Question

have the political parties rigged the system? Does Democracy really matter?

Answer 1

The Republican Party is not committed to democracy at all, and representatives and voters of the GOP would gladly accept alternative political arrangements. That's, to be sure, a worrying assertion, but the proof is unquestionable. Republicans have given up any worries they might have about our political system's integrity.

Sophisticated software for redistricting allows Republicans to force Democrats to waste millions of votes, resulting in extremely skewed election results. These decades of attacks required systematically coordinated tactics, such as the 50-year campaign that led to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court. Democracy's evisceration is no accident.

If corrective action is not taken soon, if not longer, the rule of the white minority could last for decades. Even though Republicans may occasionally lose elections, democracy will actually be dead. The nation might even face a true or fabricated crisis under this situation, prompting lawless GOP leaders to suspend the Constitution. All bets are going to be off at that stage.

Due to demographic trends, it will soon be all but impossible for Democrats to win a majority in the U.S. Senate. There is, however, a reasonable remedy on the table, and one last chance to un-rig the system and restore democracy

A growing chorus of leaders and voters recognize the death of democracy and the need for institutional reform to restore it. If Democrats pull off a hat trick in 2020, and if party leaders are fearless about enacting all three components of the democracy agenda— killing the filibuster, expanding the Supreme Court, and enacting an aggressive HR 1 version— then the system can be unrigged and the rule of law can be restored before it's too late. Otherwise, as a democracy, we're likely accomplished. Democracy also forces both voters and leaders to be more mature, because they have to value the system more than any particular result.

Where democracy is a recent growth you get lots of uncontrollable egos, both at voter and leader level - parties and people that are simply not willing to accept electoral defeat or, often, can't even bear to see their side being criticised by a free press. These are so-called 'illiberal democracies', where majoritarian rule often swamps the normal democratic freedoms.