Democracy is under attack in America, and Democracy is losing

Democracy v Plutocracy: Part I
Democracy is under attack in America, and Democracy is losing

America has been challenged again and again across a broad front of human rights issues during the course of our history. Justice has prevailed albeit in incremental steps at each juncture, not because it was our manifest destiny for it to always emerge, but because of our fundamental values. Swords can be beat into plowshares, but freedom is a lot harder to transform. It carries the strength of patriots, the hope of dreamers, and the resolve of a nation. Freedom is our heritage and it rings its truth throughout the world. It helps that we are also a nation of achievers. But achievement is not a virtue that defines us.

Our values are under attack again. This time the outcome is less clear. That is because we have lost our distinction as the world’s beacon for freedom. Denmark, for example, has surpassed us in many ways. Their advances in health care, in education, in low crime rates, low imprisonment rates, and their income and wealth distributions are far more equitable than our own. Many other European nations as well as Japan are outpacing us in many of these same measures. Are they more enlightened than us? Are we too small? Can we not dream? Have we forgotten how to dream? Are life, liberty, and happiness beyond our grasp? Has courage been dropped from the lexicon of our American ideals? Where are the dreamers, the doers, those brave souls who are willing to risk all and reach for the unreachable star?

Perhaps once in every generation there comes a moment, one that can define who we are, why we are here, and what we stand for. It is such moments that challenge our beliefs in ourselves, in our country, and in our God. Has that moment come again? I believe it has. The cause it encloses is just. The consequences of success are crucial. The time is propitious. If we can grasp that moment and define it, perhaps the unreachable star can shine once again for us. But if we let it pass us by, this moment will almost certainly leave us adrift in a sea of despair, and our day will have come and gone. It is fair to ask “What is this moment,” and “are we equal to the challenge it carries?”

Pivotal moments awaken our heritage and tap into our national character. And our character is the stuff that tells everyone who we are, what is important to us, why, and what we are willing to risk to defend the things we value. Put them all together, see them with the clarity of the angels, and we will know we stand at the crossroads of a most propitious moment in history. Now is such a moment. We can define it, or we can let it define us. That is our choice.

Set politics aside and you will find that 80 percent of us agree on our core values. We may never achieve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in their purest forms, but what better values could we have to set as our guiding star? Families, and religion, and schools, and prayer, and love and understanding are all wonderful beliefs, goals and attributes, but aren’t they really a part of the American character, the contents of what we call freedom? Would you put any of them at risk because of apathy? And if not, what are you willing to risk to honor and keep them?

The Emergence of a Plutocracy. Today, others are trying hard to re-define you and me. They want to make us servants to them and to their values. They want to change us to something we are not. What are their values? Condensed to a few words they are greed, money, power, and control. To be more precise, they want us to believe in those values and accept them as our own. Compare them to Thomas Jefferson’s values: equality, life, liberty, happiness. Could any contrast be more vivid, and any choice be made clearer?

Who are these greedy, money hungry power seekers, who want control over you and me? First, let me prove that they exist. The person among us with the most income makes $4 billion per year. That comes to $2 million per hour. He runs a private equity fund. Compare his income to yours. Is he smarter, better looking, more gracious, a better citizen? Hardly. But in order for him to take a lot more means that many others must receive a lot less. He is not alone. Did you know that America’s 7,000 corporate bank CEOs paid themselves $91.1 billion last year in bonuses alone? Those bonuses break down to an average of $13 million for each of them. Did you know that Apple’s CEO received a sign-on bonus of $700 million just for taking his job? More importantly, did you know that every time extravagance on this scale happens, you and I pay for it in lower wages and less income? Add up both columns (the rich and all others) and you have a tally of why the wealthy are so powerfully wealthy, and why 47 million Americans must live in poverty. Simple logic tells us that excessive wealth in the hands of the few is the cause of extreme poverty that must be suffered by the many. That is because all income comes from the same finite pool of money. That cause/effect relationship is as clear as dividing up a pizza. When the slices are gone, there is no more pizza. Who needs to ask why some are hungry? Yet many of the wealthy want you and me to believe that those 47 million Americans are all lazy takers, who can work but won’t, while the wealthy are the job creators. They also oppose health care, unemployment assistance, education assistance, housing assistance and the means for a chance at a life of freedom for those who are forced into poverty because of greed by the few.

Moreover, some (not all) of the wealthy want you and me to believe that they are the truth tellers and people like you and me are the troublemakers. They want our words to be drowned out by an avalanche of lies coming from their stooges on radio, and television, and newspapers and any other medium that they can buy and control. Did you know that 95 percent of all news sources are owned by them?

There was a time when comedians used to say “we have the best Congress that money can buy.” That is no longer a joke. With each passing year more and more legislators in Congress, and in State capitals, even at the local level are having their campaigns for office paid for by the very wealthy. Yes, and even enough members of the Supreme Court, state and national, have been bought by the wealthy. As a result many legislators pass laws, while courts uphold them, that continue to swing power and control to the wealthy. Did you know that “Citizens United” was a major Supreme Court decision that gave a huge advantage to the wealthy in deciding who gets elected to public office?

Across America office holders, law makers, news sources, courts, and corporations are systematically coming under the control of the wealthy. This interlocking web of oppression is growing and growing, while poverty spreads among the land fomenting homelessness, hunger, illiteracy, crime, mental illnesses, disease, drug usage, and social immobility. These are the tentacles of a plutocracy, rule by the wealthy. It is a tyranny, and none of it portends compassion, humanitarianism, or benevolence.

Everyone knows about the sins of commission: e.g., killing, stealing, dishonoring our parents and so forth. But what about the sins of omission: When we do not feed the hungry, nor heal the sick, nor educate our children, nor rebuild our decaying infrastructure of highways, railroads, and bridges, and ignore major issues such as climate change, or the spread of disease, or slavery we are worse than negligent. We are guilty of a lengthy list of sins against ourselves and against our God. When we run and hide from our responsibilities as well as from our core values, we are forsaking our lives, our honor, and our sacred trust.

And so it is fair to ask: Is America still a land of dreamers and doers? Where are the spirits of Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson, of Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry, and all the signers of the Declaration of Independence? What do we promise the legacy of millions of Americans who gave their lives in the cause of justice in the last 238 years? Which memories do we honor? Where are the spokespersons for courage and freedom today? Have we lost our will to fight? Have we lost our way? Or, have we met the enemy and found that “he is us?”

Every school day our children take an oath of allegiance to God and to country that ends with the words “…one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” In practice, are we not teaching them to become mere puppets and slaves for the rich?

It’s our country that is at stake. It’s our liberty that is threatened. We have a choice to make. It is only fitting to recall the actions of Patrick Henry when he shouted his immortal words on March 23, 1775. He was attending the second revolutionary meeting of the Continental Congress held in St. John's church in Richmond, Virginia where he said:

"Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

This essay is deliberately lacking citations showing the actual data, sources and supporting comparisons. The numbers are real and they support the rhetoric. The sources are all genuine. But numbers, and charts, and other data become cumbersome and too often obscure this message: Democracy is under attack in America, and democracy is losing!

Part II will discuss the role of megalomania, the grandiose view of controlling a nation or the world. Its tyrants have three major weapons of choice in their arsenal: a huge cache of money; a massive propaganda mechanism that spews lies; and brute force to defeat, imprison, or kill their opponents.