A democracy is a system of government where power lies in the hands of the people. People vote on laws and policies directly. A republic is a system where officials are elected and those officials are bound by rule of law
In the United States say the head of state is an elected or appointed official and not a monarch or dictator. It is a government constrained by a constitution and rule of law. These officials often dictate policy (but are bound by constitution) however these candidates also often make explicitly clear what they are and aren’t willing to do… and the people vote candidates in based on outlined policy implementations (and can often be single issue voters)
- The people elect leaders (democracy),
- Those leaders are bound by a constitution (republic),
- Power differs between state and federal government
- There are checks and balances across branches
Therefore the United States is both a democracy and a republic… Most accurately a constitutional republic with representative democracy
To add to the democracy aspect is the frequent presence of referendums, propositions and ballot initiatives, in which case the people choose which policies are and aren’t implemented in this case. Many times these referendums and ballot initiatives gain momentum because the PEOPLE have chosen they want a certain law and/or social outcome implemented
There is literally not a single country I can think of that is a pure democracy. So calling the US “not a democracy” is pure semantics, as by that gauge there is no such thing as democracy… There are clearly countries with clear cut, free elections, freedom of press, freedom of speech, various degrees of upholding civil liberties
Australia for instance is a constitutional monarchy and ‘liberal democracy’ though the foundations of the latter have become increasingly fractured (by support of the population, though Aussie culture is very apathetic and we love being told what to do). After covid I noticed it’d take a fucking full on class war/total revolution to change what is happening to Australia… which won’t happen
Australia has some of the broadest survellience laws out of any “democracy” in that police can hack, alter, or delete data on devices (via “network activity warrants”) and depending on your status (prior criminal conviction even for relatively minor infringements and/or just ‘suspicious’) police no longer need a warrant for any of this. If you own a gun, police can enter your house and demand to see your gun (in it’s safe) and the ammo… and of coruse in the meantime they will look around and try find anything they can to find you “unsuitable” for ownership. We have protest restrictions that are vaguely enforced whenever the police feel like beating up protestors (and while sometimes this is justified like during violent pro palestine rioting and looting) other times e.g. peaceful climate protest that isn’t blocking traffic, or during covid… shooting peaceful protestors with rubber bullets, trampling them on police horse and stomping on the heads of autistic (low functionig) men leaving them braindead (and PM saying it was fine + public calming down after the premier said it was fine despite the video showing extreme cruelty… something that would have triggered riots in the US), we track everyone’s IP data for two years (logged)… facial recognition tech is becoming commonplace, extremely strict customs… so bad your protein powder imported from overseas might get seized, laws on social media posts, freedom of speech has gone up in flames over the past few years
Australia is turning into a soft autocracy… I say soft because despite how strict we are/how often we go after law abaiding citizens for pathetic revenue raising and civil/administrative penalties (where it’s almost like walking on eggshells trying to NOT get a fine sometimes) our criminal justice system is a fucking joke.
I saw a psychiatrist who had falsified her credentials, set up a fake business posing as a psychiatrist despite having only graduated med school two years ago, was fucking patients, forging prescriptions, tried to drug and plausibly assault me (the story is fucking INSANE)… now I might have to testify against her in court… but for the timebeing the investigation is related to malpractice and even then aprah (Aussie governing board regulating doctors that answers to nobody) will likely suspend her license for ten years over shit she was doing that would lead to a lengthy jail sentence in the US… If what I’ve said sounds bad, trust me it’s worse… I was actually the one who took her down and I’m oddly proud of that. She was a geniune female psychopath which is incredibly rare.
Maybe she gets her license taken away forever, but I’m betting a 5 year suspension. Police here have been made aware of the fact she had forged script pads with her name on them and another doctors prescriber number… It gets a hell of a lot worse but what I’m saying is… we are a soft autocracy because in America what she did would have likely landed her genuine life in prison
Here despite the severity of her actions including I believe plausibly sexual assault on top of everything else the police are uninterested in pressing charges… MAYBE after misconduct investigation ends they’ll charge her with something… but it looks like even that isn’t worth their time
I find they are way too lenient with serious criminality yet if you get unlucky and are found with like half a gram of cocaine on you at a music festival you might genuienly get a criminal record (and you’ll be subject to cavity searches, sometimes in public… when 80%+ of people subject to these searches have nothing on them)… these sniffer dogs with strip search tents have extended to bars and public transport. The problem is the dogs are wrong 80% of the time and the searches are degrading. I don’t attend music festivals nor do I take hard drugs, but I know outrageous and illegal misconduct when I see it… as multiple probes/watchdogs have concluded what NSW police does is blatantly illegal, but no one is going to do shit about it.
Way too strict for minor shit, but to wind up in serious, life altering legal trouble (long stint in prison) you’d genuinely probably have to kill someone. Even then I’ve seen vehichular homoicide +hate crime (simultaneously) = ten year prison sentence.
That psychiatrist I mentioned was a highly attractive 32 year old woman… she will be treated with leniency given how manipulative she is.
I classify Australia as a ‘democratic state’ with increasingly paternalistic and technocratic governance, and emerging authoritarian features in digital surveillance and behavioral regulation. However our general public wants this, and even my generation are some of the most apathetic, complacent bunch of pussies who winge, complain and moan a lot and have reasno to be pissed off in that they’ll never be able to afford anything… but they don’t have the will to ask for anything to change, and are only focused on the short term.
I’m sorry I’m ranting. I know you are frustrated with America… But as America is so culturally diverse I can’t help but wonder… why not just move dude? I lived in Pensylvania for almost seven years in a swing state (I think it was 50.4% trump vote and 48% Kamala vote) and that state had democratic areas and republican areas… I believe my area leaned ever so slightly democrat although the neighbourhood in the county I lived in was slightly favoured towards Trump (by like 51-49)
They were far more reasonable, even when I returned two years ago… and again earlier this year… I saw none of the unreasonableness you describe, granted I’m not still living there… But it always strikes me how culturally diverse the US is… I was in Texas, Pa and Colorado earlier this year.
I’m asking out of genuine curiosity, as it’s plausible work or familial entanglements don’t allow for you to move. America IS foundationally democratic, far moreso than countries like Australia or the United Kingdom (or alteratively the UK and Aus are increasingly becoming two/three tier country with a fucked up justice system that both benefits and punishes the wrong people).
At least I see Australia appears to be rapidly getting tired of woke, which didn’t suprise me as we were never a politically correct country… genuinely shocked me we took on the whole identity politics schtick
While it got out of hand, we certainly didn’t embrace woke (anywhere) anywhere close to the extent of what you describe in Maine. Our universities can be bad… but nowhere near as ideologically captured as what I recently saw in the USA! Woke in Australia hit in like 2019-2022, but it didn’t take long for our own politicans to start slamming woke politicians… however we are the opposite or woke lawless agenda… we are extremely paternalistic to the point of harming society e.g. propping up organised crime by hiking the price of cigaretttes to 60$/pack and putting warnings on every cigarette and banning nicotine vapes making them illegal and now we have lost over 50% of tobacco excise to a growing black market where tobacconists are genuinely controlled by organised crime and tobacco stores are being firebombed… Police don’t enforce anti tobacco laws and many police buy illicit tobacco themselves.
I’ve never been to Maine… But I’m coming back to the USA in like a month, I’m thinking maybe I should check it out just to see if it’s as bad as it is in places like Sydney… where it’s just fucking boring (except for heavy prevalence of meth psychosis on public transport, but if the addict isn’t in possession actively police do fuck all. No one wants to go toe to toe with someone so cranked out they genuinely have hysterical strength)
I really want to see how bad Maine is… because Australia (for someone like me… with health issues and my general outlook on life) REALLY sucks compared to where the US is currently at… though I’d probably favor living in Israel the most)
Kensington, Philadelphia I’ll admit was REALLY bad when I saw it… Genuinely felt unsafe and I was only there for like ten minutes driving through. But then again, while Alice Springs doesn’t have an open air drug market… I’d feel equally unsafe walking around Alice Springs or even driving around at night… The criminality in Alice Springs and some of the indigenous reserves/townships makes it essentially a “no go” zone for white people even if it’s politically incorrect to say so.
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