The Unfulfilled Promise: The Widening Gap between the Reality of the U.S. and its Highest Ideals

Notwithstanding the lofty sentiments and purpose of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the reality of the United States of America did not then – and never has – lived up to its ideal. Our nation remains today a long way from fulfilling the promise implied by those ideals. Yet, our Declaration was a great start, and it has long shone as a beacon of hope for people all over the world.

Throughout our history, while many have striven to close the gap between our highest ideals and the reality of our nation, others have focused on the accumulation of private wealth and power, at the expense of everyone else. In recent decades the latter have gained much ground, leading to increasing imperialism abroad and deteriorating democracy at home, characterized by routine (and legal) bribery of our public officials, the fusion of government and private corporate interests (corporatocracy), a corrupt election system largely in the hands of private corporations, a corporate controlled communications media, and the widespread acceptance of Executive Branch secrecy, routinely justified with little if any questioning, by the magic words “national security”. All of this is rapidly turning our country from the democracy proclaimed at our founding into a plutocracy (government by the wealthy and for the wealthy). The result is the most obscene wealth gap our country has ever known, the highest imprisonment rate in the world, rampant militarism, routine flaunting of international law, the least efficient health care system in the developed world, a pending environmental catastrophe that threatens to destroy the life sustaining forces of our planet, and myriad other problems that threaten to destroy our nation and tyrannize our people.

My new book, The Unfulfilled Promise of the American Dream – The Widening Gap between the Reality of the United States and its Highest Ideals, explores the roots and consequences of the demise of our democracy, and why most Americans have been unable to understand this process or even become aware of it. A good understanding of why and how we have deviated so greatly from the ideals of our nation is the first and necessary step towards getting back on the right track and revitalizing our society.

The book is currently being sold in electronic PDF format and can be purchased at http://www.unfulfilledpromise.com/Buy-the-book.html for $3.99. It will also soon be available in Amazon Kindle format. DU members who cannot afford to buy the book but would like to read it can pm me with your e-mail address, and I will send you a free PDF copy.

I’ve previously posted on DU a slightly earlier version of the introduction to the book, which is also posted at my site. Here is the Table of Contents, followed by a brief description of the three parts of the book:


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Acknowledgements
Prologue – What is Wrong with the United States of America?

Part I – Root Causes of the Impending Demise of American Democracy
Chapter 1 – Legalized Bribery of Government Officials
Chapter 2 – Human Psychological Factors
Chapter 3 – Corporatocracy
Chapter 4 – Corporate Control of Communications Media
Chapter 5 – Corrupt Election System
Chapter 6 – Government Secrecy and Shadow Government
Chapter 7 – American Exceptionalism and Unmentionable Things in US Politics

Part II – A Sampling of Imperialist Actions in U.S. History
Chapter 8 – Slavery and its Legacy
Chapter 9 – Early U.S. Expansion and Imperialism
Chapter 10 – U.S. Imperialism during the Cold War
Chapter 11 – The Iraq War and Occupation
Chapter 12 – The Afghanistan War and our Denial of Habeas Corpus

Part III – Consequences
Chapter 13 – The Election of George W. Bush as our President
Chapter 14 – War and Imperialism
Chapter 15 – Income and Wealth Inequality and Class Warfare
Chapter 16 – The Predator Financial Class
Chapter 17 – Shock Therapy: Economic Shenanigans on the World Stage
Chapter 18 – Contempt for International Law
Chapter 19 – The “War on Drugs” and the Prison Industry
Chapter 20 – Climate Change
Chapter 21 – “War on Terror”
Chapter 22 – Health Care
Chapter 23 – Unaccountable government
Chapter 24 – Failed Response to and Investigation of the 9/11 Attacks
Epilogue


PART I – Root Causes of the Impending Demise of American Democracy

It is somewhat difficult to separate the causes of our problems from their consequences, since they combine to form a long chain of cause leading to consequence, leading to more consequences, etcetera. Nevertheless, it seems worth while to identify the root causes of our problems, those that occur early in the chain and lead to so many of the tragic consequences we see today. The only chance we have of reversing the demise of our democracy is through addressing and attacking its root causes.

At the top of the list is the systematic bribery of public officials by the powerful corporations (Chapter 1) whom our government is charged with regulating in the public interest. Instead of calling it bribery, we call it “campaign contributions”, but what we call it isn’t as important as what it is. It is hard to fathom how democracy can survive when such a practice is legal and condoned.

Working in tandem with our system of legalized bribery is the nature of the people who inhabit our country. That is not to say that Americans are inherently substantially different than any other people. Human beings are imperfect, and that is probably a major reason why in a world where civilization began more than five millennia ago, the oldest written national framework of government in the world today – the Constitution of the United States of America – is only a little more than two and a quarter centuries old. Chapter 2 explores the roles of basic human needs, authoritarianism, psychological defense mechanisms used to prevent us from perceiving reality as it is rather than as we’d like it to be, and corrupted ideologies in causing us to passively accept the accumulation of power in the hands of ambitious and ruthless individuals who care about little else than expanding their own wealth and power.

When bribery of public officials is tolerated as an inevitable aspect of public life, government inevitably grows close to the wealthy interests that shower it with money in return for legislative and other favors. A malevolent symbiosis grows between the state and corporate power, resulting in rule by an oligarchy that is highly detrimental to the lives of ordinary people (Chapter 3). Using their accumulated wealth and power to manipulate our legislative process, the oligarchy grabs for more and more control of the communications media (Chapter 4) that are used to control the information available to and shape the attitudes of our nation’s people, in pursuit of their own narrow interests.

Since the 1980s an orchestrated campaign has been underway to demonize “big government”, thereby paving the way for private corporate control over more and more functions that were previously deemed intrinsic functions of government. Among those functions is the running of public elections (Chapter 5) – the function that symbolizes democracy perhaps more than any other single function. Consequently, the purging of selected registered voters from our computerized voter rolls has become a routine recurring event throughout much of our country, and without a doubt determined the results of the 2000 – and probably 2004 as well – presidential election. Just as bad, more and more of the counting of votes in our public elections have been turned over to private corporations, which count our votes using electronic machines using secret software to produce vote counts that cannot be verified by anyone.

Bribery, the fusion of government and private interest, fake and biased news, and corrupt elections are not things that government and its corporate allies want us to know about. Consequently, they construct walls of secrecy (Chapter 6) to keep us from obtaining information that sheds light on their activities. The perfect phrase for facilitating this is “national security”. When our government tells us that the “national security” requires that certain things be kept secret from us, the understanding is that to question such a pronouncement is unpatriotic, and to actually attempt to obtain the “secret” information may be treasonous.

But indefinitely maintaining secrets from the American people can be very difficult, because at least some people want to know what their government is up to. So in addition to the formal mechanisms of secrecy, informal mechanisms are constructed (Chapter 7) to keep vital information away from us. One of the primary methods for doing this is to make certain sensitive subjects taboo – that is, to create the widespread belief that discussion of these topics is so outside the bounds of acceptable human discourse that anyone who discusses them should be shunned by society, or worse. The most common issue that falls into this category is any discussion that sheds light on the disparity between American ideals and the reality of life in our country today.


PART II – A Sampling of Imperialist Actions in U.S. History

Notwithstanding the fact that our founding document says that “all men are created equal” and speaks of the inalienable rights of humankind, the United States has throughout its history partaken of massive exploitation of other peoples.

It is estimated that at the time of our birth, 18% of our population was black slaves. In our expansion westwards during the late 18th and 19th centuries, we decimated the original inhabitants of our continent, and often treated them with great cruelty. In 1846 we manufactured an excuse for war with our neighbor Mexico, in which we continued to expand our country westwards and southwards. In 1893 we began our overseas imperialism with the conquest of Hawaii. Our overseas expansion was greatly accelerated in 1898 with our participation in the Spanish-American War, which led to our conquest of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. With our arrival at world superpower status at the end of World War II, we began the Cold War, which led to and served as a rationalization for covert and/or direct military actions against myriad foreign nations over the next 46 years. With the September 11, 2001 attacks on our country, we declared a perpetual “War on Terror”, which served and continues to serve as an excuse to invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, nations that posed no threat to us. We do not know when or if this perpetual war will ever end. We don’t know how many additional imperial conquests it will lead to.

Most Americans don’t think much about all this. Many of these actions are done in secrecy, and the American people don’t find out about them until many years later – or we never find out about them at all. Those that we do know about are spun into the most favorable light, to make them seem benign or even noble.

But these actions come at great costs: in the lives of our soldiers; in the ruined lives of the peoples of the victim countries; in trillions of dollars cost to our people and their future generations; in our international reputation; in anti-American hatred leading to terrorism; and, to our democracy itself. For how can a nation claim to believe in the inalienable rights of humankind specified in its founding document, while making a mockery of that belief in the way it treats other peoples? For that reason alone it is worth while to take a brief look at our long history of imperialist actions.


PART III – Consequences

In the Prologue I give a brief account of what I see as some of the worst and tragic consequences of the root causes that I discuss in Part I – to enable the reader to see where this book is heading. When elections of our public officials are for sale to the highest bidder… when our public officials are so addicted to the “campaign contributions” of their wealthiest constituents that they develop a symbiotic relationship with them… when our communications media are owned and controlled by an oligarchy of wealthy elites… when our citizenry lack the ability to differentiate propaganda from reality… when we allow machines provided by private corporations to count our votes using secret electronic software… then we should expect that the consequences will not be pretty or comfortable for the vast majority of our citizens.

In Part III, I explore those consequences in much greater detail, in the hope that the reader will agree with me that these are very serious problems, and that they must be successfully addressed if our country is ever to fulfill the promise of its ideals, or even make progress in that direction. When enough Americans recognize our problems as problems, stripped of the gloss and spin put on them by our oligarchy, they will rise up and do something about them. Until then there will be no progress, and we are very likely to head in the direction of all the former empires of our planet, ending in chaos, widespread catastrophe, suffering, and ignominy.

It was a beautifully writen farce.

Sound familiar?

:kick:

I'm proffering that history will place your voice as among the most important in early 21st-century America. Sadly too few pay much attention to the crucial issues of the day, but here's hoping for an awakening. :thumbsup: :patriot:

I have not yet made plans to publish the book in hardback (or paperback), but some have offered suggestions on how to do that, and I will look into doing it.

Rec for this statement alone. I often hear folks wax poetic about the good old days (often with references to JFK). Class struggle is as old as the history books and it is defining in this country as well. Your book does look interesting.

At least during the "good old days" the class war wasn't such a lopsided contest as it is today. JFK was on the side of ordinary Americans, and that's why he died. I love this quote from him, which is included in my book:

peace~

:hi:

Unless you use a pen name. Congrats on the book.

no problem can ever be addressed.

Kudos to you for attempting a comprehensive diagnosis of what ails the USA.

I just finished "Death of the Liberal Class" by Chris Hedges and "Washington Rules" by Andrew Bacevich. And I just started "Democracy Incorporated by Sheldon Wolin, which seems to be on the same subject.

I'd love to have it as a hardcover as well!

Cannot recommend this enough, and please, please try to spread this wide throughout the blogoshere; people really should read this.



Huge K&R! (And running to get the book. :)

I'm looking into how to sell it in hardcover, and some posters have offered very helpful suggestions. I hope you enjoy the book.

Please notify DU'ers if it is available to purchase as Hardcover.

Have you ever published a book via Blurb.com, a service for writers for "self-publishing" a book.

Also known a print-on-demand. You design the book, upload it to Blurb.com. Then advertise that is for sale.

Then Blurb will print and ship them out as they sell - one at a time. So no printing costs up front to the writer.
If you sell none... no cost to you except your time getting the book ready for Blurb.

You can do softcover and hardcover formats. PM me if you would like some info or help doing this.

www.blurb.com

A writer can also upload a PDF, and the Blurb system will convert it to a book format! The only issue is you need
to use one of the standard "book" sizes - 8.5" x 11" (letter paper) is NOT a book size.

I will certainly look into this.

has been discussed by Cornel West in his recent criticism of our president, yet West was so chastised. Are we that afraid to look at these issues, discuss the causes and effects, and come to a solution that might require drastic measures? Painfully, it appears to. I imagine that throughout history, there are many examples of visionaries who have been shunned, ridiculed and dismissed, only later to be recognized once the truths they espoused become widely accepted by a public ready to make progressive changes.
I just can't believe with all the evidence that's out there, we continue to turn our heads to the problems to maintain our comfortably numb status quo. On Obama, either he must be ignorant of this (which I highly doubt); is aware of it but chooses the path of least resistance while hoping for positive change at a slower pace (which he seems to be projecting); or he is fully aware and complicit in this corrupt behavior, for reasons we can only speculate now (which I am afraid might indeed be the case). Either way, we appear to be going backwards fast and not forward at a fast enough pace -- one step forward, three steps backward. I plan to read this book. Thank you.

most of them have lost the ability to discern reality.

Of the three alternatives you pose to explain Obama's part in this, I agree that only alternatives 2 and 3 are plausible.

I hope you enjoy the book.

"Bribery, the fusion of government and private interest"...

Thanks for being here!

Cheers!
Agony

difference.

(thanks for all the good work TFC)

all efforts to fix our democracy are much less effective as long as the left ignores the right's most effective weapon. it does the groundwork for everything they do.

a searchable online transcript database of the main talkers is needed, those stations LOCAL sponsors need to be shamed until the only ones left are teabaggers, stations need to picketed (they are GOP HQs), and our universities need to be stopped from endorsing the RW talk radio message by broadcasting sports on those stations (here is a peition: http://signon.org/sign/american-universities-1?source=c.url&r_by=241761 )

text reads:

American Universities: Stop broadcasting athletics on Rush Limbaugh radio stations.

To be delivered to: American Universities and Colleges

“We the undersigned demand that our state-funded universities and colleges immediately find alternative non-partisan radio stations to broadcast their athletics.

By broadcasting on Rush Limbaugh and other political talk radio stations they endorse partisan political propaganda, global warming denial, hate, racism, and attacks on our unions and teachers, and therefore contradict their own stated goals and mission statements.”

The USA has some good things about it, and some shameful too. Knowledge of mistakes and shortcomings I think is important in democracy's progression. Many Americans have a really hard time with mistakes and shame and would rather look away.

The mistake that puts the biggest damper on my patriotic enthusiasm is when California legislators put a bounty on native people's heads, and the US government somewhere found the money to fund it. When I mention this barbaric incident of history to people in conversation I sometimes get the feeling that they pity me, because I should still care about some long-past mistake. But it wasn't so long ago at all. And it hasn't taught us much at all either.

We continue to today to repeat so many of the atrocities of the past. We may have different excuses (weapons of mass destruction, or we're trying to bring them democracy), but the bottom line is very similar.

I'll be honored to buy your book.
Congratulations!

And with this blurb:

"Most Americans don’t think much about all this. Many of these actions are done in secrecy, and the American people don’t find out about them until many years later – or we never find out about them at all. Those that we do know about are spun into the most favorable light, to make them seem benign or even noble.

But these actions come at great costs: in the lives of our soldiers; in the ruined lives of the peoples of the victim countries; in trillions of dollars cost to our people and their future generations; in our international reputation; in anti-American hatred leading to terrorism; and, to our democracy itself. For how can a nation claim to believe in the inalienable rights of humankind specified in its founding document, while making a mockery of that belief in the way it treats other peoples? For that reason alone it is worth while to take a brief look at our long history of imperialist actions."



I'm hooked. I'm going to purchase it now. Thanks for being a great progressive voice with actual facts and stats to back it up. Your "voice" is important. Thanks for being at DU. Good luck with this book.

Your posts have been excellent discussions of what has happened to our country.

I really thought the Bush moral and economic crashes would have been enough to push the Democratic team to re-establish Demand Side Economics, including Medicare for All.

I'm still very depressed that corporate power was so entrenched that they ignored the mandate voters had provided and engaged in that demoralizing compromising with the very party that had crashed our economy and the party that had been determined for decades now to crush its opposition by any means necessary.

So sad that my only hope is that now, with Republican viciousness even more out in the open, we can elect even more Democrats and push them to restore the middle class and war on poverty.

Even electing Democrats isn't enough at this point, as the corporatocracy has made significant inroads into the Democratic Party.

I've been waiting and hoping for you to do this.

I've been out of town, and catching up on my favorite DU writers. I will purchase a copy of your book