Isn't it great living in the United States of America? I certainly think so, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to write my column here every week. But make no mistake about it - we are losing the very foundation of what makes America great with each passing day. The worst part about this phenomenon is that we, as citizens, should be held accountable.
We may very well soon lose the freedom of expression, given the way that mayor Michael Bloomberg acted against the protesters and the media covering them. We have lost all our rights to privacy, given the way the Legislative Branch of our country has taken away our ability to sound off without that conversation being screened for keywords the government deems inappropriate. And now we are losing the foundation of unjust imprisonment without cause, the Habeas Corpus, which our wonderful government believes should be suspended. If this proposition goes through, anyone may be imprisoned and held without just cause. Yes, we are one step away from becoming a police state - the United Socialist Republics of America. Given all of rights that are taken away from us, we are headed towards a society that ultimately will be transformed into a dictatorship.
So how did the government obtain the ability to rule with an iron fist? The answer is voter apathy. More specifically, the answer is a gradual degradation of personal freedom, elected official limitations and the significance of your vote - facilitated by voter apathy. All of this happened, while the voting public at large remained blissfully ignorant. Ever since the forefathers of our country drew up the Constitution, every elected official has been trying to "game the system" and circumvent the underlying principles by claiming they were bringing forth an "improvement". As a result, we now have elected incompetent career politicians, who can take a "secret vote" in Congress so that their constituents can't even hold them accountable for the miscarriage of justice!
The majority of Americans simply believe that their vote counts for nothing. This fact has become a very destructive factor in the process of electing public officials. Let's look at the reasons why - electoral colleges and the two party system.
Electoral colleges disregard the popular vote, where my one vote in New Jersey is equal to someone's vote in Wyoming. Instead, Electoral colleges weigh the complete popular vote of a state with an assigned nominal value that is given to that state's winning party. This "homogenized" nominal value is why majority of individuals don't even bother showing up to vote. For example - I live in a very Democrat-dominated state and chances are most national elections will have New Jersey's nominal votes go to a Democratic candidate. As a result, many non-Democrats never bother showing up voting due to the belief that their vote will not be enough to overtake the Democratic majority. On the other side, many Democrats also don't show up to vote, because they believe there are enough Democrats to make the majority a winner every time without their vote.
The two party system stigmatizes and squeezes the middle class, making the largest segment of the United States' population feel ambivalent towards voting. If it were up to me, there would be no political parties whatsoever. A political party is a drug for the ignorant - a way to vote for a broad ideology that provides no real solutions, just feel-good monikers and slogans which get their party candidates elected instead. Let's take a look at the facts - we currently have a two-party system, where the vast majority of elected officials are either Democrats (who appeal to the lower class, the have-nots) and the Republicans (who appeal to the wealthy and the corporate). Both parties are raping the United States of America through entitlements. The Democrats are trying to take tax dollars and spend it on education, unemployment, tax breaks and free healthcare for the lower classes. The Republicans are trying to provide tax preferential treatment to corporations and upper class, spending wildly on defense, repeal anti-trust laws, and sell out American jobs overseas. Both Democrats and Republicans demolish the national budget. But who pays for these entitlements (corporate and individual)? Why it's the middle class, of course! The wealthy and Corporate hardly ever pay the taxes they actually must according to the tax code, while the lower class can't pay what it doesn't have. That leaves the middle class to foot the bill for politicians' irresponsible, and mostly irrelevant, promises. This results in the weakening of the middle class and, ultimately, the economy which depends upon it.
Had the voting America actually gotten together and lobbied the government for the abolition of the Electoral colleges and political parties, we may actually have candidates worth voting for, instead of some talking figure that must abide by the party ideology.
The United States of America is a Polyarchy state. Since we are very young, we are taught that America is the land of Democracy. That is simply false, because in a true Democracy every vote is counted equally, regardless of which part of the country it comes from. Furthermore, in a true Democracy there are no elected officials, as the people decide by a popular vote on every issue. In a Polyarchy, you have the elite few making decisions for the public. Therefore, United States of America is a Polyarchy state, where the power is being withdrawn from the people with each passing day.
Benjamin Franklin was once asked: "...shall we have a Monarchy or a Republic?"
To which he replied: "A Republic, if you can keep it."
...and we haven't been very good about keeping it.
