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Mark Field's avatar

I think that it's important, at least in the US context, to mention the structural problems which impede both democracy and solutions to the crises: the Senate; the Electoral College; gerrymandering; a Supreme Court out of control in substantial part due to the foregoing. The first two of these were mistakes bequeathed to us by the Framers, the latter two partly resulting from the others and partly our own mistakes. Nor are these the only problems, but they are problems of the first order.

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Kent's avatar

Aging demography may be a sixth factor. The age cohort peaking with Boomers are old enough to have lived in a whiter, more segregated society for which appeals to racism and nativism are most appealing, but are not old enough to have been indoctrinated against authoritarianism. Their media is cable, Facebook, and e-mail, which tends to be hijacked by conspiracy theories; younger generations consume streaming, Instagram, TikTock, etc. Younger people have experienced the lies and absurdity of social media in their personal interactions, and so are more critical of its content. Finally, the adults who still live in rural areas tend to be older because many younger ones went to the city for employment. Rural areas have out-sized political power (Senate, electoral college), so older people not only vote more, but their votes effectively count more.

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