*Democracy consists of choosing your dictators after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear* What does it mean???
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Answer:
The meaning is simple. Our two political parties pick those few individuals from their ranks who seem possibilities for the presidency. Then the activists in the party whittle it down to one against one in the primaries. We vote on which of the two will be president, whether we are party members or not. (This is a nice way of putting it, putting parties in control. I’m ignoring the role of rich donor, king-makers.)
The president is not a representative of the people but the executive of the central government for the US Republic. He (and someday she) lays out policies in conjunction with leaders of his own party, sometimes trading features with the other if it holds a congressional house. He decides on the likely appointments to run all the highest government (agencies from state department to NASA?) based on carrying out his plans.
But more, he has the platform to put out all sorts of propaganda aimed at rallying your support. This involves building your interest in views you previously had no preference toward. In recent years do you know many people who even knew an Iraqi, wanted to save then from Sadham, or wanted to kill them as an insurgent? How about Afghans? We killed more than 100,000 of them right out of the gate under Bush Jr. who claimed it a rapid victory—support among the pubic was high, even the Watergate investigators at the Washington Post beat the drum of war.
Did you really have a problem with Mexicans that American farmers were hiring to pick crops til Trump convinced you they were thieves, rapists and drug dealers taking our jobs? Mexicans were not among the largest number of central and south Americans coming across our southern border. And with fewer people generally coming across our crops are rotting in the fields. Americans didn’t step up to take those jobs “back.” Americans think they have the best healthcare system in the world. My god.
The number of beliefs and preferences the US government, via its Executive Branch, have nurtured from scratch in the American people has been enormous my whole long life. But you only read about it after the fact, and so people get hoodwinked over and over and over. The presidency is an advertising agency when it comes to Executive policy, and policy of the dominant party—obviously. This is no revelation. So, pick your dictator—he who dictates what we want to us, he who does not represent us and doesn’t even have the duty to do so. This is more or less what’s meant.
From the beginning in America it was obvious that the US reproduced the British monarchy—a king, two houses of parliament, only one popularly elected (the senate not, originally). The difference is that we got to vote which member of the party (vs royal) family got in for his reign, not biology. Serial kings who are often not related by blood. This is not even the MODEL for a democracy.