Democracy Is a Beautiful Thing

Democracy Is a Beautiful Thing

Democracy is a beautiful thing, except that part about letting just any old jerk vote.
By William Blum

"The people can have anything they want.
The trouble is, they do not want anything.
At least they vote that way on election day."
Eugene Debs, American socialist leader, early 20th century

03/02/08 "ICH" -- Why was the primary vote for former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich so small when anti-Iraq war sentiment in the United States is supposedly so high, and Kucinich was easily the leading anti-war candidate in the Democratic race, indeed the only genuine one after former Senator Mike Gravel withdrew? Even allowing for his being cut out of several debates, Kucinich's showing was remarkably poor. In Michigan, on January 15, it was only Kucinich and Clinton running. Clinton got 56% of the vote, the "uncommitted" vote (for candidates who had withdrawn but whose names were still on the ballot) was 39%, and Kucinich received but 4%. And Clinton, remember, has been the leading pro-war hawk of all the Democratic candidates.

I think much of the answer lies in the fact that the majority of the American people -- like the majority of people all over the world -- aren't very sophisticated politically, and many of them aren't against the war for very cerebral reasons. Their opposition perhaps stems mainly from the large number of American soldiers who've lost their lives, or because the United States is not "winning", or because America's reputation in the world is being soiled, or because a majority of other Americans express their opposition to the war, or because of George W.'s multiple character defects, or because of a number of other reasons you couldn't even guess at. Not much especially perceptive or learned in this collection.

I think there are all kinds of intelligence in this world: musical, scientific, mathematical, artistic, academic, literary, mechanical, and so on. Then there's political intelligence, which I would define as the ability to see through the bullshit which the leaders and politicians of every society, past, present and future, feed their citizens from birth on to win elections and assure continuance of the prevailing ideology.

More:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19272.htm

Democracy means the first need is education. The rest (end of war, securing national health care, etc) will follow from that.

But then, before there can be education, there has to be a PUBLIC (not money-based) news media, which goes back to what you said in the first place.

Neither of which are much of a priority here in the US. The press is allowed to be bought up by politically motivated monopolies and used as a propaganda tool. While education has become a revenue stream for private enterprise and a political football for the Christian right.

The cornerstones of Democracy have been pulled out from under the US in the name of "free trade" and the citizens wonder why democracy and the economy are collapsing.