Elections are coming in My homeland this October, so a note on Elections and Karma.
Inside there is a poor understanding of political processes multiplied by vague
understanding of Karma. But when You multiply the result is better right?
I also assume most people don’t believe politicians, and “know” that politicians
serve corporations / banks etc.
TLDR: Election change nothing, I don’t vote.
Latvia, as a post Soviet country, worked double time on setting up democratic processes. Honest elections and transparency was a big deal, for people who had right to vote (biggest mistake Latvia made). Once I have been an official observer on elections to parliament on one district, and on next elections I was an official vote counter in the same district. My personal take away from it - elections in Latvia are fair, falsifications are barely possible.
IMO falsification is like a getaway from reality. “Oh they made it up, people could not vote such way” - Yes they can be voting this way.
Latvia also used to have minimal election attendance or participation count. Made a lot sense, too much sense, so they removed the norm. Now even 1 voter can give full legitimacy to parliament. The key word is legitimacy. That is why elections are needed, otherwise ruling people are “usurpers” of power.
By attending the election You agree to all outcomes of that election. Seems obvious, but I can often hear remarks, like “I voted for another party, this is not My parliament” - Seriously?
The media and politicians are working hard to make You attend the elections. Throwing all the usual variations of “Vote or lose!” slogans. Just to keep or gain power in a legitimate way.
Here it becomes a pure speculation. People in power need to be backed by voters, for reasons other than keeping democratic procedures. I think it is sharing the responsibility. Voters have some share of responsibility for the doings of the parliament. On the other hand, a power usurper has 100% consequences. The usurpers/dictators I know of, ended badly. So in case most dictators lived happy lives, my speculation is completely false.
How can things get better? Challenging the rules might work. We already have online platforms where initiatives can collect votes, and when any initiative reaches 10 000 votes, it goes to parliament for discussion. So why not skip the parliament entirely? Direct democracy?
Half measures exist also, and I was glad to see that one party challenged the rules, by promising to reduce the count of deputies from 100 to 50. It breaks the ice on questioning magic numbers. We are getting there.
UPDATE
Elections just finished, and the exact party(they added word new to name) whose government
held the population in lockdowns and masks for nearly 2 years, overwhelmingly won.
Actually 20% of votes, the other 80% were scattered across 18 different parties.
I thought that “lockdown” politicians destroyed their careers, and would never get elected again.
Indeed poor understanding of political processes.