Part 2: Test for Yourself if You Live in a Democracy
August 28, 2007
Test for yourself if you live in a Democracy based on republican principles:
Can you and your fellow citizens easily replace your town, county or state workers and teachers just because it suits the electorate?
Democracy does not guarantee employment for any citizen - it guarantees that the will of the people is to be served. Public employees of any type who cannot be removed or replaced with ease are one of the simplest signs that one is not living in a Democracy. If you can't easily replace government workers, you don't live in a Democracy.
Can you easily replace your elected officials?
The more complicated and difficult it is to remove an elected official the further a society has moved from democracy. Being elected to public office is not like winning a lottery where the winner gets to keep the prize no matter what. If you can't replace your elected official with little effort other than a majority desiring to, you don't live in a democracy.
Can you replace elected officials who did not do what they promised to do?
If your elected official made promises they did not keep, they either lied to get elected or are not competent and unsuited to hold office. Competent people do not make promises to do things they have no idea they can do. If you can't replace your elected official when they fail to deliver on their promises with little effort other than a majority desiring to, you don't live in a democracy.
Can you get a full accounting from your town, county, state or federal government office of all of the assets purchased and the current inventory?
What was paid for each item, the invoice for the item, where and when the items were delivered, who used the items, the associated costs of using the inventory and what purpose the item serves? Can you review the general ledger, time sheets and invoices of your town, county, state or country? If you can't get these simple questions answered, you don't live in a democracy.
Are any of your town, county, state or federal workers tenured?
Government workers have employment based on the pleasure of the people. Tenure creates an unnatural relationship where the citizens cannot end their relationship with a specific worker or group of government workers. This type of employment is at the citizen's expense and when you have a tenure system, you don't live in a democracy.
Can you get a straight answer from your elected officials?
Elected officials work for the citizens. When it is possible for elected officials to get away with being anything less than forthright, you don't live in a democracy.
Do the majority of citizens in your area want smoking banned and is it?
If the majority wants it banned and it's not, you don't live in a democracy.
When was the last time you were either at your Senator's or Congressman's house or he was at yours?
If you cannot socialize with your elected representatives or socialize with people who have direct contact with them because your elected representatives only socialize with campaign contributors that means you have no idea who he is. This means he does not know you and can't possibility know your values and concerns and you don't live in a democracy.
Do the citizens where you live hire and fire, set the work hours, and control what work your government workers do in your town, county, state, and country?
If the citizens can't you don't live in a democracy.
Are Judges chosen from the general population or do they have to be politically connected lawyers?
Judges should be selected based on the clarity of their minds and the fairness of their actions not based on whom they know and support politically. If your Judges are politically connected lawyers, you don't live in a democracy.
Can an average citizen read and understand the laws of their town, county, state or country?
Laws that are poorly written or designed to confuse an average citizen where one needs a legal consultant who is versed in convoluted language are not laws - they are deceptions. If the citizen can not depend on his own faculties and does not understand what is being controlled by the law in his town, county, state or country, he has no way of deciding who or what to vote for. If an average citizen can't understand the laws by reading them you don't live in a democracy.
Do your elected officials intercede for you and your business interests without you making a campaign contribution or you doing something for them in exchange?
Elected officials' whole function is to intercede on the behalf of their constituents. If they don't or won't intercede on your behalf and are interceding for people and businesses who make campaign contributions you don't live in a democracy.
Can the citizens in your town, county, state and country reduce their taxes because they want to?
If the citizens want lower taxes and the taxes are not lowered, they have representatives who do not represent them. And you don't live in a democracy.
Do the citizens in your town, county, state and country decide how the tax dollars are spent?
If the citizens are not directing how the tax dollars are spent you don't live in a democracy.
Do you live in a town, county, state or country where the government bodies meet and pass resolutions in closed sessions where it is cited that the matter is personal, contractual, legal, client attorney privilege or sensitive information?
When the public is involved in a democracy the public has the right to know everything in real time. If they don't they have no way of knowing if their best interests are being looked after and have no way of supervising both the elected officials and the public employees. The elected official's only role is to represent the citizens and not keep secrets. The privacy rights of public employees or some other party are never superior to the public's right to know what is going on in their government. The only exception is when national security or criminal investigations are involved and then only when it would do harm to the citizens for the information to become widely known as it could be used as an advantage by either criminals or a foreign power. If the citizens don't know what is going on within their government they don't live in a democracy.
Do special police issued cards and medallions get different citizens different treatment in how the laws are enforced?
Unequal enforcement of the laws by the police, based on who you are or who you know, is a hallmark of a police state. If you have unequal enforcement of the laws you don't live in a democracy.
Have people in your town, county, state and country created private police forces and militias?
Private security forces run by citizens threaten democracy. They are not sanctioned by the citizens to have police powers. Private security forces are dangerous whenever they act in an offensive fashion because they usurp the police and undermine their authority, and they work outside of the criminal justice system. Private militias, known in America as gangs, have taken to arming themselves and creating their own street justice system as the government criminal justice system has failed them. These militia members live by rules that are anti-police, anti-democratic and are a grave danger. They are the beginnings of a citizen formed military within society that disregard the rule of law and at anytime can strike out at any citizen with deadly impunity. When citizens no longer feel safe because they feel that the criminal justice system is not responsive to their needs and form their own private security forces, you don't live in a democracy.
Are the law-abiding citizens afraid of the police in your town, county, state or country?
It is the primary responsibility of the police to convince the citizens through their actions everyday that criminals should fear apprehension and being turned over to the criminal justice system for fair judgment and punishment if found guilty. Their only function is to humanely and fairly enforce the laws set down by society. When the police become the punishers of the citizens, you don't live in a democracy.
Do you live in a place where government programs have failed but you can't stop them?
Once the citizens loose control of how government works you don't live in a democracy.
Can you stop development and control it in your town, county, state and country?
Control of the land and how it is used is one of the most basic functions of government. Once control of the land is lost so is human determination and you don't live in a democracy.
Are your votes counted publicly and audited so any citizen can participate?
Citizens voting and those votes being counted in such a way that every citizen knows that the count is fair and true, is the hallmark of democracy. When the vote isn't counted publicly and audited so any citizen can participate, you don't live in a democracy.
Do your elected officials seek other offices and campaign for those offices instead of representing the citizens who elected them?
When an elected official abandons their post for any reason; whether to run for higher office, sickness, another job or laziness and the electorate cannot easily replace the elected official, the citizens are no longer being represented. With no representation the citizens are open to many dangers and are at a disadvantage to all other citizens who still have representation. If your elected officials have abandoned their post, you are not living in a democracy.
Do men earn more money than women for the same type of employment?
When there is a disparity in compensation against the will of the working women and they desire parity and can't achieve it, you don't live in a democracy.
Do you actively participate in democracy?
If democracy is available to you and you don't participate, you have chosen to have no self-determination. By default you don't live in a democracy. You have forgone the honor of living as a free man or woman. The highest disgrace a human being can experience is to impose on oneself any form of slavery.
If one has the expectation of living in a democracy and being free - one must first represent oneself by participating in democracy, no other will stand for each individual.
To represent means to stand or act in the place of, as a substitute to act for or in behalf of by deputed right in exercising a voice in legislation or government NOT to control and decide what the citizens should know and how they should think.
