Some Democrats are playing the system for personal gain as well.
It's not just the voting system, but the entire legal system that needs more than just an update.
(And that's not just in the USA. As the first modern democracy much of your design was copied by many other countries, and while that might have been perfectly good at the time, we can all see that our societal operating system is serious need of an upgrade.)
We have made the Federal government way too powerful. Something like 1-4 - 1/3rd of the national income gets filtered through one city. People line up at the trough to get a taste. Then they lobby to get a piece, or to get regulation cut their way or against their competitor.
The founding fathers knew this could be an issue and empowered the states to prevent federalism. The parties don't matter.
We would be better off getting the feds out of everything except defense and a national court. Throw all social programs down to the states. States can't print money and have to balance budgets. It is also harder to lobby 50 individual states. Undoubtably it will still go one, but it would certainly deter it.
IDK. You could be right. Or maybe not? I'm in Europe. Not a big fan of the EU, but I do believe that we stand stronger together. You know the saying, 'divide and conquer'. Individual states will not have the same kind of power as large corporations / some individual billionaires.
It might even be easier to sway local/state politicians than federal ones. (edit: but yes, lobbyists will first focus on the highest political level)
IDK how, but money (edit: commercial lobbying?) needs to be taken out of the political power equation.
The time when American was best serving its people was the New Deal era with the most powerful federal government at any point in US history. There are efficiencies for scaling up, it makes fraud and abuse more apparent because fraudsters can't move around to different markets, and large organizations require more money to subvert. If we truly broke things out to states, many states would be contending with corporations which wield more money than they do.
If you really don't think federalization works, the best alternative is a hybrid system wherein the federal government sets standards and appropriates money, and the states are charged with implementing systems that meet those standards and budgets. For example, if you don't think a national single payer healthcare plan can work, why not provide a framework that says, "you have to establish a single payer system in your state and here's some money and these things must be covered"?
In your last example, if they were to set standards and appropriate money, that is when the corruption can occur.
The saying goes absolute power corrupts absolutely. The better bet is distributed power. You are right about big corps, but they are going to have a much harder time lobbying 50 states than on just federal government. Ideally, there are no spoils to lobby for. Remove the incentive.
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u/Bert_Fegg 4h ago
Trump is the symptom not the cause. America needs to cut out its own cancer.