Except for what? Other systems like dictatorships or anarchism don't work, but monarchy has multiple times in human history crushed democratic countries and have also had better living standards. The German Empire had better living standards than France. There is literally no correlation between democracy and having a good life
Democracy has its flaws. The main one being mob rule. Elsewhere in the Americas protection against the majority or the mob was one of the reasons that indigenous groups were generally loyal to the Spanish crown. Imo the greatest threat to Americans and American institutions has historically been the mob. One such example was mentioned by Alexis de Tocqueville in
Democracy in America
“A striking instance of the excesses which may be occasioned by the despotism of the majority occurred at Baltimore in the year 1812. At that time the war was very popular in Baltimore. A journal which had taken the other side of the question excited the indignation of the inhabitants by its opposition. The populace assembled, broke the printing-presses, and attacked the houses of the newspaper editors. The militia was called out, but no one obeyed the call; and the only means of saving the poor wretches who were threatened by the frenzy of the mob was to throw them into prison as common malefactors. But even this precaution was ineffectual; the mob collected again during the night, the magistrates again made a vain attempt to call out the militia, the prison was forced, one of the newspaper editors was killed upon the spot, and the others were left for dead; the guilty parties were acquitted by the jury when they were brought to trial.”
Call out culture is just a more tame version of this American tradition.
Alexis also pointed out how at the time the US government wasn’t capable of protecting minorities, be they ethnic or , against mob violence:
“.... in a State founded by Quakers, and celebrated for its toleration, freed blacks are not allowed to exercise civil rights. They pay the taxes; is it not fair that they should have a vote?" "You insult us," replied my informant, "if you imagine that our legislators could have committed so gross an act of injustice and intolerance." "What! then the blacks possess the right of voting in this county?" "Without the smallest doubt." "How comes it, then, that at the polling-booth this morning I did not perceive a single negro in the whole meeting?" "This is not the fault of the law: the negroes have an undisputed right of voting, but they voluntarily abstain from making their appearance." "A very pretty piece of modesty on their parts!" rejoined I. "Why, the truth is, that they are not disinclined to vote, but they are afraid of being maltreated; in this country the law is sometimes unable to maintain its authority without the support of the majority. But in this case the majority entertains very strong prejudices against the blacks, and the magistrates are unable to protect them in the exercise of their legal privileges." "What! then the majority claims the right not only of making the laws, but of breaking the laws it has made?"”
This sort of reminds me of how people will talk about “freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.” It is also reminiscent of how some will talk about how it’s ok for private corporations to silence citizens since it’s not the government doing the silencing. However, imo in the US the greatest threat to citizens freedoms has historically been mobs of vigilantes like the KKK or antifa, not the government.
Republics have their flaws but I like how they’re responsive to the people’s wills. One of the issues I have with more authoritarian governments is that if they monopolize force, which is likely, then there is little incentive to consider the interests of the people. Personally, I prefer stronger republics with a separation of powers over democracies, monarchies, communism, fascism, etc. I’d like a government that is responsive to the people’s interests but one that’s not enslaved to it’s worse impulses. However, republics are not the best solution for every nation. Just as communism, fascism, and monarchism wouldn’t work here, I think it’s foolish to assume that republics will be ideal everywhere. In fact I’d go so far to say that republics can’t really work
until the rule of law has been established first.
Except for what? Other systems like dictatorships or anarchism don't work, but monarchy has multiple times in human history crushed democratic countries and have also had better living standards. The German Empire had better living standards than France. There is literally no correlation between democracy and having a good life
Napoleon III got what he deserved lol.
So I got fixated on Joe McCarthy over the last few years, if only because I knew I'd heard Trump once before. This led to reading the history and the story of these many "failed communist nations", from both sides.
Several of the communist nations were indeed atrocities. That's perfectly fair and I think that anyone on the Karl Marx inspired part of the political spectrum needs to own - and learn from - those mistakes, much the same way America (in part) came about from learning from the Roman system. (Do I think this will fix communism? I'm one of those "great on paper..." types, but I do think it's the only way that anything better could come out of those failed, uh, "experiments".)
However, in every case where a communist nation was going well, the USA intervened specifically to destroy it. So here's a challenge for you. There have been a stupidly large number of attempts at communist countries. Look into all of them and see how many cases involve the USA leading an embargo, staging a coup, or otherwise short shafting them.
Then stop and really think for a minute - and read their histories, and the histories of people who live/lived in those places.
Many of these leaders were genuinely loved and trusted. Their people were not brainwashed. This is not universally true, but this is true more times than zero. Even in those cases, the USA intervened to destroy those countries.
So let's get this straight.
It seems like, to me, one of two things happens:
A - A communist country goes tits up from internal pressure, power vacuums, and a dragon's horde of resources attracting the worst of people anyway, because that's what it fucking does...
B - ... Or on the rare occasion when it seems to be going right, the USA reaches in and fucks it right up for them anyway so somebody on the internet can go "COMMUNISM NEVER WORKS!"
Speaking of democracies going wrong, there have been plenty of democracies in history which failed, often even by sabotage. We don't parade them about as an example that democracy is doomed to failure and ultimately hurts the people. We learn from them and build something better from the rubble.
Yeah I dislike how my country has intervened and over thrown other nations. It’d be better if we left everyone alone. Countries should be free to decide their own destinies. A lot of countries were overthrown because of moderate reforms that would hurt the interests of Chiquita (United Fruit Company).
However, Cuba wasn’t overthrown by the US government and is not on good terms with it. It survived coup attempts, assassinations, embargoes, etc. Despite being very close to the United States it managed to avoid annexation and it outlasted even the Soviet Union. The Cuban Communist party still rules to this day. Is it not communist? The same is true about China: The Chinese Communist Party is still alive and kicking too. Are the Chinese not communist either?
Communists tried overthrowing the United States too along with other republics. The US wasn’t the only one manipulating things.
Imo the issue with communism is that it can’t work on a large scale because it becomes too centralized and inefficient. Either communist nations have to adapt to become more efficient or they die. There are smaller non-agrarian societies that are very egalitarian but imo that works because everyone knows each other and they’re on the edge of life and death. Even then wars with other tribes can be outright brutal and the casualty rate and general death rates are staggering.
