China has a system that is described as socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The USA should be described as a democracy with United States characteristics.
The U.S. government often expresses the idea that its system is so desirable that leaders of other countries should model their country after it.
Below are some of the outstanding features of a democracy with United States characteristics.
In a democracy, the winner in an election should be the candidate who receives the most votes, preferably the majority. However, in a democracy with United States characteristics, a candidate for president, the highest office, can lose the popular vote and be the winner—the one who gains power and the office sought–as did Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016.
Additionally, in a democracy with United States characteristics, one can also win the presidency with less than 44% of the vote as did Clinton in 1992 and Nixon in 1968. The majority of voters might not want the winner as their president, and many of the votes received by the winner may have been gained because that person was viewed as the lesser evil.
A democratic system is based on the notion of everyone having an equal say over the decisions that affect their lives. This is brought out in the notion of one person, one vote. Everyone’s vote is supposed to be equally powerful regardless of one’s circumstances.
In a democracy with United States characteristics, to win the election for president, one must secure at least 270 electoral votes. When choosing a president, each person’s vote in California in the 2020 election determined which candidate received 55 electoral votes while each vote in Wyoming determined 3 electoral votes. Voters in Wyoming have one electoral vote for around every 94,000 registered voters while California voters have one electoral vote for about every 400,000 registered voters.
Furthermore, the people of Wyoming with some 280,000 registered voters elect two of the one hundred U.S. Senators while voters in California, with more than 22 million registered voters, or more than 75 times the number of voters than Wyoming, elect just two senators. In the operations of the Senate, 41 of 100 members can often prevent legislation from being voted on and passed even if favored by the majority of senators.
Seats in the House of Representatives in states with more than one House member are chosen by district with one person elected per district. One votes in the district in which one resides, and districts are often drawn in ways to favor candidates of one party over the other and to render many peoples’ votes inconsequential. This is called gerrymandering and continually happens in a democracy with United States characteristics. It can result in a party gaining the majority of House of Representative seats in a state even if the majority of voters favor the candidates of an opposing party.
Additionally, in a democracy with United States characteristics, many members of the legislative branch, when running for re-election, do not face an opponent or face one who will receive less than 25% of the vote meaning the office holder is not at risk of losing.
Most people living in the United States today would not have been allowed to vote when the country was founded. Today, they are eligible to vote. However, ongoing efforts have created great obstacles preventing or discouraging people from voting especially if they are poor or not considered members of the white race; and policies are being enacted that may prevent the decisions of the voters from being realized.
Beyond Elections and Voting
The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution indicates that among its purposes is to “establish Justice” and “promote the general Welfare.”
In a democracy with United States characteristics, despite its great wealth, over 37 million people in 2020 had incomes that are low enough for them to be viewed as living in poverty. Over 11.6 million of these folks are under the age of 18 and obviously not responsible for their circumstances.
In 2020, the government’s income threshold for a single person under 65 to be considered impoverished is less than $13,465 a year, an amount of money that might not be enough in many parts of the country to enable one to pay for the cost of a basic need, housing.
In a democracy with United States characteristics, the number of people who are white who are impoverished is greater than the number of impoverished members of any other racial or ethnic group. However, one who is white is less likely to be poor and more likely to be rich especially if a male.
Racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination, though often rhetorically opposed by those with power, remain features of a democracy with United States characteristics.
In a democracy with United States characteristics, more money is spent per person on health care than in any other country in the world. Yet, even before the pandemic, the infant mortality rate was higher and life expectancy was lower than that of many other countries.
Doing little to address the current environmental emergency while providing fossil fuel companies with subsidies, and giving them more opportunities to drill for oil and gas to be burned is another trait of a democracy with United States characteristics.
In a democracy with United States characteristics, more people are locked up in prison or jail than in any other country in the world. Additionally, people being locked up because they are seen as terrorists can later be exonerated yet continue to be detained.
A democracy with United States characteristics lets a president call for torturing people without fear of being punished, and also allows a president to order the murder by drone of a U.S. citizen deemed by the government to be a terrorist who has not been indicted and obviously not found guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
Being at war or always on the verge of war is another feature of a democracy with United States characteristics.
In a democracy with United States characteristics, the first woman to be the U.S. secretary of state wrote a book on the threat of fascism when Trump was president. The administration for which she worked as secretary of state enforced sanctions towards Iraq that resulted in the death of an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children. When asked, she said that the death of these children resulting from carrying out this policy was “worth it.”
In a democracy with United States characteristics, were the leaders to decide to use just a small number of the nuclear weapons it possesses, the demise of all human life could be the result. Additionally, these same leaders are spending billions every year to supposedly make the country’s nuclear arsenal more reliable, accurate and efficient.
Wealth Inequality
In a democracy with United States characteristics, according to the Federal Reserve Board, the wealthiest 1% has more wealth ($43.94 trillion) than the poorest 90% of the population ($41.56 trillion.)
To make it onto the December 28, 2021 Bloomberg list of the world’s fifty wealthiest, one must have holdings worth at least $29 billion.
In a democracy with United States characteristics, 22 of the 50 wealthiest reside in the United States. That distinguishes the U.S. from socialism with Chinese characteristics. It has 6 people among the 50 wealthiest (or 8 if Hong Kong is included.) This means that socialism with Chinese characteristics allows for people to accumulate great fortunes by exploiting workers while democracy with United States characteristics does the same.