We Are Running Low On Democracy, High On Stress
Our votes seem predicated on the perceivable value rather than the observable fairness of our democratic system. When you redefine democracy in this way you vitiate democratic principles, much like a failure to observe the maintenance of the engine in our vehicles, we are thus driving democracy into the ground. We are at a low in our politics and in our evolutionary drive towards life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I urge Americans to check your democracy!
America operates on a intricate legislative system that grind out policies. The democratic system and its machinery endeavors to pragmatically serve the populace it represents through prudent governance for the survivability of the republic. This governance is contemplated through formalized debate and rational deliberation — a lack of this democracy which acts like the grease or oil in the machinery. When it stalls or breakdowns so does the American spirit. When that oil or grease doesn’t sufficiently get to lubricate all the gears the friction or the conflict that builds up can cause the democratic engine to sputter and fail.
We should be mindful that this democracy, or the application of sufficient debate and rational deliberation works to reduce the friction between our mutual social contact operating to maintain and sustain social cohesiveness. In many instances there has been a lack of sufficient debate and deliberation to keep that engine humming — in the preservation of life and liberty. Instead there are knocks and pings leading to intermittent breakdowns along our journey — in the pursuit of happiness.
Perceived value is subjectively perverse in its utility, attitude, and motive. It is the instigator of mistaken beliefs. What is the perceivable value in casting a vote for Donald Trump as president of the United States or in his continued support thereof knowing that his…
- Character flaws include
* conspicuous lying
* bad temperament
* lack of decorum
* narcissism - Incompetence as a leader
* poor judgement
* lack of humility
* no empathy
* narcissism
How do you reconcile this?
These are not merely opinions, they are factual by observation and these attributes are clear to the public eye and in the public record. The result of which poorly translates into a presidential pick in Donald Trump. The society’s spectacle of a tough talking, political outsider, whose alleged business successes tendentiously confer imagined successes for the interest of the country: national security; trade policies; foreign affairs; and bottomline initiatives for government administration of wide ranging and consequential policies ranging from health, education, immigration, budget spending, and the national economy.
As forewarned and detailed in the famed theorist Guy Debord theses excerpted below from The Society of The Spectacle.
The campaign proposals and promises to “drain the swamp” as it turns out are misguided attempts in protest of political correctness and are the subsequent promotion of white nationalism at the expense of ethnic groups deemed either job stealers, reverse racists, ‘bad hombres’, or Muslim terrorists. This is the perceived value in casting a vote for Donald Trump, unfortunately.
When noticeably called out on these misrepresentations, the defensive stances and posturing becomes a display of willful ignorance by Trump, his supporters or by his flunkies in showcasing the emperor’s new clothes put out daily. The absence of truth is quite evident in this White House administration, yet there is an overflow to the benefit of the doubt being bestowed and spilt, due to the perceived value of sociopolitical capital captured, not earned.
Viewing democracy as a transactional exercise is not a view of democracy at all. As an acclaimed businessman, President Trump perpetuates a prowess in unconscionable dealing and is using the presidency, and the full faith and credit of the U.S. as the ultimate bargaining power (a bully pulpit), which is contrary to good conscience and done in bad faith. When such conduct results in unpredictability we run enormus risk to our livelihoods. Various parties have fallen prey to their own motivated ignorance (within the caucus of majorities and minorities) whom are intrinsicly involved will both wittingly and unwittingly lose in ‘the art of the deal’ being professed because of the undue and wayward influence exerted upon them.
The proffering of this ideology is being played out in the many unconventional appointments of Wall Street tycoons at the head of government administrations. Inevitably, the sociopolitical price contemplated and paid to build a wall, discriminate based on religion via immigration policies, to disrupt long-standing trade agreements, follow protectionist pursuits, to ensure selective healthcare policies that negatively and disproportionately affect the poor by overly benefiting the rich are actually bad business for the United States. The incompetence of such leadership and their neofacist attempts are void of any serious debate and deliberation, and is a marked indicator of a democracy running low on sound democratic principles.
The 2016 national elections is indicative of a breakdown in our democracy which is analogous to that of a regularly scheduled oil change that in this instance has been replaced with a sludge filled alternative. A very corrosive constituency has developed during the Obama administration that has decidedly become an implausible substitute that threatens the engine of democracy. Its failure in this instance does not protect the many moving parts and contacts within our society. The infrastructure that motivates and inspires our society by advancing the nation’s interests can grind it to a screeching halt with false starts and sudden stops.
A proverbial black smoke billows from our government.
On the other hand, a representation of observable fairness that protects and assures our humanistic progressions for the republic never presented itself, instead it was obscured by blanket statements and completely awash with shameful distractions, a proverbial black smoke billows from our government now. The belief insensitivites of the motivationally ignorant prevailed.
Observable fairness is the result of sound democratic procedures. The resulting outcomes that address any reformation required by citizens with the enforcement carried out by government institutions in serving its citizenry with respect to equality. For example, if we are to address
- Inconsistencies with our judicial systems
- Ameliorating the remnants or the propagated patterns of class, race, age, and gender discrimination. In other words eliminate segregation induced by various private and public institutions
- Taxation and entitlement, all of which contribute to growing inequality in varying degrees, we must first debate and deliberate over proposed solutions, if at all, this is seen as a priority.
The second step is enabling everyone in the populace to cast a vote that actually counts. A pernicious act that stands in the way of making every vote count is gerrymandering. Gerrymandering by the two party system has cast aspersions on the democratic process. Oftentimes you are unaware that the redistricting has taken place. This a flagrant disregard for democracy that puts us in reverse, not forward.
We should fix this. We all need to get out and push for democracy. The Los Angeles Times has a good suggestion in rightfully exclaiming that “everybody has a role to play in this drama”.
Or else our government will come crashing down with irreparable damages from a burning democracy.
