this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
907 points (98.5% liked)
Leopards Ate My Face
4724 readers
1039 users here now
Rules:
- If you don't already have some understanding of what this is, try reading this post. Off-topic posts will be removed.
- Please use a high-quality source to explain why your post fits if you think it might not be common knowledge and isn't explained within the post itself.
- Links to articles should be high-quality sources – for example, not the Daily Mail, the New York Post, Newsweek, etc. For a rough idea, check out this list. If it's marked in red, it probably isn't allowed; if it's yellow, exercise caution.
- The mods are fallible; if you've been banned or had a comment removed, you're encouraged to appeal it.
- For accessibility reasons, an image of text must either have alt text or a transcription in the comments.
- All Lemmy.World Terms of Service apply.
Also feel free to check out [email protected] (also active).
Icon credit C. Brück on Wikimedia Commons.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I checked it out and about 4.4 million US citizens cannot vote (excluding the real 51st state: Puerto-Rico) including 1/19 blacks. That's crazy, it's as if the country is setup for a one party system from the get go. You don't need huge prisoner cohorts to make the 3% difference needed for you to remain in power while maintaining an illusion of democracy.
German here.
Amazing, right? I found out a few years ago. Between this, gerrymandering and 2 right parties, that hasnt been a democracy for a long time.
You have to understand that it's impressive we got as democratic as we are. Our democracy began with caususes of landowning white men above the age of 21. We were in many ways modeled after the Roman republic, which was also a clusterfuck
Looking how it's going worldwide I should be impressed it lasted as long as it did.
This was by design and started shortly after the civil war. During reconstruction when the South was effectively occupied there was a decade or so where it looked like black people might actually enjoy some enfranchisement. But then the dirty compromise happened and Jim Crow took over. Suddenly black people were going to jail for the most minor infractions, and if they couldn't get them to break the law, they just lied and said they did anyway.