American Exceptionalism’s “Democracy” | vs. | Habermas’s “Deliberative Democracy” |
Establishing gerrymandered districts that clearly reflect partisan bias in apportioning the electorate into voting districts | OR | Having a neutral commission establish “fairly apportioned voting districts” |
Paying subsidies to rich corporations (such as oil companies) | OR | Using these subsidies for other entities that genuinely need them |
Turning a blind eye to voter suppression efforts | OR | Enacting laws to guarantee and extend the franchise |
Accepting institutionalized racism’s obvious codes | OR | Eliminating institutionalized racism’s obvious codes |
Accepting limitations on women’s pay | OR | Genuinely implementing equal pay for equal work |
Having the gun lobby control gun legislation and intimidate lawmakers | OR | Allowing the government to pass common sense gun laws (assault rifle bans, military-sized clips, etc.) |
Having a society that is uniformly authorized to exercise the concealed carrying of firearms | OR | Questioning whether the “concealed carrying” of firearms is a genuine social value or the value of a small segment of society with narrow and vested interests |
Accepting racist prison incarceration rates | OR | Eliminating the basis for prison incarceration rates that are racist |
Accepting candidates who engage in racist slurs or who propose policies against Hispanics, Muslims, and others | OR | Rejecting out of hand candidates who make slurs or who propose policies against Hispanics, Muslims, and other minorities |
Rounding up and deporting 11 million “illegal immigrants” | OR | Allowing 11 million illegal immigrants legal status |
Accepting the results of junk-science and/or science tied to corporate interests on environmental issues | OR | Rejecting the claims of those who accept junk science and/or science tied to corporate interest on environmental issues |
Accepting the irrational stripping of earth’s (and the ocean’s) environmental resources | OR | Protecting the earth’s (and the ocean’s) environmental resources |
Allowing lobbyists to write legislation | OR | Ensuring lobbyists don’t have final say in writing legislation |
Having society’s norms set by corporate interests | OR | Having society’s norms set by society’s participants (as opposed to those representing corporate interests) |
Accepting social violence against members of the LGBT community | OR | Rejecting social violence against members of the LGBT community |
Having unlimited amounts of “dark money” influencing our campaign financing | OR | Taking excess money out of campaign financing |
Accepting American “democracy” as it is now practiced, and allowing overweening corporate influence | OR | Adopting a “deliberative democracy” with communicative action theory and discourse ethics while systematically limiting corporate influence |
Accepting the colonization of the lifeworld by system forces | OR | Rejecting the colonization of lifeworld by system forces |