Why American Politics is Screwed Up | Jon Schaff | TEDxRapidCity
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- Few will deny that American politics is screwed up. Constant negativity, petty partisanship, the outsized power of interest groups, and the inability of Congress to govern all seem to define our politics today. Jon D. Schaff argues that, paradoxically, our politics are partisan not because our parties are too strong, but because they are too weak. Money infects our politics not because we have too few regulations on political fundraising, but because we have too many. In a discussion of the history of party politics and political reform in the United States, he argues that an increased role for political parties and an easier time raising money would help our politics return to a greater sanity. Jon D. Schaff is Professor of Political Science at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He teaches courses on the American Presidency, American Political Thought, and Politics and Film, among other courses. He is widely quoted in media discussing South Dakota politics and presidential politics. He has published on presidential "first hundred days," the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, and the political thought of Alexis de Tocqueville and has contributed to edited volumes on George McGovern and South Dakota political culture. He is author of Lincoln and the Limits of Liberal Democracy: Statesmanship and Presidential Power (forthcoming, Southern Illinois University Press) and co-author of Age of Anxiety: Meaning, Identity, and Politics in 21st Century Film and Literature (forthcoming, Lexington Books). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
Politics is basically just reality TV with real life consequences at this point.
That's the point both sides just want to control the masses to attack each other and hate just based on which side you belong to it's so sad to see people judge another based on that.
Your not wrong. It's litteraly just a bunch of people deciding rights and other things that litteraly affect the country
I am thumbs down to that comment... I'm angry that you're spot on about that... the thumbs down isn't about your comment, it's for the politicians
Imo it’s them making a huge deal out of small small things that barely/don’t effect any anyone. It’s about power and being at the top.
i did a paper over this topic dealing with the polarizing 2 party system here in my 10th grade government class (this was in 1996). My teacher thought I was insane. I feel kind of better 25 years later because this guy brought up my same points. LOL.
solutions: get rid of the electoral college, stop voter suppression, and limit political donations to the people and small dollar donations and not elite capital owners
And aslo get rid of the big 5
@Starwars Fan360 mind elaborating on that?
1.) eliminating the electoral college would create mob rule. I suggest to tweak this already established system instead.
2.) Voter suppression can be anything, and thus is an arbitrary notion, I suggest to tighten/create strict rules and regulations around voting instead.
3.) Donations to a certain party or a selection of government officials should be completely abolished, this is the main reason why we have such division now. Because donations quickly turn into bribes, so by getting rid of donations altogether, we can make sure that politicians won't be able to create policies on an issue, simply because someone paid them to do so. They should create policies for the betterment of our nation.
@Trace Adkins how are you doing
NEVER! If you eliminate the elecroral college, then only the most populated portions of the country (East & West coast) which is usually Blue will dominate the results. Mid-America will eccentrically will not have a voice. The result will topple American freedom and Liberty. We will no longer be a Republic (Rule of Law) but we will fall prey to DEMO (Latin = for mass/majority) KE- OCRACY (Latin = rule) or Majority Rule. That will result in Anarchy. KEEP THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't trust political parties.
Better choose personal candidates
Advice from an European.
I don't know what the voting system is like in your part of Europe, but that's not really viable with the winner-take-all system we have in the states. We're pretty much forced to choose the lesser of two evils, because third-party candidates have effectively zero chances of ever winning.
@@SynthApprentice maybe you should get democracy
@@lmao2351 Oh man, that would be awesome. I would love that.
But all personal candidates are coming out of Political Parties. That pretty much invalidates your comment.
The duopoly has proven itself ineffective. We need Ranked Choice Voting and more parties. Or we should cancel all of the parties and make them actually get to work on finding solutions.
Whom Can We Trust If No One Is Trustworthy?
One of my favorite quips from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is when Tom is defined as “a glittering hero…the pet of the old, the envy of the young,” and there were “some that believed that he would be President, yet, if he escaped hanging.” With these few words, Twain captured the essence of leadership in our world. Those who get to the top are the fiercest, most determined, and most ruthless. Today, the latter quality has become so intense that we can no longer believe our leaders, and certainly not trust them to have our best interest in mind.
I am not accusing any leader in particular, or even leaders as a whole. It is simply that in an egoistic world, where people vie to topple one another on their way to the top, the one at the top is clearly the one who trampled over and knocked down more people than anyone else. Concisely, to get to the top in an egoistic world you have to be the biggest egoist.
So how do we know whom to trust? We don’t know and we cannot know. All we know is that we are in the dark.
In a culture of unhinged selfishness, any conspiracy theory seems reasonable, while truth is nowhere to be found. When every person who says or writes something is trying to promote some hidden agenda, you have no way of knowing who is right, what really happened, or if anything happened at all.
The only way to get some clarity in the news and goodwill from our leaders is to say “Enough!” to our current system and build something entirely independent. The guiding principle of such a system should be “information only,” no commentary. Commentary means that information has already been skewed. Information means saying only what happened, as much as possible, not why, and not who is to blame and who we should praise.
Concurrently, we must begin a comprehensive process of self-teaching. We have to know not only what is happening, but why we skew and distort everything. In other words, we have to know about human nature and how it inherently presents matters according to its own subjective view, which caters to one’s own interest. To “clear” ourselves from that deformity, we must learn how to rise above our personal interest and develop an equally favorable attitude toward others. This is our only guarantee that our interpretation of things will be even and correct.
Once we achieve such an attitude, we will discover that the bad things we see in our world reflect our own, internal wickedness. Our ill-will toward others creates a world where ill-will governs, and so the world is filled with wickedness and cruelty. Therefore, all we need in order to create positive leadership-and to generally eliminate ill-will from the world-is to generate goodwill within us. When we nurture goodwill toward others, we will fill the world with goodwill. As a result, the world will fill with kindness and compassion. By changing ourselves, we will create a world that is opposite from the world we have created through our desires to govern, patronize, and often destroy other people.
This is actually really informative. And I agree with most of what he is saying on general basis since I reside in Australia not America. But he points out some problems with politics that could be even seen in Australia.
Interesting to me that government is really the only kind of employment that seems to reward a total lack of professionalism
Their reelection Pros! Gotta give it up for Em! 😅
When politicians used crude and cruel language to stir up their supporters, this is what happens.
It's because politics has become entertainment instead of its own thing.
Lightfoot comes to mind
A 90% reelection rate is what happens! 😅
I just wish the US would for once accept normal politics like they are in Europe. We have problems too, but the US always seems like they wanna come up with weird solutions for things we already fixed. The wheel needn't be invented anew. He sounds kinda reactionary at times tbh.
Like the solutions are known. Proportional voting, more power to the parliament, ACTUAL division of powers, a diversified party system that the state supports with campaign contributions to level the playing field between larger and smaller parties. And ban lobbyism. You can talk about the details but man America doesn't have to come up everything themselves.
The root for the civil unrest is that people go unsupported and their voices which they raise in protest of the unjust systems of the USA go unheard by their representatives. Normally happens in countries where voting laws give some parts of the population a disproportionate advantage, like in the UK and esp the US. In proportional voting systems people don't feel as ignored since everyone's voice weighs equally and there are less mud battles in politics, from my experience.
What do you define as normal politics?
> The wheel needn't be invented anew.
Agreed, wholeheartedly. The reason we insist on coming up with our own solutions to problems that everyone else has already solved is American Exceptionalism. The idea that the US will invariably be the exception to the rule, because we're somehow different from everyone else. "Sure, that might work everywhere else in the world," we say, "but why should that be any reason to believe that it will work for us, too?"
@@mitonaarea5856 Actual discourse rather than theatre Im guessing.
None of your solutions address the problem of Polarization in American politics. Your comment is invalid.
Nice presentation. Anything that sways candidates away from dependence on special interests without weakening the ability to sufficiently fund a campaign while not detracting from governance would be fantastic.
A good candidate is important
@@donandsandra8492 But that's just the point. A good candidate nowadays is the person who understands they can only win if they stick to the Polarizing narrative produced for them by The Political reelection Consultant's and the Divisive Cable news Networks who want viewership and ratings.
Also what has ruined politics is social media such as Facebook and CZcams.
And vice versa.
Twitter, Instagram, CNN, Fox News, etc all of them have a political agenda doesn't matter what side it is very sad to see how the media has divided a nation like this.
Political Polarization was around way before Facebook and Twitter. Your comment is invalid.
People see politics as some sort of competition games about winning and losing, the way they see a football game. That's the problem.
Politicians discovering that people see Politics as a Sport and campaign accordingly is the problem.
*Thank you! The United States in general is extremely devoid of humanity... it just acts like it’s humane so that it can persist with the cycle of “sadism, humanity, sadism, humanity, sadism, humanity...”*
I feel like you’ve wrote the truth.
I disagree with the solutions. While in theory they could work as described they can also work the other way. Unlimited campaign funds does not get rid of politicians supporting interest groups that donated nor does it help those that may need it.
As for the super delegates that is just as bad given the current state of our parties allows for the same problems to continue.
The problem I see is that the problem comes from congress and not the election system. Either party can interfere with the candidates running by playing favorites to one that will do their bidding over others running.
Even when the politicians were more moderate and measured like this guy is suggesting, there was still the problem of not being able to get major things done. The US needs a new Constitution that doesn't give sparsely populated regions the ability to put a choke-hold on major pieces of legislation.
Every American needs to see this, to bad only 14k have.
What
I mean, at least the number went up a bit. Not by much though.
Career politicians are also an issue
Even if you had a short term Politician, it would still be an issue if they needed a Polarizing message to win their election.
Wolf’s Law is categorical. It states: “Major actions are rarely decided by more than four people. If you think a larger meeting you’re attending is really ‘hammering out’ a decision, you’re probably wrong. Either the decision was agreed to by a smaller group before the meeting began, or the outcome of the larger meeting will be modified later when three or four people get together.” If we want something different to that, we need to do a lot more than we're doing. A WHOLE LOT MORE.
Unlimited donor funding? As if these groups aren't already influencing politics now. Limit donations, no one donor should be influencing policy. Big business or the mega-rich shouldn't be allowed anywhere near politics.
Fec v citizens United States that Corporations of the same basic rights as individuals including freedom of expression in monetary form therefore corporations may give unlimited funds to political candidates as a form of expression
i personally belive that every sitting politician most go some form of education befitting their position. the world has been on edge ever sience trump became president. the man treatend war over twitter to other world leaders...
every day i could type trump onto youtube and see what he did. am a swede, and swedish politics is waaaay less intressting than the politics in the us between 2016-2020
Political Polarization is a reelection campaign strategy. Doesn't matter who gives money. No donor orders their Candidate to go out and be Divisive.
Politics in most countries is messed up because it's built on inequality, abuse and exploitation and yet we want to believe otherwise. If we accept that our way of life is that way and we are simply here to destroy ourselves, family, community, and degrade our human spirits, then it all starts making sense and perhaps as a collective we can awaken and do something.
Why all politics are screwed. Greed
I don’t see why Americans:
1. have a low voter turnout
2. vote for a third party option
especially if they are so sick of the current system. If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain. If you vote for corrupt politicians, then as George Orwell said ‘you are not a victim, you are an accomplice’, irregardless of your ideological beliefs
People vote every other year Religiously thinking this time will be different. What you/they don't understand is the system is broken. Just showing up on election day isn't going to fix it.
This is absurd. Deregulation is just a pretentious way of saying "I have no idea how to solve this, so I'll just advocate for a shakeup."
no
@@mr.radical9659 Damn. Argument destroyed.
I wonder why this Video hasn’t went Viral?
People don’t want to admit they are wrong, so they won’t be interested, also political messaging is usually not trending on CZcams
You and I are on an island my friend. Most people believe you and I are the problem for not agreeing with their Political Parties Agenda.
Impose term limits !!!!! Let more Americans have a chance at making our country and planet a much better place. Jesse Ventura for president!!!!! That would be the change the people need.
how to say this...?!? Well...I´m European, so here it goes - Trump showed that joke candidates are a bad idea. Jesse Ventura has ideas, but putting them on the make is impossible because of all thge mind changing, logistic and ideologic movement needed
This is Very Informative. The Game of Politics is like a bad game of cards when both parties fold on a situation that would ultimately cost people's lives EVERYBODY Loses.
We wasted so much time engaging in political warfare with each other its doing more harm to the human soul than good.
Doesn't all that kinda make you wish to go back to childhood? Back when life was enjoyable and fun compared to now with all of the screaming, name calling, and physical brutality of today.
Both parties will spend hours talking about the problems in America but never want to talk about how to fix it.
@@JDen259 Hours of Talking, Fighting and No Work is Done.
@@JDen259 That's because both parties know you'd throw them out of office if they actually addressed the Problems. 😅
Thank you.
All parties be it Republican Democrats or third we all need to question the motives of any and all person's who would seek a position that affects soo many people
Day is going to get me help
Like what??
How are you doing today
Nobody: Do you know about superdelegates?
Bernie Sanders: Aaaagggghhhhh, yes 😡😡
Get money out of politics. That's the solution. Then when they get into office they don't have to spend most of every day dialing for dollars instead of working for us. It'll eliminate the special interest groups hold on them, too.
Money out of politics, and remove the Electorial College for a pure Popular vote system would be a good start. It'll reduce the amount of Greed ruling the Goverment and mostly prevent low population areas from choking what denser population centres are wanting.
Andrew Yang 3020
Nice pfp hector salamanca
How are you doing today
Are you sure for what you're saying, tell me more about this
@@donandsandra8492 great
@@nicholi8208 I wanna talk to you more
the media today is also a complete mess
Time to start a public debate about whether we, as a people, should consider drafting, redrafting, re-redrafting, a New Constitution of the United States of America. Call it whatever you want. The Union of Independent States, (UIS), or maybe the CSA, (Constitutional States of America?). The name isn't important. What matters are the principles. The United States of America is supposed to represent freedom, honor, and integrity. When any public servant, especially judges, are given free reign to violate the oath they took, without consequence.... it could be a sign that maybe , just maybe, we should consider hitting the political, economic, legal, & social reset button. The future does NOT belong to the people now in charge. It belongs to the young. The first sentence of this new Constitution should be; "All People and Persons are equal in their rights, in all ways, and in all legal proceedings and private and/or public activities."
Political parties should be illegal period
"Moderation and Compromise" are all very well if EVERYONE is on board this train - not so much if ONE Party is interested in "Bipartisanship" and the other considers that you can only be "Bipartisan" when you espouse and implement THEIR Policies.
So as long as one of the only two Political Parties is extremist, the Other MUST also be extremist, to counter the first.
There are two (and only two) solutions to this problem. Either the Extremist party must collectively decry and expel all Extremists OR you need more than two viable parties.
IRL (In Real Life, for those unfamiliar with the term), Republicans have gained and maintain Power by their Extremism, so why would they change it?
Democrats either go more extreme or risk being seen as Rebublican-Lite.
And the possibility of Third, Fourth or Fifth parties (as actually exist in REAL functioning Democracies) is as likely as the Republicans foreswearing Extremism.
Utopian BS!
There's two things america needs to get rid of to fix its politics
1.the electoral college
2.the two party system
Removing Money in Politics, and the Electoral College, while adding Rundown voting will greatly reduce the amount of problems the USA is facing.
But America doesn't have just a two party system. There are multiple Political Parties in America. The problem is you won't vote for any of them other Parties.
Which politics is filth free Mr Schaff?
What you are seeing is the end of manifest destiny. You didn't think it was going to last forever, did you?
Hurr durr deregulate and then I cry about partisanship
Dr .mhonshing & Soniya gahy
Disagree with his prescription. Moderation doesn't mean something that is good for the everyday american. Moderate simple means less argumentative. What is the use of moderation if you get more of the same, oligarchy? The system will continue to corrupt itself that you will get a third party. Either that or the system will hit a breaking point. There is no other possible outcome. Change will come from outside, not through internal reform.
Yah I don't like his presentation or solutions..How is moderation ok when we have great problems to solve? like Bernie said, we need bold.change
No change will happen if both media platforms keep spilling hate on one another, brainwashing the masses with their political agenda. CNN and Fox News loves to talk about the problem but never want to talk about ways to fix it.
We actually already have a 3rd party. In fact several Parties.
@@radar0412 It is not a matter of contention that American politics are a duopoly right from the federal to the local level. Having other parties on paper is of no consequence if they are structurally unelectable. There are all kinds of reasons as to why the US is a two party system. Some argue that the factions within parties represent some kind of political diversity. But again, it is not really contestable that the policy positions of the two parties in anyway represent fairly the politics of American people. In otherwise, America is a practical oligarchy, hence the instability. Change will only come in two ways, reform or collapse.
@@TejasM14 Your contention that the other Party's are unstructured is uninformed. You can go online and find your favorite 3rd party, donate, and help them grow. 3rd Party's are there if you want them.
The current Anglo-Saxon dictatorship is first imposed by the Empire of force, with its repressive military apparatus, by becoming owner of territories, waging wars, imposing governments via coups and civic-military dictatorships, expanding imperialistically to other territories, maintaining hundreds of military bases around the world, control land and sea trade routes and especially the means of production, followed, secondly, by the regulatory legal power installed by a State of International Law and its supranational bureaucratic bodies such as the IMF in what economic, NATO in the military and the UN in the political, which operationalize the capitalist political agenda and the neoliberal model coming from the bourgeois class and world synarchy, the sum of monarchies and high bourgeoisie, based and commanded in and from London, place where it is quoted In the Metals and Polymers Exchange, there is the lbma, the comex, the banking City, etc. Said International and supranational State of Law is the normalized Institutionalization and legalization of the Violence of the dominant and hegemonic Bourgeois Class that economically exploits the dominated working class, oppresses it socially, culturally and value-wise, and dominates it politically, alienating and objectifying the us as a technified working class. Thirdly, the political power, hailed by the UN and its attempt to install a single planetary vulgate where, in the dialectical dispute, consensus is achieved from the imperialist vision of the Pax Romana, that is, a consensus that is not such, but is a subjugation, and in fourth place, ideological power, where it is proclaimed and megaphoned from the ideological apparatus of the capitalist State, and its bureaucratic hinge together with the form of administration of power postmodernly in a network and from the fragmentation of said power, yielding quotas of power that come out cheaper but without modifying the purpose, making a false isovalence, as if everything were the same, fighting for it with reason, science and facts, thus, this ideology distorts reality, using a part only of Reason, in a functional and instrumental way to adapt said reality to the needs, desires and requirements of a class, in this case, the hegemonic ruling class that is the bourgeoisie. Greetings from Punta Arenas, Chile
Related to adams :) descendant
i bet american politics at the capital level is just like high school 🤣
It litteraly is!! No one wants to listen or think of the people affected by laws and stuff like their humans. Each side only cares about pushing their perspective
it's nice to watch tho
Hey. Some of us like it. Would like to split up the country according to faction into regional blocks of states.
Does.u.s.a.have.any
Political.consaltant.
Learn to count
nevermind,. This will be the last empire before WW3. Reckoning times are coming.
Tell me one thing....when was the US political system or society perfect?
This should have come out before trump's first elections. Maybe I and a lot of other people would not have voted for him lol
Lol all in the plan thank you for not being smart enough coming together from being taxed to death
Oh here is a good one, lend-lease to Russia,
Just take a look at Europe we have some solutions which may help you...
No you don't
Politics are a reflection of society. And society is a reflection of individual behaviour. Northamerican politics dont work because society has this cowardice to never address the big elephant in the room. I love my american and canadian friends. But their fear of being a party-pooper is what causes them to never address important topics within their circles or lives. Everyone wants to talk about small talk: Their cars, their pets, celebrities, food etc. Which is fine. But nothing like blindly drunk-driving 120 km/h against a wall while accelerating with no means to exit... Not to mention what healthcare is gonna bring them back from the dead? All for "freedumb". You cant make this shxx up. People ignore the consequences of ignorance. It's a devil's circle until a good portion of society chooses to break it.