I do not have any disdain.
The point is that there are different ways of democracy.
And yours is the worst, and you do not even see it. And even worse you do not acknowledge that "different ways" of democracies are possible.
The EU is actually more or less crafted according to the same federal principles as Germany is.
However instead of having "Federal states" like Germany, its members are whole countries.
The rest is more or less, exactly the same.
However a democracy where you have to vote for people and not for topics: is not interesting to me. I do not consider it a democracy. It is a republic. Big difference.
You have two parties. But you do not vote for the party(s). You vote for people. Germany has about 10 parties. People vote for the parties ... so half a dozen or more end up in the parliament.
BIG difference.
When the term democracy was coined, that was in Athens, about 500BC. People voted on: TOPICS.
There were no gerrymandered voting zones. Every free man could vote on topic!
And the same is true in our days for Switzerland, Taiwan and: mainland China.
Fun fact, isn't it? Both Chinas have a direct democracy where people can VOTE ON TOPICS
and not only appoint a representee who can abuse his power as soon as he is in office. Or just lives from his paycheck or gets bribed to do BS.
Do we do this or that? They did not vote people into "office". One of the most famous votes was about:
a) do we build more ships?
b) do we fortify the city?
That was 480BC. In a real democracy a democracy that coined the term "democracy".
So, when debate got more heated, they asked the Oracle of Delphi, "what should we do?" The answer was: you are save behind wooden walls.
Then the voting came, and: they did both. Building more ships and fortified the city, with palisades stretching from Athens to Pyreus.
Yeah: a fucking vote is not necessarily exclusive, and not meant to put a person into office.
It is meant to actually direct the outcome. Where you asked about the Iraq war? Nope you weren't. Were you asked about the Iran war, nope you weren't.
Waging a war at those times without a vote: was impossible.
You know, people take "voting" and "elections" as interchangeable terms. They are not. They are completely different things.
You do not even have "free elections" in the USA, with gerrymandering, and voter suppression and retarded rules around the election booths, and putting election days on work days and putting the voting booths at places where poor people can not go ... because no bus goes there ... and and and
Completely unthinkable in Europe. We vote on weekends. On weekends schools are closed. Every damn school is used for voting. Most schools are primary schools, hardly more than 5minutes away for a walk.
So, how did the vote in 480BC end?
Athens build 300 more ships. Fortified the area around Athens down to the harbour, Pyreus, with palisades.
As the vote was: we do both!
Themistocles was the mastermind behind the ships.
During the quick escalation of the war, however it was decided that the city gets evacuated. Sparta was not ready to fight. And strictly speaking: they were not on friendly terms with Athens anyway. Only some die hard idiots stayed in the city, tried to fortify the Acropolis, and died there.
90% of al Athenians got evacuated to the Cycladic Islands, some to Korinth.
Persia tried to put up a trap with help of Punt/Phoenician ships at Salamis. They basically wanted to trap the Greek ships in the strait of Salamis and attack them from both entrances to the strait.
Failed, as on half of the Persian fleet: vanished. Yes, it simple went of the history books, no one knows what happend to them. They are never ever mentioned again. So half of the Greek fleet circled around the island. Actually, fun fact: under command of a Spartan general. Who was wise enough to say: "dudes, I am just sitting here on the chair, right? You do the signals and run the battler"
In the end the small straight had about 1000 Persian/Phoenician ships, trapped from both sides by Greek ships.
And now, what again do you want to know about democracy? The Persian/Phoenician ships were rowed by slaves. They had about 40 soldiers. After ramming a ship, they would enter it and fight on deck, unless they managed to shoot it into burning with arrows or oil bombs.
So a Bireme (80) or Trireme with 150 rowers ... was not run by slaves. It was run by proud voting free men. Adn had a similar amount of fighters on deck. So: a trireme would ram a Persian ship, and 200 soldiers would enter it, and kill the 40 Persiens.
In those times: voting was about getting a conclusion what the right thing is to do. AND do it.
It is not an election where an old fat woman or a debile old man gets "into an office".
The United States of America: does not have a democracy. Unfortunately, neither has UK, Germany or the EU.
China, Taiwan, Switzerland - and probably a few more I am not aware about: have democracy. People can _vote_ about topics.
