alt Hacker NewsYeah, it’s well known that oppressive regimes have 10s of millions of supporters.
Or maybe your ideas are just bad, and maybe the other side thinks your ideas are weak and doesn’t want any part of them.
How would you “fix it” without voting? And if it involves “force” why do you ever think we’d let you do that?
In the beginning the people who vote for them may or may not support the ideology.
But once the regime is in place, over time a fraction of supporters start gaining benefits from it. Wealth, recognition, you name it. The regime controls resources of an entire country they can do it.
This core or supporters become the champions of the regime and will eradicate its competitors. Mentally or physically.
Example: try becoming an opposition party in Russia.
Historically if the erosion of institutions is already bad, there is no going back. Only external pressure (sanctions/wars) or civil war.
Elections work only if every group that has real power has agreed to yield it to institutions that will be elected. Either because they believe or because cumulatively the power they own is not enough to challenge the institutions.