As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.
While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.
Uh, yeah. Thanks "Karl" but I'm not buying any "up the proletariat" today. Using the measure of median household income, the United States ranks anywhere from second to fifth worldwide. The vast majority of our "poor" are only poor relatively speaking. Nearly 50% of households earning under $18,500 a year own their own home. Just as a point of comparison, worldwide the median income is $850. Roughly 95% of American households make over $10,000 a year.
Yes, people can and do struggle in this country. However, the largest part of that struggle is not for mere subsistence. It is instead the struggle to get to where people aspire to be for themselves and their families. As a result the severity of the struggle is defined not by some objective standard, as would be Marxists have it, but by the varying standards of those subjective aspirations. It so happens that many people see little or no connection between their personal aspirations and the political process. In effect, they have decided they do not need governmental help in order to get to where they want to go. They may be right or wrong in this belief, but that it exists is beyond doubt. Voter apathy is what it is called.
Don't you fret, however, our Marxist friend knows why this is so.
So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding and increasingly obscene tax breaks and other windfall benefits for the wealthiest, while the bought-and-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services and the social safety net, saying we can’t afford them. One state after another is reporting that it cannot pay its bills. Public employees across the country are walking the plank by the tens of thousands. Camden, N.J., a stricken city with a serious crime problem, laid off nearly half of its police force. Medicaid, the program that provides health benefits to the poor, is under savage assault from nearly all quarters.
The poor, who are suffering from an all-out depression, are never heard from. In terms of their clout, they might as well not exist. The Obama forces reportedly want to raise a billion dollars or more for the president’s re-election bid. Politicians in search of that kind of cash won’t be talking much about the wants and needs of the poor. They’ll be genuflecting before the very rich....
In the mad rush to privatization over the past few decades, democracy itself was put up for sale, and the rich were the only ones who could afford it.
Well, let us look at the amount of money we have been spending on Mandatory Spending (i.e. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Other Means-tested entitlements, Pensions, Debt Payments):
According to Congressional Budget Office records, federal outlays for mandatory spending were 33.8% in 1965 vs. 59.9% in 2005. They were highest in the Clinton years: 60% in 1995 and up to 62.6% by 2000.
It is even worse than this as we spend more as a percentage of GDP now than we did in 1965. Total government spending was only 16.44% of GDP in 1965. It was 24.67% in 2009. So, we spend more of a larger pie.
So where exactly is this screwing over of the poor?
As if the corporate stranglehold on American democracy were not tight enough, the Supreme Court strengthened it immeasurably with its Citizens United decision, which greatly enhanced the already overwhelming power of corporate money in politics. Ordinary Americans have no real access to the corridors of power, but you can bet your last Lotto ticket that your elected officials are listening when the corporate money speaks.
When the game is rigged in your favor, you win. So despite the worst economic downturn since the Depression, the big corporations are sitting on mountains of cash, the stock markets are up and all is well among the plutocrats. The endlessly egregious Koch brothers, David and Charles, are worth an estimated $35 billion. Yet they seem to feel as though society has treated them unfairly.
As Jane Mayer pointed out in her celebrated New Yorker article, “The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry — especially environmental regulation.” (A good hard look at their air-pollution record would make you sick.)
Got that? Because the Koch brothers are wealthy and libertarian we have had no pollution standards in this country.
AND this Marxist has a bridge he'd like to sell you.
I'm sorry, but what planet is this person writing about? Because it isn't the one I live on. Last time I checked libertarians have held a majority position in the government of the United States for exactly zero days. This guy is seriously pissed off because in this country as presently constituted people are allowed to have a different conception of politics than he has. AND they are allowed to advocate for their vision! Oh. My. God. How can democracy survive?!?
Oh, wait a second. People with differing conceptions of the good competing for power via elections. Actually, that doesn't sound like a threat to democracy. It sounds like democracy in action.
Hey. Are you a little guy? Do you want to have influence and be heard in the political world? Well, there is an avenue open to you. An avenue almost entirely devoid of scary things like "corporate money." Its called local politics. You know, those elections with ludicrously low voter turnout rates? They actually make up a large part of our democratic process. What's that? You are not all that interested? What is wrong with you? Do you hate democracy or something!? Oh, I see. You simply do not see how it really benefits you to be involved in that way and, besides, Jon Stewart rarely mentions local politics on his show. That's cool. Just remember its there if you ever need it.
Look, do immensely wealthy people have an easier time of it than you or I? Absolutely. Do they enjoy more influence? They sure do. Has there ever been a day in the history of the world when this was not true? No, there hasn't. So what do you call this state of affairs? I call it "life."
Our revolutionary continued:
I had lunch with the historian Howard Zinn just a few weeks before he died in January 2010....
I'm sure you did. I can hear your battle cry ringing in my ears.....
Viva la stupidité!
No comments:
Post a Comment