Quote Originally Posted by Muddy View Post
The problem with the democracies of today is that often comes down to who is the most effective and able to spread their message, rather then who has the best ideas. The average Joe is oblivious to how politics effects their everyday life, and will usually join with however speaks the loudest or is "more cool" then their opponents, as in the case of Trump. Another problem with western democracy is that it makes it very hard if not impossible for governments to take harsh but necessary action, especially with issues that aren't an immediate and tangible threat like global warming for example, or the obesity epidemic.

The way I see it, liberal democracy is candy whereas totalitarianism is spinach. Democracy is something we crave and appeals to us in the short term, but in the grand scheme of things makes us weak, unhealthy and ultimately unhappy.
I disagree, the real issue with democracy is not the issues it has when it is practiced properly. It is that democracies are prone to devolve into oligarchies over time:

"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."

In 2014, a Princeton University study concluded that the United States lapsed into oligarchy at some point in the 20th century. Oligarchy can best be understood as a form of government that enacts policies that overwhelmingly benefit a small and privileged elite.
https://www.the16types.info/vbulleti...hy-For-Decades

It asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of organization.

Michels's theory states that all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into oligarchies. Michels observed that since no sufficiently large and complex organization can function purely as a direct democracy, power within an organization will always get delegated to individuals within that group, elected or otherwise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy

Basically, the issue is indirect democracies like representative democracies in Western developed nations are prone to become oligarchies. So an economic elite will dictate the vast majority of policies, while the disenfranchised majority will only have the illusion of choice by voting for political representatives that won't cater to them despite what they say while campaigning.