Americans don't believe in democracy anymore.

[dfgrbac]

It seems Americans don't believe in the value of democracy anymore. I don't know what schools teach about democracy today, but when I went to school we were taught that it is the core basis of our political system. We were taught that when we grew up, we had a rather large responsibility as citizens of this great country to influence and guide its future, not only for our benefit but also our children's benefit. This concept seems to have been replaced with the idea that we are no longer citizens, but consumers who drive the American economy. Other than that, most of us take little responsibility for what is happening through the actions of our government.

Although our Constitution makes these actions illegal, our government has done the following:

1.Handed responsibility for monetary policy over to private banks – the Federal Reserve system – essentially surrendering the nation's wealth.
2.Attacked other nations unprovoked.
3.Ignored the Bill of Rights (the first 10 Constitutional Amendments) which were created to protect American citizens.
4.Installed non-verifiable voting machines making election results extremely questionable.
5.Undermined the functions of Congress to such an extent that almost nothing gets done, while relinquishing power to the Executive Branch.
6.The Supreme Court was to keep its hands off state elections, but it didn't.
7.And more – you could probably add some.

With all this going on, American citizens have been amazingly quiet. After what amounts to a slow coup d’etat, Americans mostly continue on with their own private lives – except for a relatively small vocal minority.

Frankly, I don't get it! How can we not do something as a patriotic nation about these abuses to our Constitution and to ourselves?

Some of us still try joining protest marches and writing letters or calling our representatives in Washington, but except for very small successes here and there, our efforts are ignored. The same can be said for electing new representatives, with little change in direction. The drift towards total corporate control of government (in other words, fascism) continues. This in spite of many knowledgeable authors and whistleblowers publishing books and articles warning about this trend. (If you're not up on this, I can supply references.) Even President Eisenhower (a Republican) warned us in his parting address to the nation half a century ago. Listening to him now – his insight was remarkable!

No, we Americans are not exercising our citizenship with any significant impact! And we seem to have forgotten that continued freedom requires democracy. Any ruling elite will not guarantee that!

If we study American history, it is obvious that electing new representatives will not change anything for long. The big money interests will always prevail. Check this and other related YouTube videos of Professor Richard Wolff.

So, if we cannot get democracy through representatives, how do we get it?

Former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel has spent much of his life trying to empower American citizens against what President Eisenhower warned us about. After decades, Gravel's work (along with many others) has culminated in the National Initiative for Democracy. By enacting this legislation, we can protect ourselves against the approaching fascism. No one can protect us – except us!

But as I mentioned before, Americans seem to have forgotten the value and the necessity of democracy. The rising propaganda of the military-industrial complex and its media have been successful in changing our view of democracy.

Recent research, however, has shown that group collective intelligence often exceeds that of the individuals in the group. This is confirmation that democracy does have value for problem solving. And the good news is that our society has large resources of experts in all fields who already know the solutions we need. The problem is that they have no voice in our imperial controlled media and government. Gravel's National Initiative would end this roadblock to solutions. It would create open deliberations of proposed initiatives that would empower our experts while banning corporate influence on these initiative processes. These democratic processes would be implemented at all levels of government from local to national, while preserving the current structure.

I would appreciate a lively discussion by readers of this post on any and all comments.

[social_critic]

1. The US Constitution doesn't provide a unique recipe for democracy

I agree with you the US government has been running all over the Constitution, and most people don't seem to either know or care. But this doesn't necessarily mean they don't support democracy - it just means they aren't all hopped up about the constitution.

The British have a very different system, and they don't even have a Constitution as far as I know, and they have a democracy of sorts which seems to work better than ours. A Constitution is usually created to protect the rights of the minority, but as time goes by, governments tend to ignore it.

I also agree with you, lobbies are too powerful, and there many more than the military industrial complex. Where would you place say Fox News and CNN in the mix? They support the military industrial complex, but are they part of it? What about the Israel Lobby? It seems to fit well with the military industrial complex if it involves war in the Middle East, but it has its own agenda - you won't see an israel lobby member advocating US military intervention unless it involves muslims.

So where do we fit PNAC and its motley crew? What is William Kristol? Israel lobby? Military Industrial Lobby? Imperial lobby? Or all of the above? Any of these groups will of course gladly support trampling over the constitution and our democratic traditions as long as they get their way. Maybe what we need is a different type of democracy, where these special interests have less power. Let me go to the drawing board and I'll see you in a few years...

[dfgrbac]

2. Not unique, but allows for it.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments reserve ultimate power to the people. That essentially means we can do whatever we feel is necessary to keep our country. The founders certainly could not predict the problems we have in this future.

I think most Americans simply believe we have democracy (since our government and the media keeps saying this), and they assume it is working on their behalf. But to contradict myself, most Americans are also dissatisfied with government. So where does that leave us?

The military-industrial complex has absorbed everything else in one way or another, including the other things you mentioned. Eisenhower predicted it would become all powerful and overwhelm our way of life. This "complex" or Empire has more wealth built in than the rest of human endeavors put together. That's not to say our government is wealthy; our countries wealth has been stolen by the "complex" and it continues to do so. Israel exists because the Imperial United States wanted a strong ally in the oil rich middle east. But we have created multitudes of problems by doing that. These multinational corporations have all the power, but are beholding to no one except their elite group, and they run our country.