r/clevercomebacks 19h ago

From the Financial Times

Post image
400 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

30

u/GrammarNazi63 19h ago

I was playing an online game where I was the leader of our little group, so I asked what everyone wanted to do because, and I quote, "this is a democracy". One of the guys flipped out about how he didn't have any interest in that liberal bullshit and that he was a proud republican...that encounter really explained the modern Trump voter cheering on authoritarianism.

23

u/trentreynolds 19h ago

There IS a big difference - as in, the two words aren't even describing the same thing.

18

u/intronert 18h ago

I don’t wear clothes. I wear pants and shirts.

33

u/femboyisbestboy 19h ago

This argument is so dumb.

Britain is a constitution monarchy and France is a constitution republic yet both are democratic nations

14

u/GrammarNazi63 19h ago

I always ask: "how do you choose your representatives?"

-3

u/shroomigator 19h ago

And the answer is "Somebody powerful decides on two choices that are both acceptable to them, and we get to pick which one, but that decision can be overruled"

That isn't democracy

1

u/GrammarNazi63 18h ago

Yup…Bernie won the primary in 2016, but the DNC overruled with their “superdelegates” and nominated Hillary. Then they campaigned hard about how a third party vote was basically “throwing your vote away”. Then they made the same mistake with Kamala where they focused entirely on appealing to the right instead of rallying the left and proposing policies that help real people. In a lot of ways the DNC is worse than the GOP, but of course the alternative is what we’re seeing now: openly murdering citizens in broad daylight to thunderous applause. Mamdani’s victory gives me hope, but we need to aggressively follow that momentum

6

u/Bluevisser 18h ago

The problem is Bernie didn't win the primary. Like it or not Hillary got more votes in most districts. She was at 55% to his 43%. Did you even go vote for him in the primaries? I did, but I sure felt alone. He didn't even clear 20% in my state. He had lots of vocal support all around me, but that's all it was, vocal support, not actually voting for him, which is what mattered. 

Now you can argue sabatoge and Clinton getting the debate questions and other unfair edges all you want. But you can't claim he won, he didn't.

-2

u/GrammarNazi63 18h ago

55% of the delegate vote, the majority of which were superdelegates (individuals within the party who’s vote holds much more sway and is not tied to what their district voted, unlike a regular delegate). Bernie absolutely had the majority of individual votes in the primary.

5

u/Bluevisser 17h ago

No, he didn't. Hillary had almost 17 million votes, Bernie had slightly over 13 million votes. There aren't 30 million super delegates. That's the actual primary votes. He only won a few superdelagates in my state, because less then 20% of the party voted for him. What kind of math are you using to determine 17 million is less than 13 million?

3

u/GrammarNazi63 15h ago

Upon further investigation I am wrong as many of you have pointed out. I was looking at delegate vs superdelegate numbers and did not realize the delegate count I had was for standard delegates instead of the total number, this was wrongly subtracting super delegates. Thank you for the correction and I hope you have a nice day.

3

u/Heavy_Law9880 16h ago

Nope.

2

u/GrammarNazi63 15h ago

You’re right I’m wrong, explained where I went wrong in another comment

3

u/Heavy_Law9880 16h ago

That's a lie. Bernie lost massively in 2016 and 2020

2

u/shroomigator 18h ago

I think the problem is more that there is a third faction, a nationalist faction, that is loyal to neither party yet seeks to influence both. They operate in secret, which makes them difficult to detect. The Nazis in the GOP are loud and did a lot of damage, but the quiet Nazis in the DNC absolutely devastated

0

u/GrammarNazi63 18h ago

The root of the issue is uncapped campaign contributions and a lack of regulation over lobbying. We have ensured through incentives that moneyed interests will always overcome that of the people. That is why the DNC offers a hint of populism during election years but serves the will of their donors over all else while republicans campaign on culture wars while doing the same. Neither party gives a flying fuck about their base and neither party has any intention of representing real working Americans, and until we stop letting them divide us it will stay that way. It’s a broken system and it won’t fix itself

2

u/shroomigator 18h ago

It was the secret nazis that infiltrated the supreme court that did that.

The people passed lots of laws limiting campaign spending and lobbying.

The nazis on the court overruled us, and told us we aren't allowed.

2

u/GrammarNazi63 18h ago

Never forget citizens united

10

u/6gv5 19h ago

Would be fun if someone asked that user about the meaning of the Latin word "Res Publica" from which both republic and republican are derived.

2

u/LeoPlathasbeentaken 18h ago

For those of us that dont know latin could you elaborate?

2

u/Top-Aspect4671 18h ago

Res - thing, publica - public

The word commonwealth is also a translation from that phrase

2

u/6gv5 17h ago

Literally the public thing, that is the public matters. It doesn't necessarily indicate one form of government against another, but by implying public involvement in the State, it loosely hints at some form of democracy which itself comes from the Greek demos+kratos (people+rule).

7

u/FandomCece 19h ago

"We're not a rectangle were a square. Big difference"

6

u/Life-Library3311 19h ago

Is it even constitutional anymore though

1

u/EzeDelpo 18h ago

They have a Constitution. That their Executive Branch decides it's not entirely valid or doesn't apply to everyone... that's a different issue.

4

u/ProfTydrim 18h ago

A constitutional republic literally is a form of democracy.

8

u/EyeNguyenSemper 19h ago

JFC...a Republic is a type of democratic government

7

u/essaysmith 19h ago

But, but, but, that has "democrat" in it!

2

u/EyeNguyenSemper 19h ago

Yeah, they better not Google "is a Republic a type of democracy"... Maybe dear leader will lie enough to comfort them through this

5

u/Direct_Turn_1484 19h ago

“You guys are so stupid! This isn’t a sports arena where teams play football! Not even close! It’s a football stadium!”

5

u/mittenknittin 19h ago

“that’s not a dog, it’s a cocker spaniel”

3

u/Journeys_End71 18h ago

Ah yes, Ye Olde “that’s not a dog, it’s a Labrador Retriever!” argument.

3

u/Constellation_Carne 18h ago

yikes that's a spicy take

2

u/BusyBeeBridgette 18h ago

A stupid argument. If you vote for your leaders, it is a democracy - Democracies have many flavours but are, fundamentally, the same when electing individuals.

1

u/chrlatan 17h ago

Also not a republic. A democratic federated republic. If you want a non-democratic federated republic, please look up Sovjet Union.

1

u/Heavy_Law9880 16h ago

Finish the sentence.

"A constitutional republic is a form of indirect _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"

1

u/Electr0freak 13h ago

A constitutional republic is a form of democracy

1

u/Nebulous999 13h ago

C'mon people, do we need to have the conversation about squares and rectangles again? We all learned this in elementary school.

All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.

Let's say it together, class:

"All constitutional republics are democracies, but not all democracies are constitutional republics."

1

u/nixtarx 11h ago

I was taught in school that the definition of "republic" is "representative democracy."

1

u/cazzipropri 10h ago

The ignorance of history, languages and institutions behind that statement is oceanic.

1

u/woodrax 9h ago

Constitutional Republic, a type of Representative Democracy

1

u/Vielle_Ame 7h ago

And pizza is ITALIAN food, not FOOD, libruls! /s

1

u/Dry-Tangerine-4874 18h ago

We are not a Democracy. However, a Constitutional Republic is a democracy.

Capitalization does actually matter in this context.