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well the other thing though is Madison was quite clear that all his various structures would not work if the people lack virtue

"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks--no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."

"If a nation wishes to bring in Hitler, it can do that through election as easily as by other means... Free elections come from free men, not vice versa." bsky.app/profile/ryan...

proportional parliaments are provably more durable than presidential systems--though not invulnerable!--and for obvious institutional design reasons prospect.org/2023/10/23/2...

my question here, tho, is this: Is it the proportionality or the parliamentary that's doing the work here? Like there's no reason the leg body in a pres system couldn't be proportionally constructed. Maybe I'm too much of a squish, but I do think there's some value in the leg being it's own thing.

it's both. presidential systems are bad, every one but the US has collapsed eventually, see Juan Linz

this whole damn mess could have been taken straight out of a children's book about why voting for strongman authoritarianism is dumb as dogshit bsky.app/profile/thed...