Four billion dollars spent on a midterm election. Much of the money from secret PACs who need not report contributions. Voter suppression in North Carolina, Texas, and other states. A Supreme Court which has turned over elections to people like the Koch Brothers. Republican senatorial candidates denying science and glorifying ignorance.
This is a broken system.
Edward Bernstein was the founder of “democratic socialism.” Bernstein believed that socialists could use the tools of bourgeois democracy, such as free speech, a free press and free elections, to achieve social reforms without a violent revolution.
In Europe his “revision” of Marxism was successful. England, France, Italy, and Germany have all had socialist governments that respected democratic values, contesting for power without violence. What would have happened if those already in power had cheated on the elections, gerrymandered the districts, spent unlimited amounts of money, and had courts that approved these shenanigans. What are people to do when the process is corrupt to its core?
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