You bring up important points Dan and I'm guilty of blaming others for matters that are my responsibility. Being powerless against the evils I see is perhaps not completely true. Yet to say that you and I have a voice that's heard at the ballot box is pure fantasy.
You are welcome to believe that your vote makes a difference.
Shame on me, I greatly admire those who had the courage to resist the war machine of fifty or so years ago.
I was trying to make the point that those who did participate in our Indochina debacle had some right to state what they believe is true about our modern history. In complete truth there is NO democracy within our borders. It assuages the fear that this runaway evil empire is as bad as I believe it to be to say "but, but our democracy."
Sure, everyone is responsible for this state of complete horror. Not enough individuals stand up and say "no more!" As the First Amendment is ground into dust--we await the conviction and entombment of a journalist and publisher who did the job of the Fourth Estate and drew attention to the complete immorality of our empire's actions to seal the history of our freedom of speech.
I had hoped that other journalists would stand up and roar against the injustice about to be completed against ALL journalists and publishers but their silence seals their and OUR fate. And a handful have done just that. But where are The Washington Post, The New York Times, cnn, nbc etcetera? Julian Assange is guilty of offending the people in power by publishing the truth about our cold blooded murder of innocent non combatants and the two journalists among them not to mention the children slaughtered for sport in Baghdad six or so years ago.
This is his crime. Telling the truth makes those in power unhappy. Good! And we allow this to become the law of the land: say nothing of the crimes and sins of those in power or be imprisoned for life. Thereby imprisoning ourselves to the mercy of a runaway drunk with power government at the helm who stands a true monster of a man. Who seems bent upon going to war with yet another country in Southwest Asia. A war that this country will lose, just like all the other wars of the last fifty years.
Reading your response it seems to me that your real complaint is not that we do not have a democracy, it more that we are unworthy of our democracy.
You should bring into remembrance the awful shit the Greeks got up to with the first democracy.
Before democracy we had kings tyrants and warlords.
One man or woman rule.
A democracy seeds power to the people.
Warlords and their like have one great advantage They are single minded in their actions.
No need to gain any ones approval,
"Before you start bitching remember...I have and army."
If we look at the kings in history, you got maybe 1 in 6 decent rulers. When they were bad they were often terrifying in their mass cruelty.
So I for one prefer a democracy. But remember those kings and what not?
They weren't really kings. They were just people who came into power that unbalanced most of them.
In democracy we spread a curve. We rarely elect any so depraved as Trump.
But even should we get a good president he/she will have limited power to correct abuses.
But you want a good democracy. And we Shall have one just as soon as we become good and selfless people.
Trump is only slightly worse than those who elected him.
For a democracy to succeed is infinity harder than for a King to get what he/she wants.
It requires and Educated population that vote not their self interest but the Good of the nation.
We need sacrificial men and women. People that can see beyond their own needs to the needs of the most needy.
That a democracy is corrupt does not mean it is not a democracy.
It just means the people are unworthy of Democracy. As unworthy as the Kings that came before.
How should that surprise us. Kingship shows us what people are when they come into power.
I have always sympathize with the Ideal of "power to the people"
But I also plainly see the power is of the people, we just don't like what MOST people do with that power.They elect men like trump, usually no where near as obvious as Trump, but just as self centered.
If you insist our democracy is invalid because of it's corruption you open the door to Kings and worse, to Trump.
So now give us the solution we need. Do you want a king o a better populous?
Kings are easy they are a dime a dozen. An educated populous that Harbors only good will...
...Will be humanities greatest achievement It will be the work of the ages..
It will be extraordinary hard going. We will fall thousand times before we learn compassion.
The Greek democracy lasted 50 years and was forever gone and forgotten...Until the French Revolution two thousand years later..
This tells us what" That democracy is no easy thing!!!
But humanity took the bet! Humanity decided to believe that under a democracy humans would be better people than we were under tyranny .
But is there any proof of that?
How about these things, what do they tel us.
Democracy, freed the slave that so disfigured the face of America.
Democracy gave women the vote.
Which is to say the once men had the vote ultimately Men wanted women to have the vote.
Once men no longer had to serve a King, men decide they did not want any man indentured.
Once we had Education for White men only. now we at lest preach, (and preaching always precedes action.) universal education.
For thousands of years we were ruled over. Now we pick and choose our rulers\ and limit their power.
George we are in Democracy's baby days.
Tyranny lasted thousands of years and rarely achieved anything for the masses.
All well and good to see our failings, but our failings pale in comparison to the abolition of slavery.
To the social elevation of woman to stand beside men in the polling booth.
New beginnings are never easy. Kings raise Armies to gain a throne.
Democracy requires that the masses unite. Requires us to agree to disagree and then take a vote that will bind the deserters to that vote. Democracy inherently disappoints. But provides a way for us to go on as a people.
If you give up on democracy, it seems to me you must offer us something better.
Simple truth is we don't have anything nearly as good, let alone better.
So let us feed this awkward child, educate him/her and lavish that education upon them.
Now please stop throwing the toys our of the pram. This democracy of ours needs you. ":O}