Democracy and Free-Market Capitalism? Probably Not Eternal

We can change the systems, or let them change for us.

Taru Anniina Liikanen
5 min readDec 6, 2021
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Rules are important. When you follow a common set of rules, you ensure a certain level of fairness to all those involved.

This is why institutions are important in a democracy. We vote, and we expect the people we believe in the most to win the vote and bring us necessary changes. But when the other side wins, we expect them to follow the rules, and not change too many things.

The problem, as history shows, is that nothing is really eternal. Structures, rules and systems change, whether we want them to or not. And if the good guys follow rules, it doesn’t mean the bad guys will, too.

A Necessary Reality Check

The Democratic Party in the US is currently in a tough spot. It’s a party that wants to follow rules to a T, basically just to not piss off Republicans so that they don’t break the rules in the future.

Democrats are still not on board with changing the filibuster rule in the Senate, or changing the composition of the Supreme Court.

They want to follow the rules, believing the Republicans will do the same. This, unfortunately, is exasperatingly naive, because the party faces an…

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Taru Anniina Liikanen

Stand-up comedian and recovering political ghostwriter. Finnish by birth, porteña at heart. Bad jokes frequent.