DEMOCRACY. NOW? - April 13, 2011

No matter how you slice it, approximately half the electorate of WI has voted to continue the control of our government by the corporate plutocrats, and while there is a lot of difference between 49% and 51% in terms of who holds office, it can hardly fail to be noticeable that most of those below the median in their share of the goodies have voted for the regime of the Kochs and their ilk. Thus, while the Tories sell the working and lower middle classes on endless promises of the likes of abortion prohibition, the Dems are doing the same with empty promises of economic justice. Barack Obama continues to sell himself in the role of the Weak King, soliciting pity for his fecklessness, and others will be paying the costs of his weakness. In AZ, the State made a political decision to forego the program of replacement organs for medical victims. Middle class citizens paid with their lives for the election of Tories who call themselves Republicans, and the Republic is ratifying that election. In many states, middle class teens are being priced out of the economic benefits, if any, of a college education. By the time this depression turns itself around, they might have missed the boat and will have to live their lives as a lost generation. Corporatized health insurance will continue to empty the bank accounts of many and fill the graves of many of those who don’t have the money the plutocrats want to rob. But as I have often mentioned, and many before me for over 2K years, including Plato and Socrates, democracy is subject to the depredations of demagogues selling political snake oil and the public is often too sleepy to act sensibly in their own interest. Still it remains the truth that the People can make a revolution at the ballot box, without needing to pick up a gun. If we wait too long, we will share the agonies of the people of Libya. Even in this pinch, democracy offers the People their best deal, until it becomes too late, as it often does.