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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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On the other hand, it’s incapable of long term thinking itself. No elected official can afford to really think about the distant future. If his proposal causes near term pain, he’s out, even if it would be enormously beneficial long term.

I mean to steelman the current system, this problem is exactly what these 'deep state' federal programs were meant to fix. You can argue, and I'd agree, that they aren't very effective at fixing this problem, but your argument clearly contradicts itself here.

There are also issues of culture. Democracy by nature will embrace deviance however it’s defined.

This is also absolutely not true. Maybe secular liberal democracy founded in a nation full of deviants, but plenty of democratic societies have been able to avoid celebrating deviance. Look at Finland. Hell, look at ancient Athens. It's certainly possible, but perhaps not with freely open voting to every person in a society.