FACE THE FACTS: Follow the Money

[@iantroesoyer1864]

We all agree that democracy means rule by the people. At small scales, it's clear when something is democratic: everyone gets a vote on the decisions made. At large scales, we have conflated elections with democracy. Elections confine the input of the people to which elites will rule them. In electoral systems it is the elites that rule. It is our "betters." It is people with the access to money necessary to mount effective campaigns. For practical purposes, this narrows the Overton window of policy possibilities to those favored by the already wealthy. This prevents the meaningful shift of tax burdens off of work and sales and on to rents. This is an aristocracy. If we want a democracy at scale, we want sortition. To address the volume and complexity of decisions in large societies, we need to take random samples of people for short periods and have them make a single decision. Repeat these. Run them in tandem. For big decisions hold referendums. The US is not a democracy. The people do not rule.