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Indybay Feature

Elections = Democracy?

by DLi
Much has been made in the mainstream corporate media about the "Blue Wave" tsunami that supposedly took place in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Indeed, the "liberal" punditry has even proclaimed that the Nov. 6 vote signals a return to a "democratic norm" in the USA. But did that really happen? Even more relevant, do elections in the USA really represent genuine democracy?
Sadly, the inconvenient truth is that electoral politics in the USA--as they're currently run--is at best a necessary but INSUFFICIENT condition for true democratic expression.

For starters, huge corporate $--to the tune of $5 billion+--had been spent to sway voters nationwide. Compared to that massive election meddling, the so-called "Russian interference" in 2016(even the wildest allegations claim that the Ruskies spent at most $50 million, is at best a paltry 1% of the corporate buyout! So who's the bigger "election meddler," Wall Street Capitalists or the accidental "hackers" said to be directed by the Kremlin?

Moreover, historically the fundamental issues most prioritized by the Public--such as the endless foreign Wars and the annually bloated war budgets, single-payer health care for all residents, increased funding for education and teachers, drastic need to repair the crumbling infrastructure--rated D+ by the nation's Civil Engineers--and a living minimum wage, have never made it onto the platforms of either of the corporate-bin-Laden GOP or Democratic parties. Furthermore, in the 2016 Presidential campaign, third party candidates such as the Greens' Jill Stein were notoriously barred from being on the nationally-televised debates! That's iron-clad proof that national elections in the USA are far from free and fair affairs.

Perhaps most egregious is the fact that corporate have consistently downplayed the role played by millions of active citizens in the momentous & decades-long Civil Rights movement in mid-20th century and the equally massive anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s. These non-violent but participatory struggles--including civil disobedience events--by literally millions of progressive activists and concerned citizens have been the signature hallmarks of genuine democratic expression by the Public.

Hence, the current dollar-dominated elections in the USA constitute not a democracy for and by the people, but rather, the expression of a century-long Dictatorship of the Profitariat!

Peace, Aloha & Imua!
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