By Dustin Axe
Democracy is a form of government where power rests with the people who all have an equal voice in the governing processes. For it to succeed, all men must be seen as equal, and most importantly, all men must be treated as equal. The Founders wrote the words, “all men are created equal,” but they did not truly intend this. Women, slaves, Indians and anyone outside the merchant class were not treated equally or given an equal voice in the government. In fact, Democracy, since its rebirth during the European Enlightenment has been nothing more than convenient way of spreading out power among the rich. During this time, cities grew larger as science and technology improved, and a middle class emerged. More people demanded more power, parliaments grew stronger and Kings grew weaker, until revolutions broke out. Democracy was their answer. It was never meant to free people from an oppressive king or queen, or to hold leaders accountable for their actions. It was merely a convenient way of shifting power from a monarch to a few more wealthy individuals.
Howard Zinn reminds us that the Founders setup a government to protect the interests of merchants, traders, slaveholders, and land owners, to establish law and order, and to prevent rebellion. They did not created a system where power exist with a majority vote; they created a system where power rests with those who have wealth. Sure they established a system of checks and balances so no one person or institution would become too powerful, but they left out the most important element to checks and balance--the people. Real checks and balance exists, not within three branches of government, but with the people checking and balancing the government. The Founders saw this as a threat to their interests, so they created a government that checks the people in order to carry out the interests of the rich. It gave tax cuts to the rich, land to railroad companies, and it used armed forces to displace and kill Indians and Mexicans.
Our founders did not create a democracy, nor did they intend to. The word “democracy” was a bad word in 1776. It does not appear anywhere in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, or any state constitution. In fact, Democracy was not part of our nationhood until the Great War, when Woodrow Wilson vowed to “make the world safe for democracy.” He was using the notion of democracy as propaganda to unite a country, just as George W. Bush is doing ninety years later. Bush justifies an interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East with the claim that “our aim is to build and preserve a community of free and independent nations, with governments that answer to their citizens.” This is nothing more than propaganda used by the ruling class to give everyone a sense of cooperation and togetherness. It gives us a sense of nationality; that we are all in this together. This allows us to see all our interests--those of presidents, multinational corporations, and average Americans--as one and the same. The truth is, when presidents claim to be exporting democracy, whether to Eastern Europe, South East Asia, or to the Middle East, they are actually using it to justifying global military occupation and economic exploitation.
Our own Republic evolved over the course of centuries, how can it be forced onto another country through war? Take the Iraq for an example. Not only will you find no democratic tradition in Iraq, but, with the exception of Turkey, you won't find it anywhere in the Middle East. Democracy engineered by marshal law under these conditions is doomed to fail. Henry Kissinger once said: "Democracy in the West evolved over centuries. It required first a church independent of the state; then the Reformation, which imposed pluralism of religion; the Enlightenment, which asserted the autonomy of reason from both church and state; the Age of Discovery, which broadened horizons; and finally capitalism, with its emphasis on competition and the market. None of these exists in the Islamic world."
The power structure not only uses the idea of democracy as propaganda to create support for wars that benefit the rich, but it also uses it to suppress Americans at home. They give us a false notion that somehow voting will make things better. For example, in 1963 both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations endorsed Martin Luther King and put him at the head of the Civil Rights Movement, because he was advocating nonviolence. By embracing Martin Luther King and his message of passivity, the government was able to channel a violent revolution into a movement that advocated voting rights. Sure enough, thousands of people registered black voters in 1964, and the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. But nothing changed. Voting did not end discrimination, racism, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, or the war in Vietnam. Voting was not a fundamental solution to any problems, and the power structure used it to divert change.
Activist Abbie Hoffman once said, “Democracy is not something you believe in . . . it's something you do.” Unfortunately, Americans believe in democracy, but they do not practice it. It is an abstract concept, floating in the air. No where is it practiced. More people vote for American Idol every week then those who vote for the President. This is partly because they know their American Idol vote will actually count. It is virtually impossible for votes to get counted in a general election because of disenfranchisement, electronic voting machines, confusing ballots, and gerrymandering. And what is one vote out of 330 million? People also don't participate in democracy because they are watching mindless television or rotting their brain with some new electronic device. Not to mention, people are demoralized and indebted and find themselves with every little time to get in the streets.
Additionally, people do not practice Democracy because it is not taught in our schools. History in general is not taught correctly. George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act only holds schools accountable for student productivity on reading and math tests, causing other subjects, such as history, to get shorted. What better way to prevent people from thinking about the present then by keeping them ignorant of the past. Adolf Hitler once said, “What luck for rulers that men do not think.” The power structure knows that an educated populace is hard to govern, so there has been a well orchestrated plan to dumb down the public school system. It is much easier to govern when students are indoctrinated with nationalism, forced to recite allegiances and bow to flags, and taught to be mindless consumers in a world where everyone is equal in their ability consume and waste.
* In theory, if all men were treated equally, all men would have a equal voice in the governing process. In reality, all men are created equal, but not all men are treated equally.
* In theory, if power existed with a majority vote, it would shift power and wealth from the rich to the poor, creating a balanced system that benefits everyone. In reality, power does not exist with a majority vote, because in America, the more dollars you have, the more votes you have. This is a systems where the minority rules.
* In theory, if a government was ran based on a system of checks and balance, no one person or institution would become too powerful. But in America, people forget that real checks and balances lay, not between three branches of government, but between the people checking the government. This is not practiced. In fact, political dissent is shunned.
* In theory, if governments were accountable to their people there would be no war, because people do not wage war. Governments, corporation, and the ruling class wage war.
Democracy does have flaws, as the American system has shown, but I still accept it as a way of solving problems. It seems to be a much better way of enhancing society than war or technology. A situation where individuals sitting around a campfire making decisions based on the needs of the many, rather than the few, would be just. If a small group of people did not agree with the decisions made, then they could vote with their feet; they could simply walk away and start another tribe. This, however, would be impossible today. There are too many borders and fences and just not enough freedom for any dissent. We are stuck with our current system until enough people decided that democracy and a more egalitarian system is worth having.
The best thing about true democracy, according to Harry S. Truman, “is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.” Unfortunately, however, America does not have system where the people can simply point out problems and correct them. If this was the case America would not have an interventionist foreign policy. Current polls suggest that nearly 70 percent of Americans are against the occupation Iraq. Democracy would end this war. Likewise, in 1916, Woodrow Wilson said World War I would have never occurred if democracy was practiced: "I am convinced that only governments initiate such wars as the present, and that they are never brought on by people, and that, therefore, democracy is the best preventive of such jealous and suspicions and secret intrigues as produce wars among nations where small groups control rather than the great body of public opinion."
The problem with democracy is that it gives too much power to too many people. This gives hundreds of people in the ruling class the chance to profit from a system designed for them. Democracy cannot exist outside a small town, and it definitely cannot exist in a country with 330 million people. But was it ever meant to exist in the first place? How can someone actually buy into the false sense of democracy in this country? There is no democracy, and the very idea of democracy is a tool used to suppress us. In reality, we live in a country where the few rule the many. Oligarchies are the most common form of government in history, and it does not have to be a bad thing. But it is bad if we live in an oligarchy and we think we live in a democracy. Democracy is propaganda.
