@fate @sim Democracy has failed insofarasmuch as the method of franchisement has failed. The first failure was giving the franchise to those who have no stakes outside of their own immediate survival, and the second failure was giving the franchise to the individual rather than the family. Namely, democratic rule went from being a landed vote, to a sex-aligned vote, to being a universal vote. Give or take some steps along that intermediary step, such as going from landed vote to universal vote directly.

The underlying issue is the disconnect between the voter and the nation, especially within a welfare-state political structure. The focus of any particular vote goes from "what is best for each individual region within a united nation" to "what is best to the single largest demographic or numerical plurality of demographics within a given politically-structured catchment area." The plight of the poor, especially within a welfare state, becomes the political issue of the day, the month, the year, regardless of any other considerations. Simply promising more gibsmedats to the largest demographics within a political catchment area is enough to win.

To another extent, the superficially-relevant issue of gerrymandering is a mask for the fundamentally incorrect axiom that the city-dweller is just as important as the rural denizen. If 10,000 farmers/loggers/truckers/riggers/miners in a disparately-represented rural area provide enough material and economic wealth to support a city of 1,000,000 (who in turn support an elite of 1,000 businessmen/wealth-creators as per the Pareto principle), then are their votes really equal? Should the efforts of 9,998,000 parasites outweigh the efforts of 11,000 producers?

And here comes the fundamental issue of modern democracies: Universal suffrage. Universal suffrage should not exist. It simply cannot work. The past 100 years have taught us this lesson. The past 20 are simply hammering this lesson into the brains of those who are terminally and fatally asleep. https://gs.smuglo.li/attachment/478446