Thank you for a good and direct reply, Tessa.
The first step toward democracy in the United States is already worth taking, even when the highest standards of democracy may never be achieved.
The ails of the United States are all based on exclusion and not on inclusion. Competition for the sake of competition always ends in a race to the bottom, even when a majority of the population can end up doing quite well.
Should the US get a democracy like Norway or the Netherlands?
No, it should not.
Should it remain a divide-and-conquer nation that puts the label We the People on its political system while supporting Me First in reality?
No, it should not either.
Today's Germany was established with the help of the Americans after WW II. They brought with them the Founding Fathers; the political specialists imagined what the Founding Fathers would have created had they lived in the 20th Century.
The result is that Germany has 18 States, and has single-winner elections, just like the United States.
What was left out was an empowered president (the German presidency is basically an administrative, regulatory function) -- smart choice, good thinking -- and they added a top layer of proportionality to the single-winner elections.
As we know, German democracy has been capable of both delivering leadership to itself and Europe and delivering stability for itself and Europe. Everything we, the Germans and all Europeans desire.
The system is ingenious, extremely smart. Germany does not have a pure democratic system like the Netherlands or anything smart like the Scandinavian countries have. But, on the dial between exclusive representation and inclusive representation, the Germans were able to push that dial toward inclusive representation better than England or France.
All thanks to the United States, who gave Germany We the People, while we do not have the real deal itself here at home.
The poverty we associate in England with the lower class is not seen in Germany. I read somewhere that child pregnancy is quite high in England, a bad sign of course.
That said, Germany is playing along at the WTO level and has been giving more and more of its wealth to its upper class, a bad sign of course as well. One could say that their top layers are playing the international fields and that yields them plenty. Nevertheless, establishing such an elite layer also indicates a weakening of democracy in Germany. At least the voters have real choice because of the proportional layer on top of the single-winner layer.
Now with Brexit completed, and with Neo-libertarians gone together with British xenophobia, I am keeping my fingers crossed for a move toward more social-democratic societies in the EU.
My conclusion: As long as the world is run by nations that embrace the more exclusive form of voter empowerment, the more the other nations must follow that lower level of delivering toward society.
USA, UK, and others have competition for the sake of competition and do not provide enough empowerment to the voters. Even following the German example would already benefit US and British society; it would make them change from an exclusive democracy to a more inclusive democracy. Large nations can incorporate proportional voting. Germany implemented it the smartest way possible.
