But the joke doesn’t work unless you also don’t consider most Western countries to be Democracies either. Canada doesn’t have primaries, Australia doesn’t have primaries, Japan doesn’t have primaries; most countries don’t have primaries. The specific mechanics of Americas electoral politics are not some platonic ideal of Democracy handed down by God on the mount, against which all others are judged.
But your joke premise relied on the idea that not having primaries means you have no choice, which would once again require you to believe that most Western countries have no choice as well.
The joke relied on the fact that China isn’t a democracy not because they don’t have primaries but because they have a “president for life” (otherwise known as a dictator) and their elections are largely ornamental and orchestrated by the CCP.
The joke relied on the fact that China isn’t a democracy not because they don’t have primaries but because they have a “president for life”
That was never mentioned in the joke though. The joke was sarcastically asking about primaries and candidates and other trappings specific to US president elections.
It’s also not true: China doesn’t have a “president for life”, so that makes even less sense. More to the point, the leader of China isn’t even determined by the position of President (in fact, “president” is just the English translation, and a bit of a dubious one), it’s mostly a ceremonial position customarily bestowed on, effectively, the Prime Minister.
their elections are largely ornamental and orchestrated by the CCP.
Well now we’ve just gone in a circle; the original joke was implying that China isn’t a democracy because it doesn’t have the electoral apparatus of a democracy, know we’re saying that it does have the apparatus of Democracy, but those don’t count because we don’t consider it a Democracy.
You know the joke is that they’re not a democracy, right?
But the joke doesn’t work unless you also don’t consider most Western countries to be Democracies either. Canada doesn’t have primaries, Australia doesn’t have primaries, Japan doesn’t have primaries; most countries don’t have primaries. The specific mechanics of Americas electoral politics are not some platonic ideal of Democracy handed down by God on the mount, against which all others are judged.
The joke isn’t the primaries, dude. The joke is that they’re complaining about the US candidates being two bad choices, when they have no choices.
But your joke premise relied on the idea that not having primaries means you have no choice, which would once again require you to believe that most Western countries have no choice as well.
it really didnt
It really did, though. I’m not sure how you can say otherwise.
The joke relied on the fact that China isn’t a democracy not because they don’t have primaries but because they have a “president for life” (otherwise known as a dictator) and their elections are largely ornamental and orchestrated by the CCP.
That was never mentioned in the joke though. The joke was sarcastically asking about primaries and candidates and other trappings specific to US president elections.
It’s also not true: China doesn’t have a “president for life”, so that makes even less sense. More to the point, the leader of China isn’t even determined by the position of President (in fact, “president” is just the English translation, and a bit of a dubious one), it’s mostly a ceremonial position customarily bestowed on, effectively, the Prime Minister.
Well now we’ve just gone in a circle; the original joke was implying that China isn’t a democracy because it doesn’t have the electoral apparatus of a democracy, know we’re saying that it does have the apparatus of Democracy, but those don’t count because we don’t consider it a Democracy.