While the term 'democracy' and it's innate meaning may be quite vague, misinterpreted and in most cases is never truly applied in regards to it's actual meaning, there are certain indicators that point to whether or not a country is indeed 'democratic' or not. Such things as freedom of press, freedom of speech, free fair and frequent elections, inclusion of all adults in the political process and so on. Freedomhouse.org will rate America as being number 1 among the democracies of the world, apparently being the most 'democratic' society in the world; it's no wonder, considering Freedomhouse works from and for the U.S.. But when you look at the statistics, the actual core and fundamental values that a functional 'democracy' is comprised of, America should probably be somewhere a little bit lower on that list.
In recent months there have been many anti-democratic forces that have sprouted up out of our democratic processes (ironic, we know). The Republican's incessant and often hostile use of the filibuster in the health care debates remains as one way to stifle legislative progress, hence democratic process. The Tea Party's rise to stardom off the catchy but flawed ideology of 'smaller government, lower taxes!' came from our democratic freedoms of associational organization and the forming of independent political parties but they instead use that power to hold our government hostage, belittle other points of view, and push theirs and only their form of 'compromise' onto everybody else. Fox News is working slowly to destroy this idea of freedom of press, by airing non stop attacks on impartial and unbiased media such as PBS and PBR in an attempt to control the means of communication in this country, effectively destroying ethical journalism and alternative sources of information for the average American. Attempts by the Republicans to require citizens to present a valid driver's license, their attacks on the 14th amendment and their ostracizing of Muslim Americans are all in effect changing the meaning of who is an American and who is not.
We can't stand for any of the above. This is America, and here in America we were born to accept all political views, all races, all creeds, all religions, all ideas and come to compromise from those different views and cultures. We as Americans must stand up for the weak, must fight against tyranny, and must ask the question; why is it that no other viewpoint can be as heavily weighed in our government except their viewpoint?
Now this brings us back to our original question; what is democracy? What does it mean to live in a democratic society? What are the facets, the processes, the inner workings that make a country's government democratic or not? While there is no definitive answer to this question and there is no example of a perfectly consolidated democracy until this point in time, we must study, research, and come to a conclusion based on theory and facts into what would be necessary for a country to be truly 'democratic'.
Robert Dahl, one of the leading researchers on this idea of democracy has outlined some key elements to what a democracy is, and for this purpose I believe it is very relevant to cite his views on democracy for purpose of this protest. His unprecedented ideas of democracy and clear, simple and concise points make it easy to see how our country which claims to be the example and beholder of democracy to nations everywhere, isn't really living up to the standard it claims to be. Below I will cite the 5 key points to what a democracy is. Then I will detail the elements and forces that are working towards, or have already eroded our democracy. It's a slippery slope, and we must dig our feet into the ground before we slide too far down for us to climb our way out of this undemocratic ditch.
1. Effective Participation
2. Voting Equality
3. Enlightened Understanding
4. Inclusion of all Adults
5. Control of the Agenda
Now you may be saying to yourself, wow those are pretty clear cut and understandable. Thank you Protest for Democracy! But for those of us who still don't understand the implicit meaning behind these ideas, we will outline them below, then give our reasoning as to how our country is slowly being driven away from these key elements of democracy.
1. Effective Participation
-Before a policy can be adopted and enacted, ALL members must have equal and effective opportunities for making their views be known
Protest for Democracy's assessment?
-Anti-progress movements like the Tea Party have successfully dismantled this notion of 'effective participation'. The only effective participation they value is their own, as they have ostracized, ridiculed and belittled other voices who don't sympathize with their views. The educated policy analyst are now the "Elitists", the liberals/democrats are "Socialists bent on invading your livelihood", and apparently any other person's opinion out there besides the conservative opinion is there to deceive and manipulate you. Ironic huh? They have time and time again proved their disdain for compromise and are seeking to rip apart fundamental values and institutions piece by piece with no regard to anybody else's point of view. This is a contradiction to our democratic process, as all sides are entitled to their view and have effective participation and not one side's view should be taken more 'seriously' or 'smarter' than the other. We're all in this together; not just you 'real' American 'patriots'.
2. Voting Equality
-When the moment arrives at which the decision about policy will finally be made, every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal.
What does the Protest for Democracy have to say about this?
-This facet of our democracy is under siege by powerful and influential forces, and we're not talking about at the polls. We're talking about the sway and power money has in our government by corporate and special interest groups. Our power to control our political process is limited to the election cycle- in between then millions upon millions of dollars are thrown at the individuals we elected to serve us in an effort for those same individuals to instead protect them. For too long has our Congress been controlled by these dubious and self interested businessmen who seek to make a profit at the expense of our health care, our environment, our education, and even our country's economic stability. We may be equal in votes election time, but in between then it's a whole different story. Politicians are bought and sold quicker than an auction on a newly found and priceless Picasso painting. It's now even protected by the Supreme Court's decision of non-disclosure for corporations, allowing waves of unchecked, unseen, and unmarked cash to flow into these politicians coffers. This is an assault on our political reach and a massive win for private industries who aim to oppress.
They're even working on talking away voting equality among members of our own Congress! The Super Committee attests to this limitation of democratic processes our own Congress has signed off on. In Newt Gingrich's words, "The idea that 523 senators and congressmen are going to sit around for four months while 12 brilliant people, mostly picked for political reasons, are going to sit in some room and brilliantly come up with a trillion dollars, or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting a tax increase, is irrational.". Now while we may have our own opinion on the corrupt, morally inept and politically motivated working of Mr. Gingrich, he does have a point. We're slowly eroding our Congress's democratic powers in favor of deferring to an oligarch-like system of supposed 'experts'. This must stop before it begins, and it won't happen by being passive about it.
-Enlightened Understanding
-Within reasonable limits as to time, each member must have equal and effective opportunities for learning about the relevant alternative policies and their likely consequences
This is a big one for us here at the Protest for Democracy... And how does it go?
-Rupert Murdoch's media empire, the Republicans and the Tea Party movement are opposed to this at all cost. Since the 70's the Republicans have worked on this anti-media campaign, effectively demonizing all other points of view as the 'liberal media's point of view'. They aim to delegitimize any and all other sources of valuable information to consolidate and validate their own. They constantly push this idea of the 'liberal media' to make it seem as if all other forms of communication are biased and are working to manipulate you. Ironic, Part Duex, huh? This in turn leaves them and only them to be the self proclaimed 'balancer' of the propaganda filled media market. They are the only truth, and if you found it out somewhere else, it was probably a lie. This unsubstantiated and fanatic paranoia drives right wing conspiracy junkies into a craze and ultimately undermines the general media's attempts to bring us factual information. Rational studies and impartial research are now 'invalid' because it was brought to you by somebody other than Fox News.
This is crippling our ability to enlighten people on the serious and detrimental effects of their proposed policies. They then re-write history in an attempt to mark the past failures of conservative economic policies such as deregulation and the Bush Tax Cuts. Stifling enlightenment has in effect created a mass movement based on false premises and catchy taglines. There is no room in their agenda for other view points, as all other view points have been discredited through a vicious campaign of fear mongering, propaganda, and downright misleading information.
The right wing's attempts at taking away funding from impartial media organizations like PBR and PBS attest to their goals of monopolizing the information market. Their attempts at gutting Planned Parenthood, the number one provider of sex education, contraceptive distribution and women's health needs is a part of a larger social agenda to control the public's education on health and sex issues. This is unacceptable as independent and un-politically motivated institutions that seek only to better and educate for the greater good are losing ground to tyrannical forces that seek only to control what you do, and what you do not know.
To compound this lack of enlightened understand, the mainstream media hardly touches on the serious social and political dilemmas of our country and abroad. There are more in depth reports on celebrity-like personas of politicians than there are on our serious education problem, our crumbling infrastructure, and social justice issues. Examples; Why is it that 1 in 10 African American males are in jail or prison right now? Why do we have the largest portion of our population currently in our prison system than any other industrialized nation in the world? Why is it that Corporate welfare which greatly exceeds that of private citizen's welfare is hardly reported on, meanwhile the poor are demonized for their 'parasitic' like effect on the government? Why do we allow the military, corporations, and other special interest groups decide whether or not they get cuts in federal aid/spending with no oversight or deliberation? Why do we allow corporations to hire their own paid regulators and not have the inspections done by independently, impartial and unbiased publicly funded organizations? Why is it socially acceptable to discriminate against people of color who are naturalized or inducted citizens through means of attacking the 14 amendment, or a community's right to build a mosque? Why are their still huge monopolies on industries that are just under a different name like 'parent' or 'umbrella' corporations? Why is it that Iran hates us when we were on rocky but good terms with them even post 9/11? Somebody ask President Bush that question.
This country has some deeply embedded issues that need to be tackled but aren't due to the lack of demand from the average American. This combined with the incessant assault on the bridge between enlightened understanding and the American public by Murdoch's media empire and all those that sympathize with his cause create the perfect storm for lack of knowledge, apprehension of politics, and the distrust of government and media.
4. Inclusion of all Adults
-All or at any rate most, adult permanent residents should have the full rights of citizens that are implied by the criteria outlined above.
Protest for Democracy says......
-While we do currently allow every citizen in this country equal access to our political process, it seems if Republicans get their way, it may only be property owners like the good ol' days! That's right, Republican house members are working to disqualify many Americans as legal voters/citizens. A recent proposal by house members would effectively strip away the right to vote to so many Americans by requiring them to present a valid driver's license at the polls. This comes after an exaggerated propaganda filled campaign against voter fraud that is hardly on the scale to have this proposal seem rational and an equivocal response. This policy would eliminate millions of Americans, particularly people residing in urban areas, the lower class, immigrants, students, and those who choose not to drive. This is the objective- to eliminate these potentially useful voters in a means to eliminate a core base for the opposing party, you know, the one party that fights for this huge portion of America.
This is the erosion of our democracy, the assault on different opinions, and the quest for control our government through subversive means. The calls for altering the 14th amendment to disallow those born in this country to become naturalized citizens is appalling, and another way to eliminate minority's influence and inclusion in our democratic process.
5. Control of the Agenda
-The members must have the exclusive opportunity to decide how and, if they choose, what matters are to be placed on the agenda. Thus the democratic process required by the preceding criteria is never closed. The politics of the association are always open to change by members, if they so choose.
-What does Protest for Democracy perceive you so inquire?
-As citizens we are entitled to little if any of that. Our control is limited to referendums, elections and some basic organizational rights at the local level. This pales in comparison to the extent of control that the wealthy few, corporations and special interests have in determining our country's future. The non-disclosure act by the Supreme Court attests not only to the power these few have over our leaders, it now actually protects that influence. We must let it be known that it is us that have the right to control the policies of our government, not the minority of wealthy business entities and nameless donors.
The Tea Party has also helped to destroy this notion, by effectively drawing a line in the sand and saying 'my way or the highway'. I'm sorry, when Dahl said 'control of the agenda', he didn't mean by one single idea, group, or ideology; he meant by all of us, as we are all Americans here. This is vital if we want to pull ourselves out of this economic and political ditch, we must come together and help steer our country away from disaster, and that can only happen if we do it together.
These are the simple, yet essential elements of a democratic organization. Robert Dahl's intellect and prowess in this field are unmatched, and I believe that many can not disagree with his views on what makes up a democracy. There are some very powerful forces who while may either be independent of each other or are subliminally working together, are in essence seeking to dismantle the very fundamentals of what it means to be a democracy. Our country is supposed to be the beacon, the example, the shining city on a hill for other countries to look up to. Instead, we've let our freedoms and our rights go to our heads, and have given way to tyrannical and uninformed forces that know nothing of what democracy is, and what this country stands for. This country stands for all of us, for all Americans, whether white, black, asian, brown, christian, muslim, jewish, gay, any and all in between have to have their voices be heard, not just the white, wealthy older crowd which have ran this country for centuries. It's time to share the power. It's time to say enough is enough, and bring democracy to our political process.
