Part 1: You Never Lived in a Democracy
August 28, 2007
The Great Breach of Democracy
The Democracy we celebrate on July 4th and the Pledge of Allegiance we make to the Republic has not existed in our lifetimes.
The US citizen's influence in society and right to self-government has been slowly diluted for over 100 years. Effective freedom of representation has been diminished and is on the verge of disappearing. The autonomous US citizen lives, as a legend now and no longer exists in reality.
The value of each citizen’s vote is so diluted as to render it almost meaningless. Congressional districts have grown so large it’s impossible for the citizen to really know each representative as they truly are. It is also impossible for any representative to intimately know the citizens' desires and concerns.
For a citizen to have regular in person contact with a member of Congress the citizen must be a source of regular campaign contributions and buy access to the representative. This is not how the democratic process works.
When the US Constitution was written in 1787 the Founding Fathers came up with a very elegant formula for effective representation. It called for one representative for every 30,000 people with a national census taken every ten years to re-balance things as the population grew. They even foresaw the ratio growing to one representative for every 60,000 people and reducing the citizen's freedom by half once the population grew large enough because they could not imagine how so many representatives could effectively communicate.
The US Constitution also valued a slave as 3/5 or 60% of a white man which at first appears generous when one considers that Black people were viewed as property at the time, they had no rights and could be bought and sold much like a car is today.
The truth of the matter is the 3/5 of a person clause had nothing to do with Black people being empowered in anyway, it was a compromise to get the Constitution ratified that gave the slave holding states more Congressional representation than the non-slave holding states.
In 2007, that White man’s descendents, and all other citizens no matter their race are valued at 3% to 5% of that 1787 White man depending on where you live. If a slave was a pawn worth 60% and you are now worth only 3% to 5% what does that make you?
In 1787, the citizen held the true power they were intended to have - unlike today where the citizen has no power.
At the end of the Civil War Black men were given the vote and immediately began effectively electing representatives, but they did not have the power to hold it as their vote had been reduced to 23.5%. Shortly after, their right to vote was taken away. It would be another 100 years before Black people could vote en mass. By then the damage was done. When Black people were permitted to vote again in the 1960's their vote was so diluted that they could not effect any meaningful change as it was only worth 7%.
Women were refused the right to vote in America until 1920 when their vote was worth 14% of the original value. But first Congress passed Public Law 62-5 in 1911 and capped the number of Congress members at 435 - assuring that women's votes would be at worse an annoyance but never a powerful force.
It had already been proven after the Civil War with Black men valued at 23.5% - a woman with 14% posed no threat, it never really mattered that women got the vote. Their power was diminished assuring that they would carry little or no weight in society.
There is one group of people in America that are valued at more than a 1787 White man and has much more than one representative for every 30,000 people. They are lobbyists and the people who pay them, the great corrupters.
There are approximately 35,000 registered lobbyists currently in Washington, DC. As a matter of fact about half of the members of Congress become lobbyists when they get voted out of office or retire. They are paid millions of dollars a year to do so. The average ex-congressional aide starts their new lobbyist job at $300,000 a year. The lobbyists have Congress all to themselves.
There are 82 lobbyists for each member of Congress, that’s 365 times more power than each White man had in 1787. Far more important, that is 7,300 times more powerful than a US citizen is today. To put this in perspective 7,300 days is 20 years. How many lobbyists represent you?
The elected representative is no longer serving the citizen, and the citizen can no longer communicate directly with his representative. This breach of relationship is so large at this point that Congressional representatives spend enormous amounts of time courting lobbyists from other Congressional districts who have campaign contributions in hand.
The elected representatives’ attention and his vote do not reflect his constituents values and will, but the lobbyist's concerns and desires even when the lobbyist is outside his district.
These outsiders are literally buying and stealing the freedom of the US citizens, as the representative is far more concerned with the outside campaign contributions than the general welfare and safety of his constituents.
This is not democracy. This is elected representative infidelity.
Three powerful forces work against the citizen; the public school system, fear mongering among religions, and big business.
Government employees staff the public school system in its entirety and the teachers are a product of the system. They believe the concepts it puts forth just like all citizens do - even though they are not true.
Public school teachers are people who became institutionalized as children to the concept of public school and never left. They are people who have followed the rules of school their entire life and strictly enforce the rules of school on each other and the citizen students.
The first rule in all public schools is the government's agenda is not to be challenged. The second rule is the school is there to make money for the local politicians, their supporters and the school staff. The third rule is hiding the sexual and general misconduct of the staff who are rarely punished for their actions, which range from bizarre to sadistic.
The public school system in the US is founded on the concept of religious intolerance and promoting the government's agenda.
Children are indoctrinated from the age of five or six that the US was founded by the Pilgrims seeking freedom of religion. The truth is the Pilgrims found freedom of religion in Holland and came to America to preserve their English heritage and improve their economic prospects.
From age five and upward each school day every child is expected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance by rote and never with a critical view. The public schools don't teach who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance and why it was written.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written for a children's magazine called Youth's Companion as a way for the publishers to sell more flags to schools and the Pledge of Allegiance is the advertising slogan for that campaign. The Pledge along with a flag was sold and marketed as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the America.
A Christian Socialist author and Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge in 1892 and Mr. Bellamy was quoted as saying that the purpose of the Pledge was to teach obedience to the State as a virtue.
Socialism's whole purpose is to set the stage for society to embrace communism. Socialists crave the citizen's obedience to the State, as communism requires it. Something else also happened in 1892. It was the first year that the Socialist Labor Party of America had its first National Presidential candidate, Simon Wing.
Other than sell an enormous amount of flags over the last one hundred and fifteen years, the US population has been convinced since the age of five years old that they must be obedient to not just their teachers, but the State as a whole.
In a Democracy or Republic - the State is obedient to the citizens.
Fear mongering among religions is as old as America itself. There have always been citizens who partake in the very special evil of stoking conflict between religious groups in America.
There have been many local and momentary incidents of an independent group persecuting another over religion. They have been all small scale and relatively short lived with little or no tangible results for the persecutors other than transient victories that made little or no impact to society as a whole.
The stokers of religious conflict derive great political power by instilling the fear in people that their personal beliefs and way of life are under attack and the risk of being destroyed is eminent and real.
With the exception of a few mentally deranged individuals and their fear driven followers, most people confine themselves to their own lives and have little or no vested interest in the religion of their neighbors.
The only instance of a national persecution of specific religions did not come from any independent religion or anti-religion group but it came from our federal, state and local government. It was waged for over 100 years against the Catholics and Jews in our society.
This great evil was delivered daily right after the Pledge of Allegiance every school day. Anti-Catholic ideas extended throughout the curriculum with references about deceitful Catholics, murderous inquisitions, vile popery, Church corruption, conniving Jesuits and the pope as the anti-Christ of Revelation being common place.
The Jews did not fare any better.
Catholic and Jewish schools began in the United States as a reaction against a growing publicly funded school system that was essentially insane.
Separation of church and state were destroyed and it took a monumental effort to drive this great evil from America's public schools. The Norman Rockwell image of public schools never existed.
The people behind this great evil, were racist Protestant ministers, America's first fear mongers. They were joined by the Ku Klux Klan and its supporters both in public and private life.
Today, those who stoke conflict between groups over religion in America are the successors to the Ku Klux Klan and all of the evil that comes with them. They demand that religion be brought back to the public schools because life was so much better when religion was in the schools, unless you were Black, Jewish or Catholic.
Their philosophy is based on the exclusion of anyone who does not fit their model of what a human being is or believes. They parade themselves publicly as lovers of Democracy with an ultimate goal of turning America into a Socialist state run by believers in their Ku Klux Klan, Socialist based philosophy.
Big business is third pillar of the great breach of Democracy. The Founding Fathers never factored the rise of big business in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776, the same year as the Declaration of Independence. The Industrial Revolution did not begin in England until the 1780s and its full effect was not felt in America until the 1840s.
The US Constitution is written from the perspective of a time prior to the Industrial Revolution and based on the way things had been for thousands of years. When Kings and Tyrants by force could concentrate vast power and exploit the citizens as they chose and were almost impossible to shed.
Prior to the creation of the US Constitution, large companies were formed by Royal charter or private act and operated under the watchful eye of the King. In many cases the Noble born occupied seats of power in their governments by right of birth.
These companies' sphere of operations were strictly controlled and at any time could be levied upon for any amount of money, or be ordered to close for no reason other than it was the will of the King. In some cases the owners and operators of these companies were executed for a variety of reasons. Needless to say, men who ran large companies made an enormous effort to avoid ever being viewed in a negative light by the King or the Nobles. Running a company with large profits was also an excellent route to being elevated to a Noble for the managers of these companies.
If a company's profits grew large enough to attract the attention of enough Nobles and the King, in time the royal charter or private act would be modified to include a larger percentage of the profits for the King and the Nobles. In time the royal charter or private act would be discarded and new ones would be created. The profits would be divided among the Nobles in power and the King.
As the natural progression of one generation handing power to the next and one Royal family displacing another the alliances required to obtain and maintain a Royal charter or private act would flow with the events of the times. This process caused a natural ebb and flow of not just who was in control but what they controlled for thousands of years.
All Democracies and Republics eliminate the moderating influence of Kings and the power they exert on the natural opportunities for commerce, the businesses formed to profit from them, and the people who manage them.
The Founding Fathers envisioned their agrarian society continuing. They had no way of anticipating the Industrial Revolution and the great influence the Wealth of Nations would have when it was combined with their own Declaration of Independence and subsequent US Constitution. The Founding Fathers never envisioned businesses having such a great power over the government as to be able to marginalize the very existence of Democracy.
The Founding Fathers knew all too well that Kings and Nobles, and all that comes with them, was a very bad thing for the citizens. In a system led by a King and Nobles there are at least two sets of rules and consequences in place. One for the King and Nobles and another set for the citizens. Freedom was nonexistent for the citizens.
Many managers of large companies, both public and private, do not appreciate or support Democracy for what it has given them. The very simple reality is Democracy makes running a large profitable company safe from unreasonable seizure of the wealth created. Democracy allows the managers and investors to retain their rewards and spend them in any lawful manner they choose.
The managers do not have to contend with the prospect of being killed and their families being killed because a greedy King and his Nobles want the wealth he has created. Most importantly, the managers of large companies can and frequently do come from very simple and inconsequential origins, not from Noble birth. The possibility of rising higher than one circumstance's of birth is the American dream.
These managers are free of the hazards of running a large business that have been present for thousands of years. In many cases, instead of supporting Democracy they shun the Democratic process in their business and private lives.
The mass hiring of lobbyists has enabled the passing of laws that are not in the best interests of the citizens or civilization. Being a lobbyist is a very simple job; you need access to the elected officials, the ability to market yourself to people with money who want an unfair advantage over other citizens, and have no respect for the Democratic process. You get laws passed - that would never get passed without spreading around plenty of money or in some cases information that can be used as blackmail. Then you are a successful lobbyist.
One needs only to look at the voting rights of shareholders, the election process of directors, shareholder proposal process and the lack of corporate transparency to see that Democracy is the farthest thing from most managers' minds. They advocate the appearance of propriety not actual propriety. They do as they please, when they please and are very rarely challenged, no less replaced against their will.
If they or the company they work for commits a crime, in most cases it goes unpunished unless the rule of the appearance of propriety has been publicly broken and it gets the attention of the citizens.
In America, we have a system where there are at least two sets of enforced rules and consequences in place. One for the managers of large businesses and the elected officials and another set for the citizens. This multi level set of consequences and enforced rules has also trickled down to celebrities and the politically connected. This has been well documented in the media. We are in the process of allowing a system in America that is a similar system to Kings, Nobles and serfs.
When a company's employees and dependants equal the size of a congressional district or the company shares or debt becomes publicly traded, they should be required to operate with a republican form of governance where one share of stock has one vote.
Many business managers will say that forcing Democracy on them will be bad for business. Democracy will be bad for managers with unhappy shareholders - not for good managers who make their shareholders happy. Shareholders are a lot like citizens. Their will should be served, as they are the owners of the business, not the managers. This style of management has spread to our government where there are many unhappy citizens and has created the untenable system we have today. There is mass dissatisfaction with how our government is run. Like public companies, there is no way to shed our leaders unless they feel like leaving or they break the rule of appearance of propriety not actual propriety. They do as the please, when they please and are very rarely challenged, no less replaced against their will.
To put the danger of losing the republican form of government in perspective one needs only to look to Ancient Rome's loss of its republic in 44 BC. Ancient Rome had a republican form of government that lasted over 553 years after shedding the Monarchy in 509 BC.
Once the republican form of government was lost, Ancient Rome built the reputation as an empire of excess and unlimited cruelty. One Emperor after another ruled Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, all of whom are described as self-aggrandizing, mad, sexually perverse and tyrannical to one degree of another. When Nero died chaos ensued in the Year of the Four Emperors. Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian. When Vespasian died in 79 AD his last words were, "Dear me, I must be turning into a god."
All of this happened in the span of only 96 years. It has also been 96 years, 1911 through 2007, and in that time as a nation we have exceeded Ancient Rome with our own modern excesses and unlimited cruelty. Fortunately, we have not experienced a mad dictator who has absolute rule. I shutter to think of what will happen if we do.
Far more important was that the Roman Republic was lost and would not return until 1946 AD after World War II. The descendants of Ancient Rome are still feeling the effects of losing their Republic after 1,990 years.
Ancient Rome lost its republican form of government simply because their Senate became corrupt like the US Senate and Congress is today.
The United States has been a republic for 231 years, 322 years less than Ancient Rome was.
The level of corruption and general disregard of the American citizen's will at the state, county, and municipal level is a symptom of what has happened in Washington. No federal official is in a position, or for that matter has a desire to assure, that representation of the people is a reality or that their will is exercised.
It is no longer safe to have citizens who are disengaged from how their government is run, laws are enacted, and leaders are elected and disciplined. America is at a crossroads. The citizens will either continue to loose their freedoms until they have none at all and revert back to a non-republican form of government, or they will assert their constitutional rights before it is impossible to assert them.
Freedom requires that the people have knowledge of their representatives on a first hand basis. The elected representative must be one of the people as they then have first hand knowledge of the issues and concerns of the people.
The ever-growing factionalism that has been taking place for the last 50 years is evidence of the dissatisfaction of the citizens and the complete lack of responsiveness of their elected officials.
These citizens are keenly aware that they have no voice in Congress. If this situation is allowed to continue, eventually the people will have no voice at all or the US government will one day spontaneously disintegrate as the Soviet Union did or even worse as Ancient Rome did.
The glue that held America together in the beginning was equal, fair and responsive representation by the elected officials. Lacking that glue all one could expect is that the citizens would band together in separate unions of equal, fair and responsive representation.
We currently live in a society where he who makes campaign contributions defines reality. For instance if one makes sufficient campaign contributions, one can label a product as not containing a substance, even if it does and label a product as being safe, even if it is not.
When asked directly about practically any topic, elected representatives respond with endless double talk and conflicting statements as if the citizens were retarded children. They exhibit no fear of loosing credibility, as the citizens are disenfranchised and currently unable to deliver punitive consequences to their elected officials. When the citizens cannot deliver punitive consequences to their elected officials you do not live in a Democracy.
