The Greatest Democracy on Earth
Americans boast about their
democracy. They have built up a formidable military machine in order
to force our electoral system on other countries such as Iraq or
Afghanistan.
But holding regular elections
does not make a country democratic. In recent months Turkey and Egypt
and other countries, for instance Russia, have held elections but not
before making sure that no serious challengers would be able to run
against the existing government.
Now we don't do that. In spite
of all the talk about putting Hillary Clinton in prison, no one has
tried to do that. But we have other ways of controlling who runs for
president. The moneyed people refuse to finance third parties. You
don't have to jail people to keep them off the ballot.
There is another reason for
denying that electoral systems are, of course, democratic. Elections
are not an end in themselves. They are one part of the democratic
process by which a people manages its own affairs. In a democracy the
people govern themselves. They decide who will be in the government
and, More importantly, what policies the government will follow.
Holding regular elections, even if they are squeaky clean, does not
suffice to empower the people at large run their own lives.
If the people are going to be
self determining, they need to decide together what policies to
follow. They need therefore to consult with each other and try as
hard as possible to reach compromises, to establish shared
principles, or even to disagree on principles but work together on
concrete projects. But the basic goal must always be to reach
consensus as far as possible on what we all think is best for all of
us.
Our political life today is
very different. We have two political parties, both financed by the
super rich and they struggle with each other for votes. The goal of
the democratic process is not to come together around policies we
think will benefit all of us. The goal of our electoral system is to
allow some people to make other people do what they don't want to do.
The Democrats passed Obama care. The Republicans try to dismantle it.
The Democratic administration try to reduce pollution from
automobiles and power plants. The Republican administration drops all
those regulation and gives free reign to polluters. The Democratic
administration wanted to give young people brought here as children a
chance to become educated citizens. The Republican administration
treats all immigrants, with papers or without, as rapists and
murderers.
Neither party is interested in
popular self-government. Instead they mislead, misinform and lie to
the people at large. The people cannot make reasonable decisions
because they are ill informed.
Politicians have two goals:
they try to raise money for their campaigns and they try to get as
many votes as possible. They are not particularly interested in what
is good for the people they supposedly represent. They are not
interested in popular self-government; they want to be re-elected.
They are not interested in democracy, but in an electoral system that
pretends to be democratic but is not. There are many examples of
their indifference to the well being of the majority of Americans:
The economy is said to be in
excellent shape but significant numbers of Americans are poor or are
barely getting by, living paycheck to paycheck, unable to save for
their old age or unable to pay for education for themselves or their
children. A half million Americans are homeless; 25% of those were
children. When he was campaigning for president, Sen. McCain when
asked how many houses he owned, could not remember whether it was
eight or nine. He did not offer any of the two house his homeless
fellow citizens. Health care for the poor is precarious and becoming
more so every day.
Racial problems beset this
republic abetted by an administration that caters to primitive racism
among whites. The disproportionate number of people of color in
prison, the serious health problems of persons of color, and the
second-rate education given to many children of color are of no
concern to the current government. They gain votes by being racist
and that's all they care about.
Americans die every day of
opioid overdoses. There is a great deal of hand wringing about that
among politicians. But so far we have seen no action, no plans to
improve treatment of addicts, to study problems of addiction. The
problem is not really on the political agenda.
The environmental crisis
becomes more acute and threatening every day. Our government blandly
denies the facts of
harsher climate events, rising temperatures, greater frequency of
storms, floods, and wildfires. Coastal areas are endangered by rising
sea levels. Glaciers and ice caps at the North
and South
Pole
are melting. Politicians and our government sit on their hands.
A political system that caters
only to the well-being of a small number of citizens – those that
are affluent to being super rich – is not a democracy. We live in
an oligarchy. This is not an oligarchy of the exceptionally
knowledgeable and insightful. It is not an oligarchy of men and women
dedicated to public service. It is an oligarchy of capitalists who
will do anything to get richer than they already are, never mind how
their enriching themselves will make the lives of other Americans
more difficult.
So much for democracy in
America.
