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The Fraud Of American Democracy
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| The Fraud Of American Democracy
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| Luther |
Where the People Don't Rule
by Fred Reed
March 11, 2008
Common delusions notwithstanding, the United States, I submit, is not a democracy – by which is meant a system in which the will of the people prevails. Rather it is a curious mechanism artfully designed to circumvent the will of the people while appearing to be democratic. Several mechanisms accomplish this.
First, we have two identical parties which, when elected, do very much the same things. Thus the election determines not policy but only the division of spoils. Nothing really changes. The Democrats will never seriously reduce military spending, nor the Republicans, entitlements.
Second, the two parties determine on which questions we are allowed to vote. They simply refuse to engage the questions that matter most to many people. If you are against affirmative action, for whom do you vote? If you regard the schools as abominations? If you want to end the president’s hobbyist wars?
Third, there is the effect of large jurisdictions. Suppose that you lived in a very small (and independent) school district and didn’t like the curriculum. You could buttonhole the head of the school board, whom you would probably know, and say, “Look, Jack, I really think….” He would listen.
But suppose that you live in a suburban jurisdiction of 300,000. You as an individual mean nothing. To affect policy, you would have to form an organization, canvass for votes, solicit contributions, and place ads in newspapers. This is a fulltime job, prohibitively burdensome.
The larger the jurisdiction, the harder it is to exert influence. Much policy today is set at the state level. Now you need a statewide campaign to change the curriculum. Practically speaking, it isn’t practical.
Fourth are impenetrable bureaucracies. A lot of policy is set by making regulations at some department or other, often federal. How do you call the Department of Education to protest a rule which is in fact a policy? The Department has thousands of telephones, few of them listed, all of which will brush you off. There is nothing the public can do to influence these goiterous, armored, unaccountable centers of power.
Yes, you can write your senator, and get a letter written by computer, “I thank you for your valuable insights, and assure you that I am doing all….”
Fifth is the invisible bureaucracy (which is also impenetrable). A few federal departments get at least a bit of attention from the press, chiefly State and Defense (sic). Most of the government gets no attention at all – HUD, for example. Nobody knows who the Secretary of HUD is, or what the department is doing. Similarly, the textbook publishers have some committee whose name I don’t remember (See? It works) that decides what words can be used in texts, how women and Indians must be portrayed, what can be said about them, and so on. Such a group amounts to an unelected ministry of propaganda and, almost certainly, you have never heard of it.
Sixth, there is the illusion of journalism. The newspapers and networks encourage us to think of them as a vast web of hard-hitting, no-holds-barred, chips-where-they-may inquisitors of government: You can run, but you can’t hide. In fact federal malefactors don’t have to run or hide. The press isn’t really looking.
Most of press coverage is only apparent. Television isn’t journalism, but a service that translates into video stories found in the Washington Post and New York Times (really). Few newspapers have bureaus in Washington; the rest follow the lead of a small number of major outlets. These don’t really cover things either.
When I was reporting on the military, there were (if memory serves) many hundreds of reporters accredited to the Pentagon, or at least writing about the armed services. It sounds impressive: All those gimlet eyes.
What invariably happened though was that some story would break – a toilet seat alleged to cost too much, or the failure of this or that. All the reporters would chase the toilet seat, fearful that their competitors might get some detail they didn’t. Thus you had one story covered six hundred times. In any event the stories were often dishonest and almost always ignorant because reporters, apparently bound by some natural law, are obligate technical illiterates. This includes the reporters for the Post and the Times.
Seventh, and a bit more subtle, is the lack of centers of demographic power in competition with the official government. The Catholic Church, for example, once influentially represented a large part of the population. It has been brought to heel. We are left with government by lobby – the weapons industry, big pharma, AIPAC, the teachers unions – whose representatives pay Congress to do things against the public interest.
Eighth, we are ruled not by a government but by a class. Here the media are crucial. Unless you spend time outside of America, you may not realize to what extent the press is controlled. The press is largely free, yes, but it is also largely owned by a small number of corporations which, in turn, are run by people from the same pool from which are drawn high-level pols and their advisers. They are rich people who know each other and have the same interests. It is very nearly correct to say that these people are the government of the United States, and that the federal apparatus merely a useful theatrical manifestation.
Finally, though it may not be deliberate, the schools produce a pitiably ignorant population that can’t vote wisely. Just as trial lawyers don’t want intelligent jurors, as they are harder to manipulate, so political parties don’t want educated voters. The existence of a puzzled mass gawping at Oprah reduces elections to popularity contests modulated by the state of the economy. One party may win, yes, or the other. But a TV-besotted electorate doesn’t meddle in matters important to its rulers. It has never heard of them.
To disguise all of this, elections provide the excitement and intellectual content of a football game, without the importance. They allow a sense of Participation. In bars across the land, in high-school gyms become forums, people become heated about what they imagine to be decisions of great import: This candidate or that? It keeps them from feeling left out while denying them power.
It is fraud. In a sense, the candidates do not even exist. A presidential candidate consists of two speechwriters, a makeup man, a gestures coach, ad agency, two pollsters and an interpreter of focus groups. Depending on his numbers, the handlers may suggest a more fixed stare to crank up his decisiveness quotient for male or Republican voters, or dial in a bit of compassion for a Democratic or female audience. The newspapers will report this calculated transformation. Yet it works. You can fool enough of the people enough of the time.
When people sense this and decline to vote, we cluck like disturbed hens and speak of apathy. Nope. Just common sense.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed139.html |
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| Pete From PA |
| It will all end in violence, Luther. :( |
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| Stonewall |
| Here is a news flash... We are not a Democracy. The Constitution does not create a Democracy. That is reserved for your State Government. |
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| bstew74 |
Quote: Originally posted by Stonewall
Here is a news flash... We are not a Democracy. The Constitution does not create a Democracy. That is reserved for your State Government. |
That is correct. It is a republic. However, the writer goes on to explain many facets of our system and why and how it is flawed. |
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| Stonewall |
Quote: Originally posted by bstew74
That is correct. It is a republic. However, the writer goes on to explain many facets of our system and why and how it is flawed. |
The writer is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
The system is not flawed. Our trying to make the system do things it was not intended to do, that is the flaw.
Our national government is way outside it's parameters. It is doing things which it was not intended to do. We continue to add to it and then we wonder why it does not work.
I can't wait for universal health care. We'll really see a flawed system there... |
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| bt908 |
Representative Democracy; We elect people to make decisions for us.
I just can't get on board with the "too cool for school" attitude that participation is useless because the game is rigged.
You are right that things will not change as long as the electorate does not demand it. I feel that things in this country are still pretty good for most people, they are not motivated to make any sudden moves. When things get intolerable, they will.
John Edwards is a good example, he was running on old fashioned angry populist, power to the people, message. Most people are not that angry yet. If this economy keeps sliding or we run into an actual depression, a message like his will resonate.
I think it is safe to say that this is the way America has always been. The pressure builds slowly, and then things change quickly. |
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| Abba |
Quote: Originally posted by bt908
Representative Democracy; We elect people to make decisions for us.
I just can't get on board with the "too cool for school" attitude that participation is useless because the game is rigged.
You are right that things will not change as long as the electorate does not demand it. I feel that things in this country are still pretty good for most people, they are not motivated to make any sudden moves. When things get intolerable, they will.
John Edwards is a good example, he was running on old fashioned angry populist, power to the people, message. Most people are not that angry yet. If this economy keeps sliding or we run into an actual depression, a message like his will resonate.
I think it is safe to say that this is the way America has always been. The pressure builds slowly, and then things change quickly. |
I feel like you missed the point of this article, which about the illusion of power vs. real power.
It truly saddens me to know what I know about it, but alas, these things are common knowledge for anyone who looks for them.
Most people are simply willing to become disinterested in something if it's only slightly more complicated than they are used to. If anything demands a bit of intellectual work, it suddenly simply becomes to burdensome for many individuals to try to comprehend.
We are already living in a Fascist society. Before you get pissed off, look up the actual meaning of the word, instead of the coloquialism, like "organic" that it's become. |
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| bt908 |
Quote: Originally posted by Abba
I feel like you missed the point of this article, which about the illusion of power vs. real power.
It truly saddens me to know what I know about it, but alas, these things are common knowledge for anyone who looks for them.
Most people are simply willing to become disinterested in something if it's only slightly more complicated than they are used to. If anything demands a bit of intellectual work, it suddenly simply becomes to burdensome for many individuals to try to comprehend.
We are already living in a Fascist society. Before you get pissed off, look up the actual meaning of the word, instead of the coloquialism, like "organic" that it's become. |
No I think I get the point.
I believe that the people in this country still have the power. We become lazy and complacent and abdicate our authority. You are correct, the business of policy is complex and takes work to understand. Most people won't pay attention until it hits very close to home. When you lose your job or when your son is killed in a war etc. This is when people get interested and they take the reigns back...for a while at least.
I took the thread to be an argument for the futility of it all, I don't agree with that. Maybe I didn't read it correctly. |
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| jigzaw |
How much power do you really want each individual to have to affect the laws and governance? If every asshole with some cockamamie theory could just call the school board and change the curriculum, we'd have pandemonium. Look how far the religious freaks have gone to turn science classes into Creationist pulpits.
It's good that it's difficult for any one person to change the whole system. It's good that you have to convince people to sign petitions, get through a bureaucracy, write letters and organize movements. This is a check against any one lunatic fucking it up for the rest of us.
Is it easy for you or me to place a phone call and change the entire society? No, and that's how it should be. |
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| bt908 |
Quote: Originally posted by jigzaw
How much power do you really want each individual to have to affect the laws and governance? If every asshole with some cockamamie theory could just call the school board and change the curriculum, we'd have pandemonium. Look how far the religious freaks have gone to turn science classes into Creationist pulpits.
It's good that it's difficult for any one person to change the whole system. It's good that you have to convince people to sign petitions, get through a bureaucracy, write letters and organize movements. This is a check against any one lunatic fucking it up for the rest of us.
Is it easy for you or me to place a phone call and change the entire society? No, and that's how it should be. |
I agree. |
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| Abba |
Quote: Originally posted by jigzaw
How much power do you really want each individual to have to affect the laws and governance? If every asshole with some cockamamie theory could just call the school board and change the curriculum, we'd have pandemonium. Look how far the religious freaks have gone to turn science classes into Creationist pulpits.
It's good that it's difficult for any one person to change the whole system. It's good that you have to convince people to sign petitions, get through a bureaucracy, write letters and organize movements. This is a check against any one lunatic fucking it up for the rest of us.
Is it easy for you or me to place a phone call and change the entire society? No, and that's how it should be. |
I don't disagree with that part of it. I think the part I have a prblem with is how much money influences our politcla decisions. If you are a wealthy person, then in fact you CAN influence policy. Likewise if you're part of a powerful group, you can have laws created or changed, all to the detriment of society at large.
It behooves us to all take note of exactly what our government is doing and make sure we agree with course of action taken at any one time. |
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