Liberty, Schmiberty!

by Greg Wells

The argument that the United States of America isn’t a democracy at all can be made. And that I shall. I will outline five types of government that the United States government behaves like. Firstly, is a Republic. When was the last time you attended a town communal and helped draft a new law? In a Democracy, people aren’t represented, they take an active part in politics, and anyone who says voting is taking an active part in anything is as brainwashed as a fanatical Muslim, or Fundamentalist Christian (as if they weren’t the exact same beast). To retort the claim I’ve just made, people say the US is a “Representative Democratic Republic.” Call it whatever you like, but democracy has nothing to do with a republic. In a democracy, one vote equals one vote. In a republic, one vote equals whatever the Supreme Court says it does, evidently. When a person “takes an active role in governance” by voting, they are simply expressing approval of one person who may or may not represent their views over another person who probably does not represent their views. Compromises must be made, surely, when governing hundreds of millions of people. But these compromises should be made in laws themselves, not in deciding what two people will decide the positions of an entire state of people. A democracy protects the rights of all citizens to take an active role in government. Our republic forces a wall between the people and the laws that will define their lifestyles, whilst placating people and ensuring them that the spirit and nature of what they want to be done is considered by those who represent them. This attitude, that the American people should only be able to bitch and moan annoyingly to senators to get things changed, is a characteristic of a republic, and thus eliminates the existence of a true democracy.

The government is also a totalitarian one. When one can’t tell the difference between a government and privatized corporations, they are surrounded by totalitarianism. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for government regulation of corporations, the de-privatization of healthcare, government employment programs, community food programs, et cetera. It’s when the ties between government and corporate interests aren’t official that a totalitarian system emerges. The Bush regime, for instance, has intimate ties (not as intimate as they used to be before King George II, through his own ineptitude, flushed the company he was given responsibility for) with Big Oil Companies, or as we leftists like to call ‘Fucking Assholes.’ When an elected official makes laws in his own interest, laws that are made to aid himself, he has eliminated democracy and supported a totalitarian state, where the government reaches itself into the strongest areas of control.

Our proud government is fascist as well. Democracy, as we in the States claim to be, declares that all people are equal, regardless of their citizenship. How then, does one explain patriotism? Patriotism is a fascist ideal, anyway you rationalize it. To be proud of your country above others so greatly, is to value American lives over lives of people in other parts of the world. To value a group that you belong to over another group is a founding tenet of fascism. To be so arrogant as to think that we are right and others are wrong is a wholly fascist ideal. It may be hard to swallow, but use your brain, read a book, you’ll see what I’m saying. Nazi Germany was a fascist state, and the Nazis were world-renowned at the time for reviving Germany, making it a strong empire again, and the German people were proud. Too proud. They thought they were better and committed genocide to try to prove it. The United States is also an empire of proud, patriotic people. But if we don’t keep sight of the truth, that everyone is a person, we may yet slip into an outwardly hostile fascism.

To believe that two people, father and son, could both rise to the highest position in the land within a two decade period legitimately is absurd and naïve. We live in a country that claims that everyone has the same potential and opportunity to rise to office and govern the people. And yet, out of hundreds of millions of people, not a single president yet has been a woman, or a black man, or even a non-Christian. Not only that, but our current president is the son of a man who was president only ten years ago. George W. was nominated by his father, supported by his father, and bestowed the presidency by the supreme court. It is his father’s and his family’s involvement in his candidacy, however, that compels me to make the argument that the United States is a monarchy.

Last, but certainly not least, is my claim that the United States is a theocracy. A theocracy is a government run by religious beliefs. This can easily be proven. Look at the right-wing’s position on abortion. It is racked with references from the Bible and claims of its “evil purpose.” Look at both parties stance on capital punishment. Something as simple as the inclusion of the phrase, “…under God…” in the Pledge of Allegiance, while it may seem harmless, is yet another example of religious influence on our government’s view of itself. In the case of the latest presidential election, both major candidates were fundamentalist Christians. While it is true that a Christian should have as much right to run for office as a non-Christian, any religiously fundamental individual cannot possibly be considered fit to govern. Inherent in the tenets of fundamentalist Christianity is to take one’s values and apply them to every portion of one’s life. This includes governing a populace. Even though the majority of people in this country are Christian, very few would support the impractical ivory tower religious applications of fundamentalism.

Look into it. See what else the United States is, and what it decidedly isn’t. An uninterested, uninformed, uncritical populace is the first and most important ingredient for an out of control government.