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The roots of America’s democracy problem

Vox | December 26, 2025



Minority rule is a majority problem.

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Political systems depend on legitimacy. In America, that legitimacy is failing.

In an earlier version of this video, we incorrectly reported the population of New York. The state’s population in 2017 was 19.85 million people.

Read more about how a compromise to unify our states is splitting our parties: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/16/17951596/kavanaugh-trump-senate-impeachment-avenatti-democrats-2020-supreme-court

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Comments

This post currently has 32 comments.

  2. @chrisolmsted5678

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    It's time to revisit this. It's taken some time but the problem isn't what the constitution said when it was written. The biggest problem is that we read it to have a different meaning. The individual words don't mean what they used to.
    Also, the 50k limit assumed that the job of a representative was part-time. Most of the effort would be communicating to their constituents aka their boss.

  10. @Doliehop

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    U.S. law allows lobbying groups to operate freely in Congress. As a result, energy companies, financial giants, arms manufacturers, and powerful interest groups (such as pro-Israel organizations) actively use money to influence lawmakers to serve their interests — often at the expense of ordinary citizens.

    So, the question arises: are members of Congress serving the people, or serving money?

  11. @НикитаФадеев-ф3ь

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    What divides the American people? So many things. Basically, every single characteristic that you can almost define has been used to divide people. Men against women, Christians against other religions, materialists against religious people, Republicans against Democrats, capitalists against those who advocate another form of system. It is a wonder that you have not created some division between blonde people and brunettes. But I see that that must be coming at some point.

    You see here that there is an elite that is using anything they can to divide the American people. But when the veil drops and more and more people see beyond this outer division, they can lock into what unites Americans, namely that basic humanity.

    People are so busy blaming each other that they can't see the real problem – the ruling elite that has distorted the economy to an unthinkable state.

  12. @nosuchperson284

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    We need a Democratic party focused again on New Deal worker's and antitrust principals. An economy based on getting sufficiently rising wages and savings opportunities for the bottom 60% of Americans tied to production. And a return to forceful antitrust that fights Wall Street gouging interests against Main Street. Back to increased competitive advantages for small and medium sized businesses so we can keep prices down. By letting them, in aggregate, compete financially toe to toe with the Fortune 500.
    Overturn this economy based on the highest possible profits at the lowest possible taxes.
    And once again, putting more money into the average American's bank accounts and taxing the top few percent to redistribute the trillions legally stolen back to us from over the last 40 – 50 years. See if providing governance that most Americans would be afraid of having voted out of power isn't our red / blue solution.
    Vote for Democrats to tax other very wealthy Democrats in order to tax billionaires even more.

  21. @kimsutton2268

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    We need to go back to how the Congress use to be spend time doing the country s business and go back to their occupation let them meet 4 times a year not 365days a year

  22. @trev5.566

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    You started at the wrong spot.

    The USA is NOT a democracy.

    We are a Federal Republic with a Constitution.

    If you think it’s unfair for Vermont and New York to both have 2 Senators, then you need to go read your history book about the New Jersey and Virginia plans.

    If you don’t like what the “Republican” SCOTUS is doing, then why don’t you tell people what their job is (Apply and interpret the law) and then actually explain why they are not doing that job correctly.

    You might find that there is a good reason for the Senate, and that the current Supreme Court is actually properly interpreting the Constitution.

    And the problem with “us” you keep mentioning….you are right, we have problems as a society because we no longer have the same worldview or values.

  25. @CanadaMath

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    I have lived in four (4) democratic countries:

    Canada 🇨🇦
    USA 🇺🇸
    India 🇮🇳
    Philippines 🇵🇭

    I can say with 100% confidence that none of them are actual democracies. They are all dictatorships disguised as democracies.

    The voting process is a joke. The vote is just an illusion that the government gives to the people to make them think that they have a say. They don’t.

    Let me explain:

    Canada 🇨🇦 – the current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the son of a former Prime Minister. Do you think he was elected because he got the most votes? No! His family bought the election for him.

    USA 🇺🇸 – in 2016 Hilary Clinton got the most votes, but Donald Trump became president. Why? Because Trump bought the election. The same happened in the year 2000.

    India 🇮🇳 – the most corrupt country on planet earth. Everyone knows that Narendra Modi bought the election with two billion dollars of black money.

    Philippines 🇵🇭 – the current president is a man named Ferdinand Marcos Jr. He is the son of a former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. That family stole five billion U.S. dollars from the country. I will let you guess how the son became president.

    The vote means nothing. Democracy is the worst!

  29. @L0615TX

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    All of the things in that playbook are actually undemocratic. Even the DC thing. Dc needs representation not statehood. They need to be absorbed into aj existing state.

  32. @geraldlindenberg3022

    December 26, 2025 at 9:37 am

    Many Americans still believe they live in a democracy because of the constant media manipulation every day.
    The USA is an oligarchical two party rule.
    The two parties and the media are controlled and directed by billionaires.
    Look, who rules CNN and who rules Fox News and many other TV outlets!

Comments are closed.

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