Democracy

I love America. We are a country of values and ideals, of rich history and great beauty, and of diversity and tolerance. Our people through hard work, diligence, genius, talent, and any other virtue you could assign have persevered and triumphed over some of the most devastating crises to face any people in the history of humanity. And yet we must preserve these qualities in the times to come.
Hard times are ahead, my fellow countrymen. I know that now, all but economic hardship seems small in comparison with that most pressing need. However, we must look the future as this, our beloved America, falls to corruption and mistreatment while we watch on blindly.
Did you know that corporations can and do donate money to political campaigns in America? Do you understand the gravity and seriousness of our sitting back and allowing them to do this?
Political campaigns are run on millions of dollars. It takes a great deal of money to ship your candidate around the country, to put his face everywhere, and to provide his slogans and signage to his supporters. And yet, while this is an important fact to take into account, claiming that corporations could have little influence on elections because of it is failing to take into account a far more important fact.
Corporations make billions. Even with only a billion dollars, though, how many campaign donations of possible millions could they make?
Quite a few, actually. See, a billion isn’t just the next step up from a million. It’s 1,000 millions. Meaning a corporation could donate, say, 30 of those millions to fund an entire political campaign (thereby assuring that their views are represented in congress- theirs rather than yours), and still have 970 millions leftover. That’s a lot of millions.
Of course, these numbers are wholly fabricated, products entirely of my thought. Yet the thought experiment is valid, and we see the enormous buying power of a corporation in politics. What if they’re a multi-billion dollar corporation? That’s thousands more millions for them to spend making sure their views are represented in legislature.
And how do you get to express your views? You can donate $15 if you can afford it. You get to write letters to your elected officials- as if it will change their minds. Even donating a few bucks hardly seems worth it in the face of the buying power corporations.
I’m here to tell you, it’s not worth it. It’s not worth writing letters and it’s not worth donating your hard earned money, when the politicians are practically bought and paid for. As depressing as this sounds though, we are on the cusp of a new alternative that we have brought ourselves to by our own amazing technological advancement and by the ideals on which this country was founded.
In fact, when I said new alternative, I lied. What I propose is called Democracy.
If you think America is a democracy, you are sorely mistaken. America is and has been since its founding a republic. We elect people to serve our interests in government rather than serving those interests ourselves.
Yet they persistently fail to serve our interests, as they are in the pocket of wealthy corporations that take the sweat and work of millions and spend it on the interests of some few. Why rely on them at all, then? Why not stretch back further for inspiration, to the society that inspired even those men who so wonderfully engendered our own beautiful nation?
Indeed, it was not in Philadelphia but in Athens that democracy was founded, and then meant what the word says in Greek: Rule by the people. Despite stringent citizenship requirements based on race, birth, sex and creed that would be intolerable today, the government nonetheless allowed each and every one of its citizens the right to vote on the issues that faced the community, rather than forcing them to trust some few, easily corrupted politicians.
But of course this system was practical for their smaller city-state. Wouldn’t it be impossible to even get a consensus on issues in time to react if the whole nation must be gauged for reaction?
Perhaps 50 years ago. Perhaps 25 years ago. But today, through our own labor, hard work, and technological aptitude, we have discovered the secret to instant communication amongst all our citizens: the Internet. What need is there for our voices to not be heard and reverberate throughout the task of legislature?
We have the technology at our fingertips and all the impetus we need to act in what is swiftly becoming an oligarchy dominated by the interests of the wealthy. We must save our country, and the only people we can trust to do it are ourselves. We are still the same people who won two World Wars. We are still the same people to survive a time of both economic and ecological disaster during the Great Depression. And with the same tenacity with which we survived those challenges, we must now face the challenge we have made for ourselves by our indolence. Yet who better to govern us than us? And what better time to demand better for ourselves than now?

-Cleisthenes

“Above all we must avoid sacrificing our freedom for convenience to he who asks the lowest price for our loyalty.”

>>15

I have never heard a claim further from the truth. If you want to play the martyr and claim oppression, you have to actually be oppressed. Affirmative action isn't oppression. Most of the government is still white protestants, affirming fundamentalist white protestant values. The Tea Party movement that essentially makes the political decisions these days is composed almost entirely of white protestants.

I guess all I can really say is that I hope you're trolling. Trying to claim racism as a member of the oppressor is just wrong and misguided. Obama does NOT in fact have a "deep-seated hatred of white people," nor did any of the white protestants before him. Or JFK.

That notwithstanding, you present an interesting point I have to address: how to protect each individual in EDD from movements like the Tea Party. How will we ensure that gays can marry and that every minority is ensured equality?

Our founding fathers give us a strong solution that must, however, be accompanied by a specific form of government: a Constitution. Indeed, those founding fathers actually warned against direct democracy, as they felt it would allow the majority to run roughshod over the minority. However, it was after they made these comments in the Federalist papers that they conceived of and enacted a constitution to enumerate the rights and powers of government and to protect the citizens from it.

Yet their government has essentially failed. It is run by corrupt politicians and corporate interests, and has been since at least Harding. Indeed, rather than their fear confirmed of the careless majority, they would now see their people put upon by corrupt government.

And indeed we should remedy this problem they failed to foresee with the safeguard that they used to try and maintain government after their passing: a Constitution. A document to enumerate the powers of the voting body, of the few elected officials they might have, and the rights of the minority. We must establish safeguards for those groups, ethnic or ideological, which do not form the majority so that the majority may not, out of malice, spite, and pure racism enact whatever laws they choose against those who have not the voting power to protect themselves.

I understand what I'm advocating for, but something must be done. At this point, the problems seem so systemic that fixing the problem would cost us more than just buying a new one. A new government, that is, with a new constitution.

The situation is dire. We must act.

-Cleisthenes

"We must in Democracy protect from ourselves those who cannot protect themselves."