Broken Government

[merrily]

14. I don't think we disagree on implications of the things you cited. I think we may disagree on

root causes and timing.

For every book a Democratic author writes about a Republican President destroying the country, the Constitution or whatever, there is probably also at least one book written by a Republican author claiming a Democratic President has destroyed the country, the Constitution or whatever that resonates just as much with rank and file Republicans as the books you cite resonated with you. Heck, even the SCOTUS thought FDR and a Democratic Congress were trying to destroy the Constitution with the New Deal--and there was a lot of valid Constitutional interpretation at the time to support that view.

"Divide and Rule," and "Divide and Conquer" have been great strategies for seeking to conquer us and rule us. And, as the ideologies of the two largest political parties become less different than they were, say, in FDR's time, they've doubled down on demonizing each other.

I fully understand how that benefits politicians. I am considerably less clear on how and to what extent that benefits us. Then again, as my prior post intimated, they system was never intended to work to our benefit to begin with. We've made some inroads over time with Constitutional amendments, such as citizens' voting, rather than state legislatures' voting. However, within the basic structure of our plutocratic system, that kind of nibbling around the edges has not resulted in fundamental change.

Of course, we can agree not to vote for Trump. Any two relatively sane people can agree on that. Even the less than sane Kristol and Cheney apparently agree on that. You and I certainly can further agree never to vote Republican, as any two relatively sane Democrats can. However, that is not going to make anything less plutocratic, nor will it will make the system more truly representative of the majority of Americans, certainly not to extent of disadvantaging the plutocrats.