Electoral Dysfunction Quotes

I am a congenital optimist about America, but I worry that American democracy is exhibiting fatal symptoms. DC has become an acronym for Dysfunctional Capital: a swamp in which partisanship has grown poisonous, relations between the White House and Congress have paralyzed basic functions like budgets and foreign agreements, and public trust in government has all but disappeared. These symptoms are rooted in the decline of a public ethic, legalized and institutionalized corruption, a poorly educated and attention-deficit-driven electorate, and a 'gotcha' press - all exacerbated by digital devices and platforms that reward sensationalism and degrade deliberation. Without stronger and more determined leadership from the president and a recovery of a sense of civic responsibility among the governing class, the United States may follow Europe down the road of decline.

But, at the end of the day, the problem isn’t money, lies, propaganda, negative ads, dirty tricks, decentralized news, talking points, or trumped up investigations. The problem is that they work on us. And they work because we’re uncritical, uneducated, and uninformed. A smarter electorate would be more skeptical of the lies. In fact, the incendiary tone and hyperbolic rhetoric in the message would instantly lead one to question the content. And

Doublespeak strikes at the function of language-communication between people and social groups-with serious and far-reaching consequences. Our political system depends upon an informed electorate to make decisions in selecting candidates for office and deciding issues of public policy. As doublespeak becomes the coin of the political realm, as doublespeak drives out a language of public discourse that really communicates, speakers and listeners become convinced that they understand such language. We speak today of politicians who don't lie but "misspeak," of "dysfunction behavior" not murder, of a "predawn vertical insertion" not the invasion of another country, of "violence processing" or the "use of force" not of war. When we use such language believing that we are using the public discourse necessary for the health and well being of our community, then, I believe, the world of 1984 is upon us.

It might be commonsensical to pray not just for countries and their leaders, but also for the electorates and their dysfunctional voting choices

But the problem isn’t just a few frighteningly dumb politicians. The problem is they represent a frighteningly dumb electorate. The reason Louis Gohmert is a United States Congressman is that 180,000 Gohmers and Gohmettes in Texas’ First District pulled the lever to send his bald-headed goober ass to D.C. Mr. Shitkicker goes to Washington. Apparently, it takes a village full of idiots to elect a village idiot. Sadly,

The resulting fractious, at times even dysfunctional, relationship between the top brass and civilian political leaders is one of Washington’s dirty little secrets—recognized by all of the inside players, concealed from an electorate that might ask discomfiting questions about who is actually in charge.

The agenda-setting influence of political parties, which is often considered as a dysfunctional if not outright immoral part of public policy-making, may in fact be vital to overcome Condorcet's paradox as a central theoretical limitation of democracy. By endorsing certain candidates or policies while strategically sweeping others under the rug, political parties indirectly help to reduce the likelihood of situations in which the general public's electoral choices would endlessly 'cycle' and thus lead to irrational policy outcomes. When viewed from a purely epistemic perspective of collective decision making political vices can in principle be cognitively virtuous.

The greatest danger to a democracy is an uninformed electorate, where legislators bow to the demands of the ignorant majority instead of governing based on the best interests of greater society. If poor whites began voting based on their actual needs and banded together with their fellow citizens of color, the ruling class would be forced to start serving the will of the people. However, as long as the white majority—damaged by ignorance and collective narcissism—continues to vote along lines of racial identity, we all suffer. Thus, throughout American history up to the