A Threat to Our Democracy?

We are regularly told that our democratic system is in peril, from the left (authoritarian Christian white supremacist fascism will trample freedom and democracy), and the right (regimented Soviet style communism will take away our freedom and democracy). We must save our democracy! Scratch the surface and you find there is not much democracy worthy of that name, to speak of or save.

Just so, the vast majority of the demos wants a livable minimum wage, paid family leave, pre-K school, quality K-12 schools, access to a college education, to housing, quality affordable healthcare, and fairly priced Meds.

Everyone believes clean water and clean air should be a human right, guaranteed, regulated, and protected by our representative government. We are almost universally in agreement that state of the art infrastructure of roads and bridges, public transportation, schools, electric power, and internet are fundamental aspects of a forward looking society both economically and in terms of quality of life.

We have all learned, and believe, that promoting the “general welfare” is a foundational tenet of our Constitution. We know that none of the above programs and policies are radical in relation to our history or that of other nominally wealthy democratic countries, none are beyond our reach, and all relate to an unfulfilled promise of our general welfare.

Of course a great majority of Americans believe in a democratic system that guarantees the universal right to vote for every citizen, and that limits the weight of big money interests in the election process. Yes, a huge majority of Americans want public servants in the service of the public, not corporate shill place holders on their way to a seven figure lobbying gig. Most people also know the DOD budget is a pork barrel bigger than the most other country’s GDP.

Everybody knows climate upheaval is upon us and climate catastrophe will soon premiere in prime time. The costs in lives, production and property will be immense but can be mitigated, and the crisis offers us the opportunity to transition to a new sustainable economy with enormous potential for jobs and growth. A majority of voters and businesses want information, action, leadership, direction as to what to do, and how we can collectively go about doing it. They want our representative government to set out the rules, and the resources to power an urgent process of systemic change.

What is stopping the demos from exercising its kratos?

Do nightly news screeds, twitter feeds, and/or streaming of vicious violence and mindless comedy offer sufficient hypno-sedation as we stumble through the pandemic, climate upheaval, wage/income stagnation, the suppression of meaningful critical public debate, and the loss of faith in each other and the concepts of trust and truth telling?

Have the inevitable corporatist capitulation of the Pelosi/Schumer/Biden Dems, the rabid racist authoritarianism of the McConnell/McCarthy/Trump GOP, the media spectacle fictions of government in action or dysfunction and left and right confrontation, and a widespread fear of security state intervention created a paralysis that leads us to assume this is all we get? Must we, in the end, trust our “representatives” and hope for democratic function and justice at the hands of the very protagonists of democratic demise, as they jostle, obfuscate, backtrack, pack and unpack their politic-babble.

The vast majority of Americans know that none of the above is happening or about to happen. They know that they are being played by a system that talks of “the people” but pays little attention to what they want. A system that continually offer outrage instead of action and hope instead of change. A system that functions like a well oiled machine for the wealth of the wealthy and the global interests transnational corporations.

So, when do the great majority of Americans who have had enough of the lies and corruption of a corporate controlled media/government/military system take it to the streets?

The vast majority of the demos simply work to survive and survive to work. Whatever they believe to be the proper and necessary work of a representative government in a democratic society based on the rule of law to be, they have very little time to think about it, and much less time, or money, to act on it. The vast majority of us are not stupid but marginalized, frustrated, beaten left and right, and rendered cynical and angry by what they know has happened but with few critical or political skills to give voice to their truth except anger, denial, and/or self-exclusion. Trust, a commodity of great value, is in scarce supply and deeply contested by unsavory players with non-democratic interests and powerful tools of persuasion.

Much of the American demos cannot afford any risk taking, as they are one or four or six months from losing their homes. Being unable to pay their bills. Many just a few sick days from losing their jobs. They spend their lives subject to kratos, not even close to an autonomous free subject exercising power.

If the majority actually came to believe they might, or indeed, should get some of the things they want from their democratically elected representatives the seed of change would grow like bamboo.

That is why we are subjected to unregenerate fictionalization of our history, our democracy, endless discussion of fabricated social and political torts, inured by unceasing strident empty spectacle, and left on the edge of poverty (in debt indenture if we would get an education and in an economic desert if we do not). Without the privilege of wealth, few rights are respected, and there is a vague promise of violence (economic, social, or physical) to all who speak up.

Thus, what the vast majority of the American demos want their government to do, the policies and programs necessary for the“general welfare” of “we the people,” we will not get.

Current talk of a coming civil war, of Trumpists vs. Coastal Elites is just another misdirect. We are not enemies, we are tools being put to use in a corporate/media/government theater workshop for the continuation of the present oligarchic economic system at a time when events (climate, pandemic, inequality) have rendered that system transparently obstructionist, unremittingly exploitative, somewhat desperate, and criminally responsible for the state of things.