
The U.S. has ‘worst elections of any long-established democracy,’ report finds - kushti
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/03/21/the-u-s-has-worst-elections-of-any-long-established-democracy-report-finds/?postshare=781465681940400&tid=ss_fb
======
aaron-lebo
People aren't willing to make their politicians accountable. It's always the
other person's fault, the other side's extremes; never their own.

You've got Clinton running an email server exposed to the world as secretary
of state, ignoring warnings about it and then lying about it. Yet she will
probably end up getting elected because it's all a "Republican conspiracy".
Meanwhile, Trump is calling a judge's ruling into question about his if not
fraudulent, largely worthless "university" due to their race. Then there's
Bernie who refuses to acknowledge any extremes of socialism. Oh, yes, and then
there's the Lt. Gov. from my state Tweeting a statement like this after the
worst mass shooting in US history. It's either sick or incredibly tone deaf:

"A man reaps what he sows." [0]

Knowing his stances on Muslims and the LGBT community, it's not clear what
he's referring to.

This is a sickness and the modern tech industry is directly responsible. We
are creating echo chambers. There is endemic corruption and misinformation at
all levels. Will we do something? We used to have big dreams, even if the
reality on the ground didn't live up to them. Now we just Tweet.

[http://www.chron.com/news/article/Texas-Lt-Governor-Dan-
Patr...](http://www.chron.com/news/article/Texas-Lt-Governor-Dan-Patrick-
tweets-reap-what-8076147.php)

~~~
mikeash
If Clinton wins, it won't be because her email stuff is dismissed as a
conspiracy, it will be because we only have two choices and the other one is
vastly worse. (Don't try to tell me about other choices. Third party
candidates are the frictionless pulleys of American politics.)

~~~
douche
If I have to listen to her speak for four years on the nightly news, I might
bail and move to Canada. My ears can't take that kind of prolonged shrieking.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Misogyny has no place here.

~~~
douche
You're projecting. I simply said I cannot tolerate the frequencies of her
speaking voice. There are men whose voices are profoundly unpleasant to listen
to also - it has no bearing on which variety of wedding tackle they are
packing. It's like nails on a chalkboard.

~~~
LionessLover
Your "criticism" is the lowest of the low. What can anybody do about the
"frequency" of their voice? _YOU are unpleasant to READ._ Consider that -
unlike the "problem" you invent this is one that _you_ are actually 100%
responsible for.

------
themartorana
Gerrymandering has outrageous results [0] and voter suppression of minorities
is right out of a novel [1]. It's so screwed up that votes almost don't
matter, depending on who last classified what voting district you're in.

[0]
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/13/this-...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/13/this-
is-actually-what-america-would-look-like-without-gerrymandering/)

[1] [http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/02/3745296/major-
vo...](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/02/3745296/major-voter-id-
study/)

~~~
Grishnakh
Gerrymandering is completely overblown as a problem.

Proof: the 2016 Presidential primaries.

~~~
maxerickson
Would you mind expanding the thought a bit? Many states have closed primaries
(so participating in one primary precludes participating in others) and the
delegate allocation rules are pretty complicated. Lots of delegates are
awarded at the state level, where Gerrymandering won't have much impact.

~~~
Grishnakh
Please see my reply to "nitwit005". Basically, we're doing a terrible job
electing people in all our races, but gerrymandering only affects US House
races. Therefore, even if we completely fixed gerrymandering, it's not going
to have much effect.

------
droithomme
I am not sure the term elections accurately describes what goes on.

I don't want to make this political, but the candidate I voted for, and which
I know many voted for, in the 2012 election, received 0 votes in my district.

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bpodgursky
The US is also the longest established continuously democratic government...
so clearly there is also something going right, historically at least.

Ranking Brazilian government above the US is a joke.

~~~
aylons
This is not a government rank, it is an elections ranking.

From your comment history, I can see you have an axe to grind in Brazilian
politics. Please keep it to relevant discussions.

~~~
bpodgursky
It's from the first sentence of the article. Brazil is fair game.

~~~
aylons
"They all outranked the United States in a comparison of election standards
and procedures conducted by the Electoral Integrity Project"

The sentence is specific about election process, not all the government. If
you want to discredit the research, do it properly.

------
NautilusWave
The US is not a democracy, it wasn't even founded as a democracy. You'll find
pockets of it in certain state and local governments, but the US is a federal
republic. Given the historical restrictions on who could vote and participate
in government and more modern corporate influence, it's always been an
oligarchy in practice. This is probably a problem intrinsic to the lack of
democracy on a federal level.

------
ScottBurson
This doesn't even mention the very troubling questions that have been raised
about the security of the electronic voting machines that some states are
using [0].

[0] [https://www.verifiedvoting.org/resources/voting-
equipment/](https://www.verifiedvoting.org/resources/voting-equipment/)

------
H0n3sty
I'm surprised this post hasn't been flagged as too political yet.

