But the pretense of democracy is that people will do their diligent research as part of their civic duty. Candidates should be entirely about platforms. Voting should entirely be about personal best interests. A high rate of political ignorance among the constituency is a symptom of a failing democracy already.

To be fair, US democracy was flawed from the beginning, partly because our framers didn't know fully what they were doing (Hamilton made some broad presumptions in the Federalist Papers,) and partly because the system was gamed from the beginning to be ruled by the petit bourgeoisie, because they feared rule by the common (uneducated) mob. Also, since they wanted to keep their slaves, they failed to uphold the enlightenment value that everyone is equal under law.

So we kinda got a bunk system to begin with.

The natural thing to do, then, would be to instill civic duty into the modern public education system. Teach kids critical thinking. Instill in them a sense of duty to be a check on government. Teach them to think about what is in their personal best interest, and to vote accordingly. And as we learn about manipulative tricks by the Republicans (e.g. single issue voting, racism campaigning) teach kids to recognize those, and to know someone's trying to play them for a fool.

We totally didn't do that. From the beginning, we taught obedience to authority.

Now, it turns out there was one time we did start teaching critical thinking. We beefed up the liberal arts taught in schools. We were really eager to raise kids who were STEM savvy, who could philosophize, who were willing to ask difficult questions. We did it once, and it was triggered by a singular event:

Sputnik.

Since then, we not only went right back to teaching obedience. Then we went to teaching to the test, as part of Republican effort to dismantle public education entirely. Between that and our range of fundamentalist Christian traditions through the south and the red states, we essentially set up our citizens to be Trump's instant army. In 2015 and 2016, we watched as Trump took the entire Republican base away from all the other candidates, because he dared to be openly racist.

Along with education, we also need our working class to have time and energy to engage civically. This means we need to allow them to afford to live while working them less. The three-day weekend and the 32-hour work week would be a start. (It would also likely increase productivity.) As an aside, our working class also need time and energy to parent, and since they don't get it, our kids suffer. As a gen-x latchkey kid, I didn't have parents at home, and yet our material standard of living wasn't any better.

But again, we're not doing that.

I suppose the survivors trying to start a new civilization can try sortition (that is election by lottery of all the qualified population). In that case they divide up duties so finely that no-one has too great an amount of power. And then they create a system of checks to make sure incompetent officials are out-voted until they can be replaced. That wouldn't mean tyrants would get into office, but our current system invites professional politicians, who dress fancy and speak with confidence, but can assert one set of positions while doing what their benefactors order them to do.

Most people rely on mainstream news or their twitter feed or podcasts to stay informed about what is going on.

And this is why I fear for Hasan Piker's safety. Traditional media is smearing him so badly that even C-Span hosts are saying shit like, "Hasan Piker has made many anti-Semitic statements" which is patently untrue.

I think the Democratic leadership bears far more of the blame. They know what is popular and what would help them win, they just don’t want to win with progressive policies that won’t personally enrich them.

I think a lot of this is also coming from the political consultant class. These people make far to much money on elections and it's not in their personal financial interests to embrace grass roots efforts to get politicians elected. They want big donors so they can make big ad buys(and get a commission).