Well, absolutely untrue about Soviet elections. People didn't go to vote knowing who's gonna win. Because it was committee members who voted, not the entire population. Let me elaborate. USSR had one party (communist, obviously), which had a hierarchy of members, starting from local communists (for instance, those who manage the affairs on a certain factory or in some village) up to General Secretary. You might wonder how this GenSec had been elected. By the committee I've mentioned earlier! This Central Committee of the Communist Party was the main executive power with its General Secretary having responsibilities similar to modern presidents. Here's the interesting part starts...The Committee had been elected by the Congress. Don't even try to make an analogy with the U.S. Congress) This Congress was a kind of meeting held annually in the early USSR and once in 5 years in the later. It included sometimes more than 2 thousand people of strikingly different views on how to build communism, who argued for several days to solve many issues. Well, regarding this, not only ordinary people but communists as well, had no clue who would be elected. I have some wonderful infographics which indicate that the number of participants (Communist Party members), as well as the number of the Committee members, had been increasing rapidly till USSR's collapse, resulting in 18 million of Communist Party members in the late 80ies with 60% or more of them being bureaucrats! That tendency had led to interesting results. The political system of the USSR is an unprecedented phenomenon, which combines glorious achievements and disastrous failures, intrigues and violent struggles for power. Believe me, it's an exciting thing to learn, but it should never be compared with democracy because it sounds awkward.
whats up with all the hate in the comments section? What this guy said about the geographic divisions is true, the electoral college system is pretty fucked up in some areas, and there can definitely be room for improvement in Washington.
Drop the districts. State wide elections, if your state has 8 House seats, the top 8 get the slots. Not a perfect system, but better than what we have now.
irllcd13 Districting is an important process. A bunch of political apparatchiks from the city will fail to address the needs of rural residents on the national stage.
Keith Schricker exactly! It's amazing how people in highly populous urban areas think they should get to decide how people in the rural areas get to live their lives. if, as an example, 60% of the population lived in 10 highly urban states it would be insanity to let those ten states set policy for all the others. I personally think that direct democracy should be implemented on a local/state levels while representative democracy should be the norm for national or even international politics.
Is hard to prove in court that Gerrymandering is happening in a state. Probably this is why it is so rampant. Also, I think gerrymandering based on political affiliation is not illegal, instead of gerrymandering based on race, religion, etc is illegal.
The Senator should really explain why there is no democracy in US elections - the 2 party system is as bad as the 1 party system. Why do elections run for over 2 years? Why isn't there at least 1 3rd party? Why do a minority of people select the candidates for president who are then presented to the voters? (A long election in Canada is 11 weeks). The senator is talking around the real issue, so people stay in the dark; at least tell the f--king truth - there is no democracy in the USA!
Leach is correct that both political parties in the US gerrymander. Much more important is that one party has supported uncontrolled illegal immigration across the Mexico border, and now supports open borders in order to tilt the electorate in their favor permanently. Perpetual one-party rule is not democracy; it is tyranny.
6 years later, it's not only dead, but buried.
Watching this in 2022, I think it's too late. Democracy in the U.S. has died and there seems to be a lack of political courage to save it.
"Our guy?" A majority of Americans haven't had a politicians who represented them in office in quite some time. Probably since Kennedy.
Who's fault is that?
And Kennedy didn't even have a majority.
Well, absolutely untrue about Soviet elections. People didn't go to vote knowing who's gonna win. Because it was committee members who voted, not the entire population. Let me elaborate. USSR had one party (communist, obviously), which had a hierarchy of members, starting from local communists (for instance, those who manage the affairs on a certain factory or in some village) up to General Secretary. You might wonder how this GenSec had been elected. By the committee I've mentioned earlier! This Central Committee of the Communist Party was the main executive power with its General Secretary having responsibilities similar to modern presidents. Here's the interesting part starts...The Committee had been elected by the Congress. Don't even try to make an analogy with the U.S. Congress) This Congress was a kind of meeting held annually in the early USSR and once in 5 years in the later. It included sometimes more than 2 thousand people of strikingly different views on how to build communism, who argued for several days to solve many issues. Well, regarding this, not only ordinary people but communists as well, had no clue who would be elected. I have some wonderful infographics which indicate that the number of participants (Communist Party members), as well as the number of the Committee members, had been increasing rapidly till USSR's collapse, resulting in 18 million of Communist Party members in the late 80ies with 60% or more of them being bureaucrats! That tendency had led to interesting results. The political system of the USSR is an unprecedented phenomenon, which combines glorious achievements and disastrous failures, intrigues and violent struggles for power. Believe me, it's an exciting thing to learn, but it should never be compared with democracy because it sounds awkward.
Representative democracy is ridiculous.
We should vote for individual issues, not people.
Bravo, right up there with Annie Leonards Story of Stuff and Chomsky on Concision. Thanks for this talk-- what are the solutions?? Whitiker Lane
That is the real question isn't it?
@@zatar123 apriorian is a new system.
CITIZENS UNITED,
LIMITED VOICES IN MEDIA
whats up with all the hate in the comments section? What this guy said about the geographic divisions is true, the electoral college system is pretty fucked up in some areas, and there can definitely be room for improvement in Washington.
done on purpose
In Athens majority means only rich men.
hahaha health means nothing back then, study more
Stated thing of with both sideing things.
We have allowed a radical inequality to evolve within our political system;
That's hard to turn back.
Drop the districts. State wide elections, if your state has 8 House seats, the top 8 get the slots.
Not a perfect system, but better than what we have now.
irllcd13 Districting is an important process. A bunch of political apparatchiks from the city will fail to address the needs of rural residents on the national stage.
Keith Schricker exactly! It's amazing how people in highly populous urban areas think they should get to decide how people in the rural areas get to live their lives. if, as an example, 60% of the population lived in 10 highly urban states it would be insanity to let those ten states set policy for all the others.
I personally think that direct democracy should be implemented on a local/state levels while representative democracy should be the norm for national or even international politics.
I thought Gerrymandering was illegal. So, how is this going on so blatantly?
Is hard to prove in court that Gerrymandering is happening in a state. Probably this is why it is so rampant. Also, I think gerrymandering based on political affiliation is not illegal, instead of gerrymandering based on race, religion, etc is illegal.
I wonder what the speaker is saying now after the jan 6 insurrection.
This is why we need to bring back Townships as a political entity, and use them as the "Legos" to build districts.
apriorian provides a similar framework, the people own their political jurisdictions.
The Senator should really explain why there is no democracy in US elections - the 2 party system is as bad as the 1 party system. Why do elections run for over 2 years? Why isn't there at least 1 3rd party? Why do a minority of people select the candidates for president who are then presented to the voters? (A long election in Canada is 11 weeks). The senator is talking around the real issue, so people stay in the dark; at least tell the f--king truth - there is no democracy in the USA!
I don't understand why the audience is laughing at this.
New rule all areas for voting have to be rectangles exluding coasts
Daylin, what do you think of Freedom Force International?
Leach is correct that both political parties in the US gerrymander. Much more important is that one party has supported uncontrolled illegal immigration across the Mexico border, and now supports open borders in order to tilt the electorate in their favor permanently. Perpetual one-party rule is not democracy; it is tyranny.
I believe in Monarchy
Democrats do it too. Woopty do.
What a liar...