election will likely pose the exact same problem Saxony now has, but for all of Germany.
Whilst things do appear quite bleak across a lot of the European continent right now at least with a parliament that’s receptive to multiple parties there is a hope that one could quickly rise-up from the ashes of those defeated should the AfD (? + others) lurch the country far from the centre in the not too distant future. My confidence isn’t that high, but it is a possibility.
Unfortunately, the only new development was another split of the left wing party into a new one that wants to appease Russia.
So we now have:
AfD (Nazis, Trumpists and Putin fans)
CDU/CSU (Conservatives increasingly considering a coalition with the nazis)
FDP (their entire goal is lowering taxes for the rich, and keeping petrol cars legal)
SPD (Center left, stagnating and inreasingly aimless)
Greens (unsuccessful in pushing preogress against the others, unpopular due to identity politics)
Linke (old school left wing, sunken to irrelevancy)
BSW (most recent split of the left, want to move foreign policy away from NATO towards Russia)
We now have Putin bootlickers all throughout the political spectrum.
I killed a lot of my sacred cows in my early twenties… but, yeah, good point all the same. I do understand that when you’ve held a belief for so long it is a trauma to a.) realise you’re wrong and b.) reprogramme your mindset. Nothing but respect for people that can accept this and move on.
And yet not everyone votes or even has a chance to vote in this democracy. And don't get me started on the college of representarives. Seems pretty broken to me.