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The Real Meaning of Democracy
Mar. 25th, 2015 03:00 pmI've watched C-SPAN on and off over the years, more or less for the novelty of it - I'd never have enough time to closely follow every single government proposal I'd care about, besides the fact that by watching it I'm just made to feel even more on the sidelines (and frustrated) than I already do by hearing about budgets and laws after the fact.
What troubles me is the way in which this representative democracy (or REPUBLIC) functions at the very level of the hearings and discussions themselves in the House and Senate. I would expect a real debate out of people who are self-proclaimed masters of government; intellectuals, and highly educated people - former lawyers, professors, doctors - they are, by definition, the most powerful people - those with the highest authority granted to them by the constituency - in the country. I would not expect reading off of sheets of paper, likely written by political science understudies. I would not expect ignoring major points by either opposing political party and instead focusing on either rehearsed or prepared scripts, always to the tune of their given "party line." This is supported by the very rules of the House, for instance - one may not address the former speaker directly when speaking, they MUST address the Speaker of the House. This is not a system which rewards individuals who craft the most powerful, correct and just ideas, proposals, or what-have-you, or counter-arguments on the spot - this is a system that rewards something else entirely. The frightening part is, I'm not sure what that other thing is exactly.
Obviously if facts and statistics fly in the face of, for instance, a suggested republican budget proposal, and the republicans refuse to address those facts and figures, there's a real problem. There's a REAL FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM. There were numerous examples of this over the past two days, but the most striking was the fact that included in their budget are FURTHER TAX BREAKS FOR THE WEALTHIEST 1%. Not only have the Bush-era tax cuts NEVER been done away with, but now we want to give them even more breaks? When all of the facts and figures show we were an incredible industrial and economic powerhouse back when we had a tax rate cap of 90% for the wealthiest in the country, in the early 1900s?
I can't even takes these representatives seriously anymore. They are sub-human, and there's something VERY wrong with their inability to speak the truth. They refuse to accept reality - empirical reality - and instead substitute some kind of warped, solipsistic version of it, likely crafted by their affluent upbringings and complete disconnection from the rest of the working world. The democrats are just as guilty, because their budget proposal doesn't bring us any closer to that early 1900s boom - they will SAY that it is unacceptable the republican party continues to pander to the elite class, but they will not put tax increases in their budget. They're all playing for the same team, I'm afraid - no matter how humanitarian their speeches sound. The democrats simply want to run the deficit up higher and keep all else the same - the republicans want to "balance the budget" but to do so want to cut all manner of social programs, education funding, infrastructure funding, and increasing taxes on the middle class - but still giving even more tax breaks to the wealthy.
In watching the circus, the only word which comes to mind that adequately describes it is "non-functioning." This is a non-functioning democracy. Not necessarily just because of the individuals elected to their offices (and that certainly plays a role) but the very nature of the system itself.
What troubles me is the way in which this representative democracy (or REPUBLIC) functions at the very level of the hearings and discussions themselves in the House and Senate. I would expect a real debate out of people who are self-proclaimed masters of government; intellectuals, and highly educated people - former lawyers, professors, doctors - they are, by definition, the most powerful people - those with the highest authority granted to them by the constituency - in the country. I would not expect reading off of sheets of paper, likely written by political science understudies. I would not expect ignoring major points by either opposing political party and instead focusing on either rehearsed or prepared scripts, always to the tune of their given "party line." This is supported by the very rules of the House, for instance - one may not address the former speaker directly when speaking, they MUST address the Speaker of the House. This is not a system which rewards individuals who craft the most powerful, correct and just ideas, proposals, or what-have-you, or counter-arguments on the spot - this is a system that rewards something else entirely. The frightening part is, I'm not sure what that other thing is exactly.
Obviously if facts and statistics fly in the face of, for instance, a suggested republican budget proposal, and the republicans refuse to address those facts and figures, there's a real problem. There's a REAL FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM. There were numerous examples of this over the past two days, but the most striking was the fact that included in their budget are FURTHER TAX BREAKS FOR THE WEALTHIEST 1%. Not only have the Bush-era tax cuts NEVER been done away with, but now we want to give them even more breaks? When all of the facts and figures show we were an incredible industrial and economic powerhouse back when we had a tax rate cap of 90% for the wealthiest in the country, in the early 1900s?
I can't even takes these representatives seriously anymore. They are sub-human, and there's something VERY wrong with their inability to speak the truth. They refuse to accept reality - empirical reality - and instead substitute some kind of warped, solipsistic version of it, likely crafted by their affluent upbringings and complete disconnection from the rest of the working world. The democrats are just as guilty, because their budget proposal doesn't bring us any closer to that early 1900s boom - they will SAY that it is unacceptable the republican party continues to pander to the elite class, but they will not put tax increases in their budget. They're all playing for the same team, I'm afraid - no matter how humanitarian their speeches sound. The democrats simply want to run the deficit up higher and keep all else the same - the republicans want to "balance the budget" but to do so want to cut all manner of social programs, education funding, infrastructure funding, and increasing taxes on the middle class - but still giving even more tax breaks to the wealthy.
In watching the circus, the only word which comes to mind that adequately describes it is "non-functioning." This is a non-functioning democracy. Not necessarily just because of the individuals elected to their offices (and that certainly plays a role) but the very nature of the system itself.
