While partisanship is a factor, the current negative trends exist across party lines -- frustration with government and elected officials is growing among Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.
If anyone sees this study cited in their local paper they should write a letter to the editor asking why they are not writing about this obvious complete break down of our democracy.
2 comments:
It is unimaginable that people in America don't realize that our democracy has been dying as a result of the evolution of corporate privatization of government function:jails, education, the war, etc. The more power corporations have (like Black Water), and the fact that they have been legally granted rights of individuals,the more powerful they become in making decisions that belong in the public domain( like killing civilians, and utilizing their funds to underwrite torture) public dialogs that need to occur among citizens in a democracy citizens.
Simultaneously, in a consistent and planned manner,Bush has bankrupted the central government, and has increased privatization. For example, Bush is using "no child left behind" to ensure that teachers will not teach children to discuss and think, but rather to test, utilizing corporate standards, methods, and regulations and promising more regulations that reduce teachers salaries if they do not produce the appropriate test results among students.Soon, there will be fewer teachers of a reasonable caliber willing to work in inner cities- Bush doesn't want to raise a generation of children to think- they might challenge the status quo. We are seeing the disappearance of teaching democratic values in our school systems.
Eisenhower warned us of the true enemy of democracy, the military-industrial complex, and we need to start questioning who and what is brining our country to the center of a fascist ideology- the absence of public debate, the disappearance of our civil rights via the patriot act, the silencing and incarceration of people and leaders of organizations that speak out about any government policy, the use of torture, privatization of power to a military industrial complex- aren't we reminded of the fascism that spread throughout Europe prior to World War II?
It is time to try to bring democracy back in America- when this country was founded, the representative system of government made sense- our population was small enough that our neighbors were also our representatives to congress, our governors, our mayors, etc. I would like to suggest that we have allowed our representatives to carry out their own agendas, if 70% of the population wants the end to the war, then 70% of the senators and congressman should be voting to reflect our desires. Since this is not the case, I would like to promote the notion that we need a recall system, similar to the parliamentary system, in which we can recall government officials who are no longer representing us, and have reelections locally,statewide, and nationally, as the need arises. A call for such an addition to our governmental regulations by writing local media might be the beginning of such a possibility.
I am not familiar with the Pew Research Center study, but I believe there may be other current, relevant studies from both the UN, the OAS, and the EU. I will look for them, too.
Thanks for starting up this blog, citizens.
Peace is patriotic (so is protest)
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