Judith
Thank you for your comments. Only we can clash in the right way can we advance our thinking.
As for my credentials, I spent six years in a Canadian political party. I was quite active in the party, reaching "lower middle management" which meant a lot of meetings and interactions with people. Exciting times for sure. I probably lost some focus on the business I was trying to build.
I have lots of little stories. But I will just give you this one. I was working on a campaign for an internal party election. Our strategy was to have my friend (an aspiring candidate) visit as many party members as possible before the election. We were hoping that these visits would turn into votes. My job was to ensure that the visit did not last more than 15 minutes, so my friend could visit more people.
In one house, the candidate was giving his spiel to a recently retired teacher. I was thinking, "What does she really know about my friend?" All she could really tell was that he spoke the party line real well and looked good in a suit. I then realized that when most of us vote, we really don't know much about the names on the ballot other than they represent a certain party. This questioning eventually led to the development of my alternative democracy.
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You are not the first to suggest that I have defined democracy as "mob rule." Unfortunately "democracy" has acquired quite a broad meaning. I really don't know any nations who employ the mob rule of democracy. Yet many nations call themselves "democratic." I think this hair-splitting does not serve the discussion very well.
American democracy is looking more or more it could turn into a one-party state. Yes, it will still be called a democracy. But no longer can the general public throw out the leader(s).
If and when this transition happens, it becomes a moot point to suggest that democracy has a longer shelf life because some smaller entities have managed to carry through this tradition for centuries longer than Asimov's prophecy.
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If you don't like Asimov's prophecy, then I recommend a book by Letvitsky and Ziblatt. They wrote a book in 2017 showing how Mr. Trump is dismantling American democracy (in the first year of his presidency) in the same way as other autocrats have transitioned their countries from democracy to oligarchy. I would say these two authors are more qualified than Asimov in this regard, but Asimov is saying the same thing.
Here is my review of their L&Z work
https://medium.com/tiered-democratic-governance/how-democracies-die-book-review-90d7b191703d
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From my experience in politics, I can see many political writers on Medium have little experience on how politics really works.
In August 2020, I admonished these writers if they really want to effect change, they should stop writing articles and get out and canvass for Mr. Biden.
https://medium.com/politically-speaking/do-you-really-want-to-get-rid-of-mr-trump-66249d30eb9a
In the 2020 election, the USA had 100 m voters who did not vote. More canvassers could have found several million more votes for Mr. Biden. But no, many Medium writers spent their time writing more anti-Trump articles to put them in an echo chamber.
There are already many acknowledged media sources already sounding the alarm bells. That is one reason for my "political inaction." Writing and posting more anti-Trump articles on Medium and other places will not produce any incremental results. Second, coming from Canada, it would be impractical for me to participate in the ways I used to participate in politics.
But I've given up on traditional politics anyways. My six years showed me how dysfunctional partisan politics really is. The USA and the rest of the world need to move beyond its political parties.
