America Less of a Democracy Every Day...

[fatty]

Originally Posted by ASWnut101

...we can abolish an abusive form of government at any time if our personal security, liberty, and freedom rights were neglected in any form. Throughout the years (and I'm talking over the past 15 or so), our government has insated laws and regulations that restrict our freedoms, has very recently stopped listening to the voters (you and me, fellow Americans) in an attempt to expose a subjected theory that the 43rd president (GWB) had illegally fired members of the supreme court, which was never the voter's intentions or of their knowledge. We have a supreme-court that has pushed unconstatutional laws that directly affect the lives of the voters (again, you and me). We have had our government let an overpower (the United Nations) who attempts to push many unconstatutional laws, such as the Kyoto Protocol, which the people of the United States have absolutaly no control over. We have had lawyers who pushed laws and amendments that favor one group of people and disregard the rest.

Of course, in theory, politicians are to be held accountable for their actions in office at polling time. Sadly that's not how things work out. Federal voter turnout is pretty low in the US. Vote-buying patronage seems to be commonplace. And as Hitler said, "what luck for rulers that men don't think" - IMHO not many voters really seem to understand the gravity of these kinds of issues. I recently read Democracy in America which had other interesting critiques about the American system which you can look up if you want.

But what can be done? Should America do away with representative/liberal democracy and just have a referendum on every issue? That worked in the Greek polis, but America is 300 million strong.

I chuckled when Neal blamed the problem on "fast food" but I think there's a point there. Pardon me if this seems offensive in anyway, but look at the direction of American culture; on a given Tuesday night, about 30 million people are tuning into American Idol. That's one tenth of the population in one single hour parked in front of their TVs. A huge number. Nevermind all of the other trashy shows on that week, or those substituting scarfing down a Big Mac in the place of insightful dinner table discussion. There is no appreciation for what goes on outside the city limits unless it's got enormous cleavage or you can send a text message to it.

And this disillusionment with politics seems to perpetuate itself. As more people tune in to Maury instead of CNN/MSNBC/whatever, the more things officials can get away with, and the more reason to become ignorant of what seems to be an essentially futile and helpless situation.

I'm no expert but I would prescribe serious education to children about the importance of political involvement. Not just "blah blah blah we're the free-est country and democracy is great" but really hammer into their heads that if you don't use it, you will lose it.

EDIT: The news outlets themselves have some blame in this too. Every night I have got into bed to wind down and watch the news there has always, without fail, been some form of coverage of Anna Nicole Smith. No real news, just interviews with coroners etc. Kind of depressing.