The Secret Enemy of Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which all citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives.  USA like other democracies actually have a representative democracy where the citizens elect people to represent them in the government.  To be a real functioning democracy, most of us will agree that the citizens need two or more viable representatives to choose from during elections.  Thus we don't consider communist governments to be democratic even though they hold elections.

Obvious enemies of the democratic governments are governments such as dictatorships, autocracies, monarchs or oligarchies.  These governments are ruled by one person or a small group of people.  Despite having elections communist countries are really like oligarchies run by those at the top of the only official party - the communist party.

But there is another enemy of democracy that many are not aware of.  This group maintains the illusion of a democracy, but the government is actually an oligarchy.  They do this by promoting and controlling the representatives that the citizens elect.  They secretly fund the campaigns of those representatives that favor their views, pay for attack ads on those representatives that do not share their views, lobby the elected representatives providing pre-written bills and even do bribes.  They also take over the main news media outlets so that citizens will hear only a biased view which will effect who they vote for.  To do all of this of course takes lots of money and that is why those in power are the very rich.  A government run by the wealthy is called a plutocracy.

So this is the secret enemy of democracy.   The very rich are taking over democratic governments from within without the awareness of most of its citizens.

Rich overlords pull the hidden strings on our elected representatives.  We may think that our representatives are independent and even serve us but it is an illusion.

How do we prevent our democracy being converted to a plutocracy?  

• We need strong campaign finance laws that prevent the rich including their big corporations from dominating the campaigns.  Unfortunately, in 2010, the Supreme Court struck down the McCain-Feingold Act with the consequence that corporations now have NO limits on what they can spend on campaigns and further can do so anonymously.   Congress needs to pass new laws as soon as possible to close this door, before it is too late for our democracy.
• We need to further restrict the power of lobbyists.  Their meetings should be open to the public.
• Citizens must be aware of who pays for political ads, political groups and political think tanks.  For example, did you know that the Tea Party Movement is funded by the wealthy?  
• Citizens need to consider who owns the news media they listen or watch.  Fox News for example is tightly run by a very wealthy conservative?  Watch trailer on documentary OUTFOXED.
• Citizens need to think more carefully about who to vote for.  What policies are the candidates promoting and who will really benefit from them.   Some policies benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else.

Some political groups are arguing that our problems are all caused by too much government.  But their solution involve reducing taxes which primarily benefit the rich and big corporations, cutting government regulations and privatizing our highways, Social Security, Medicare, etc.  Doing these things gives more money and power to our rich overlords while adversely affecting you, your family, your friends and your neighbors. Reducing taxes reduces federal revenue which will force the government to cut back on programs such as education, job training, road and bridge repairs, FBI, unemployment insurance, food safety, environmental agency, medicaid, medical research, alternative energy research, NASA, etc.  Reducing government regulations may result in more unsafe products and services, hidden costs (like in credit cards), poorer air and water quality, higher prices because of unregulated price manipulation and monopolies.  Privatization often result in higher costs, poorer services and lost of control - you will not be able to elect a different person to run things better.    

Citizens of democratic countries must constantly be vigilant against its enemies - inside as well as outside.  If citizens don't pay attention, the secret enemy of democracy will take over and it will be very hard to get our democracy back!