A Tale of Two Democracies: What It Is Like to Vote in the United States Compared to France?

This cycle of ascendancy changed sides in 1980, as Reagan Republicans seized control of America's political process.   During this cycle, Reagan's Republicans took to heart their brethren's dominance during the two generations of the Gilded Age, as well as the amazingly successful methods of Democrat's local and state political machines for the two generations of the New Deal. What has happened is truly frightening. Reagan's Republicans have mutated and metastasized into an aggressive, malignant political tumor that is in the process of consuming America's electoral system.

 

21^st century Republicans are buying lapdog politicians in state governments, US congress, the Senate, the White House and the Supremes, just as happened during the Gilded Age. Then, they have flipped the New Deal Democrats modus operandi on it end. If you can't buy the needed votes, then just purge and disenfranchise your enemies en masse from the voting rolls!

 

Let's Get to the Really Bizarre Stuff

 

Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods . Henry Louis Mencken

 

On top of all this historical and ongoing corruption in America's voting booths, Americans accept with pride and a wry smile the corruption of gerrymandering. This uniquely American practice is another amazing anti-democracy tool used by the reigning party in power and when explained to people outside the United States, elicits reactions of scorn and embarrassment for their American friends.

 

Ditto the electoral college. The United States is the only major democracy that I know of whose president is not elected by the vote of the people. Again, non-Americans are shocked that such a system is tolerated in a modern, "democratic" society.

 

And how to explain Washington, DC's citizens, who have no real representation in America's Congress and Senate? Never mind that WDC has more American citizens than Wyoming and almost as many as Vermont. The fact that WDC is over 50% black may have nothing to do with it, but I bet all the senators from the South, Midwest and Rockies are keeping count! Again, non-Americans are speechless when they learn that 600,000 US citizens have no democratic voice in the legislative process.

 

And then there is the question of which day of the week to vote. America, for arcane 18th century practical reasons, votes on Tuesdays, a working and school day for the vast majority of its citizens. Gotta go to work, go to school, cook dinner, clean the house AND vote! A few countries also vote on a weekday (Canada, UK, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland). But the large majority of democracies vote over their weekend, when people and their families have the freest time to go vote. France votes on Sundays, the day of rest for the entire nation, so its citizens have all day to go to the polls and still have time for a picnic!

 

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