America's flawed democracy

You have those rights in a Republic. Spain, Italy and Portugal are all going through the process of abortion rights. The Catholic Church just this year has recognized gay unions. England is withdrawing from the EU and a couple other countries are considering it. Many feel Germany has to much power.

 

Germany dictates power to other nations, that how democracy in EU works.
E.g. Germany (EU) ordered a destruction of the economy to the most of new Easter European members to avoid competition.
That is exactly what United States does not want, the situation where New York and California would dictate whole country to adopt more special rights, illegal immigration, acceptance of crime and norm, racial divide and promotion of pederasty.

 

Why should a couple of populous states bend to the dictate of the lesser populous states?

There is only 1 President and he/she has jurisdiction over all the states and all The People regardless of the culture of any one particular state. And all the states collectively encompass The People of the UNITED states. Each state has a say within its sovereign jurisdiction in accordance with the 10th Amendment.

 

Just to keep you up-to-date:
-Fyi, Italy and Portugal are republics; Spain is indeed a monarchy;
-In the EU, only in Malta is abortion totally prohibited; in Poland, it is subject to great restrictions and indeed under threat;
-In all other countries of the EU, abortion has been legalized, including recently in the very catholic Ireland.
-In the UK, abortion has been legal for some time too.

I'm not aware ot countries seriously considering leaving the EU, certainly not under the present circumstances.

Germany has legally exactly the same power as the other EU countries. It has indeed a large influence on them because:
-it is the most populated country;
-it has a strong economy that is often pulling the rest of EU;
-it is considered by the other countries a well organized country;
-its leader Angela Merkel is also well respected as the longest leader at the helm of her country; she's been chancellor for exactly 15 years today.

What was your point, again?

 

Germany destroyed other economies one way or another, eliminating competition completely.
Then it proclaimed itself as most prosperous and well organized country.
That de facto made many other EU countries Germany's slaves'
That is exactly how democracy works.

 

Bollocks. There is a law, and it is a key piece of EU jurisdiction in the matter of competitive economies.

OK, so let's see PROOF of the above assertion.

The other countries in the EU (of an equal economic might as Germany) would not have accepted such an anti-competitive situation. Which is why it is also NOT PERMITTED by means of the treaty that associated all the EU-countries into the same economic entity and particularly a law against anti-competition!

And thus for your personal edification: European Union competition law

Excerpt:

 

Let's be careful of what moderators do or should do.

They should not censor what you say but how you say it. Now, that is not something very easy done! (I've been caught here several times for "the way I said something".)

Frankly, I would not want to moderate a forum. Any forum. Too difficult (for my simplistic mind) ...

 

I am on the "Left-of-center" here - if one MUST typify contributors - which is always a source of judgement. Both considerate and inconsiderate judgement.

Your typification above is clearly wrong. The intent of the Left is to change what should be changed.

And that clearly is Income-Disparity in a country that has gone berserk for Wealth. Gotta-get-rich, gotta-get-rich - otherwise you're a nobody!

What I keep harping about is Societal Justice, that is, a means for assuring a sense of "equitability". Not sameness (in terms of personal fortune), but fairness!

And that does not mean in the least, handing out money to people who do not want to work. Inequality in the US is a measurable entity!



The disparity shown above is from 2007 (latest) and since then the situation has only worsened. It is highly-unfair and needs correction! And that can only be done by taxing the super-rich and spending that money on educating the lower-classes by means of a free Tertiary-level Education at a state-school!

That's all I am saying - believe me, with Covid we are pushing the lower-classes to the wall. The situation could explode and when/wherever it does, it will get VERY UGLY.

I hope and pray that the Covid-virus will not turn America into a battlefield of haves and have-nots (had the antidote)! For the first time, the situation is such that however rich you are, you could die just like anybody else. A country should revoke the licence-to-practice of any doctor who obtained the anti-viral medicine and administered it individually to a select group of patients ...

PS: How nice that the owner of anti-Covid "REGN-COV2" produced by Regeneron should be Trump's golfing friend! Ever wonder how Trump recovered so quickly?

 

The U.S. has never been of a high standard of DEMOCRACY. Trump took over a ship that's been sinking year by year so it would be unfair to blame it all on him:

https://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_Index_2010_web.pdf

https://www.sida.se/globalassets/global/about-sida/sa-arbetar-vi/eiu_democracy_index_dec2011.pdf



https://civitanaorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/democracy-index-2012.pdf



https://thepeoplesconvention.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/TheEconomist-DemocracyIndex2013.pdf



https://www.sudestada.com.uy/Conten...2e-9b24-2504a37f6b56/Democracy-index-2014.pdf



https://www.yabiladi.com/img/content/EIU-Democracy-Index-2015.pdf



http://felipesahagun.es/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Democracy-Index-2016.pdf



https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=34079



https://275rzy1ul4252pt1hv2dqyuf-wp...tent/uploads/2019/01/Democracy_Index_2018.pdf



https://www.in.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Democracy-Index-2019.pdf

 

This can't be serious! With ranking changing that much every year!

 

So, the Congressional Budget Office got it wrong?

I very seriously doubt that ...

 

Yep, you said it all.
That is exactly why electoral college should stay.
In democratic EU one country, Germany dictates (writes a laws) to other members of the Union.
The might of Germany has been made by destroying the economies of its neighbors.

 

Unless I missed something, the source seems to be the "Economist Intelligence Unit", not the "Congressional Budget Office".
Whatever, when you see countries listed full democracies, then flawed democracies and back, I think you're entitled to have some doubts about the credibility of such a study. You can't seriously claim that France is a flawed democracy. It is certainly not perfect (no one is I suppose).
I'm not disputing the maths behind the report but the premises on which it is based and possibly the relative weight attributed to the various aspects considered. It all boils down to a matter of semantics maybe.
I do not dispute the thread title either, but there again, semantics...

 

The charts clearly name the source at the very bottom being the Congressional Budget Office ...

 

It's true that ability, effort and a number of other characteristics have made a lot of people wealthy, and many people very wealthy. It's also true that lottery tickets have made some people rich.
Having money (riches) and being wealthy are not at all the same things. Riches are not wealth; because wealth is the ability to generate wealth, where riches are only temporary possession of the fruit.

Much like the old "give a man a fish" parable- except that many who feel their lack of riches is great injustice and think the solution is not learning how to fish- but in someone giving them a fish everyday indefinitely, compensating for the effort they are unwilling to make.

Among the things that have been part of my life is a period of three years where I worked to teach people the simple fundamental skills that would give them power over their own life. The power to make almost anything they wanted become possible. I can teach people how to find a job, how to make a career, how to educate themselves, how to acquire wealth, how to build great relationships- all that and more is actually based on a relatively few principles, that anyone could use. However, to make them work... you must accept them and live them, without compromise.
For most people, that requires some fundamental revision in the way they think, and they won't go there. Too hard; where is the "Easy" button? I want the home run, but I want to start from third base.

Teaching is one thing; learning is another. The teacher does not have control over the learning, that is the students job. When you try to teach these things, you find that a vast majority of people who desperately seek the benefits have no interest in learning the ways to achieve them. That is not societies fault, not the fault of those who are successful or wealthy- it is the fault of the student who expects the results to come first and the knowledge to be acquired without any time, effort or expense on their part. They are entitled to it, because they are here, and somebody else has more than they do. It is unjust that they should have to "learn" and build their own wealth. Just give them their share of the riches- which they will burn through faster than sh*t through a goose, and be back for more tomorrow.
In many ways, we already do that. 10% of the taxpayers contribute 70% of the pot. Almost 50% contribute- nothing. Why are those who aren't paying becoming rich; why are those carrying the bulk of the load not becoming poor? Because wealth is not having money, it is the ability to generate money and make it work. You can give away money- you can give away schooling. You can't give away motivation, values, understanding. Thus- welfare can be given.... but enabling people to provide for themselves cannot.

The fact that there are obstacles in the path- is life, not an evil plot. Nobody wins the game without facing the challenge and playing reasonably well- and those who do not are not in any way entitled to the prize that results from doing so, because they have made their own choices. They should see the success of others as proof they could be successful too, as motivation- and the next generation of successes do, but a great many will not see that at all, or lack the motivation to try. They didn't choose to be poor or any of the negatives they live with; they just fail to choose to learn and do better. You cannot gift them with that capacity when they are unwilling to learn it.

What you can do is perpetuate and deepen their dependence and their lack of self-respect by trying to give them benefits. You can buy their lunch, put a roof over their heads- but you can't buy them dignity or self-respect, without which no man feels valuable.

The idea of helping others is usually a noble motivation- and is very difficult to do without causing them great harm. Most people lack the capacity to understand that.

 

Pure stoopidity!

If Germany destroys its neighbors then it exports to nobody within the EU which is around 37% of all exportations. Why should it deny itself that business?

 

Have fun playing with the English-language!

But it makes for poor rebuttal ...

 

The President does not have unchecked power over all the states. The people elect the members of Congress to uphold the Constitution which lays out our form of government to protect us from foreign and domestic entities which would undermine our rights to Life, Liberty, the right to own property, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The House of Representatives control the purse strings, Congress provides council, advice and consent or rejection of legislation with veto over ride power, and the President executes or denies but is subject to a veto over ride. If any law is passed that the people may consider unjust they have a right to redress in the judiciary system.

If we didn't have checks and balances the majority could easily demand that certain states take their waste, or states could be forced to except onerous restrictions on water and mineral rights. Not sure where you live but I'm sure you would want a say in where nuclear waste is stored. I'm not sure America would want to be under the dictates and philosophy of a Gavin Newsome or Mario Coumo.

 

And we've seen how useless that veto override was in the Senate when it came to bringing down TheDonald.

What is required is two-thirds of the Senate to vote the PotUS's destitution. Which is why it has never been done.

And it missed a Golden Opportunity this time around ... !

 

U.S. domestic Democracy was never anything to brag about (although that is exactly what Washington has been doing since day one) but since the 1950's U.S. non-Democratic international behaviour became known to the rest of the world.

 

So does the lack of comprehension when the example is so clear. But, we are used to the liberal view being pipeline tunnel vision.

 

My point was that your previous post made it sound like that you don't have certain rights under a Republic and the EU would be a better way.

 

Yes, and censorship too! It’s the democratic way!

 

I notice you are very busy on this thread, which I'm gratefull for, given the amount of stupidity one needs to counter here!

However I would kindly suggest you to check that your replies are addressing the proper posts: my post #110 was not a comment on your #108 but on post #109 by "Thingamabo", hence your little confusion.

 

.... and in your wisdom where would you place the U.S. and France on the index if you were to plot their Democracy through the years? Would you draw the line between full democracy and flawed democracy after France as a matter of course as though France is the yardstick measure as Celcius marks freezing point?