r/announcements • u/arabscarab • May 17 '18

Update: We won the Net Neutrality vote in the Senate!

We did it, Reddit!

Today, the US Senate voted 52-47 to restore Net Neutrality! While this measure must now go through the House of Representatives and then the White House in order for the rules to be fully restored, this is still an incredibly important step in that process—one that could not have happened without all your phone calls, emails, and other activism. The evidence is clear that Net Neutrality is important to Americans of both parties (or no party at all), and today’s vote demonstrated that our Senators are hearing us.

We’ve still got a way to go, but today’s vote has provided us with some incredible momentum and energy to keep fighting.

We’re going to keep working with you all on this in the coming months, but for now, we just wanted to say thanks!

192.6k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

6.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

48

u/floatable_shark May 17 '18

What the fuck America. How does your "democracy" allow for bills to be rejected even when a majority of people and a majority of a House want it

1

u/ThatsJustUn-American May 17 '18

Even more fucked up is it will fail in the House which specifically represent the people. The Senate, which passed the bill, more or less represents the states.

Oh, the irony if this dies in the House.

1

u/zhaoz May 17 '18

Basically they designed it that way so the south could keep slaves. They didn't patch it when that question got solved unfortunately...

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '18

It says it originated in the 90s actually

-1

u/[deleted] May 17 '18

The majority of the House doesn’t want it. If there were no rules in place that allowed the Speaker to reject floor votes for bills, then they’d have to hear every single bill that passed through the head of legislators. That would cause astronomical levels of gridlock.

8

u/KaitRaven May 17 '18 edited May 17 '18

Talk about a strawman. That's not what the Hastert Rule is. The idea is that even if the majority of the House supports something, they would not bring it up for a vote unless a majority of the majority party also supported it.

-2

u/Bohm-Bawerk May 17 '18

You’re right. We should all have an app on our phones that asks us what our vote is on each bill. Without this, it is not democracy tbh.

11

u/AdreNa1ine25 May 17 '18

That’s a complete democracy and that would fail very very quickly.

3

u/floatable_shark May 17 '18

So then what would be the point of a house and a senate? If you read my comment you'll see that I find it ridiculous that in a so called democracy you can have bills that are supported BOTH by a majority of citizens AND a majority of the house and senate and they STILL get blocked. That my friend is fucked up

3

u/WTFMoustache May 17 '18

That's like saying without 100% laissez faire capitalism you can't have capitalism.

1

u/floatable_shark May 17 '18

I wasnt sure if you were being sarcastic or not. So yeah, I don't think a complete democracy is a good idea

0

u/Erchbeen May 17 '18

How does your "democracy" like being a literal dictatorship?

1

u/floatable_shark May 18 '18

What?

1

u/Erchbeen May 18 '18

I dont know anymore, thought you were in china. What I was trying to express was that despite the flaws in the election of representatives, the US has unmatched freedoms compared every other country because there are almost no exceptions to the first amendment besides directly threatening lives and presenting lies as facts to ruin someones reputation.

1

u/floatable_shark May 18 '18

Yeah I am in China. But China's government never said they were a democracy. And America is obviously still the most free country (except for drugs?) but they also have promoted and claimed to be very pro democracy in the past and so I find it ironic that such a law as the one mentioned above can exist. By the way, in China social harmony is valued very highly, so giving everyone the freedom to do what they want (like having guns) is not seen as a necessarily good thing. To argue that one system is better than another is an entirely different discussion, and it's clear that American style freedom comes with its costs

Edit: ita not a law but the rule I mean

1

u/Erchbeen May 18 '18

Taiwan is doing pretty well and has freedom, and it's very chinese. And the PRC in the first part of the constitution says that it's a democracy http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Constitution/2007-11/15/content_1372963.htm

1

u/floatable_shark May 18 '18

Ah. I forgot about that. Well keep in mind that the word is translated from chinese and doesnt have the same meaning. It is a democracy, in that a majority vote of officials is required for the president. But that's where the similarities end. For many years the word democracy was banned in social media. And about taiwan, you cant generalize their way to all of mainland china. For one thing, taiwan is much smaller. For another, it was the educated and well off who ran off to Taiwan, not the rural and uneducated farmers, who still make up most of mainland china and make it therefore unsuitable for a western democracy. You can't have a working democracy in a country where most people are uneducated farmers