OP-ED: The power of democracy
The July 23 edition of Time Magazine focused its main article on why democracy will prevail in the face of autocratic leaders like Donald Trump, and the misplaced desire by voters to seek shelter in an imaginary past, where life was simpler. I agree with Time in that democracy will continue in countries where it appears to be failing at every level on many fronts, but for very different reasons. The following examples briefly illustrate the staying power of American democracy, even in the face of popular nativist politicians.
Our southern border has never been addressed for a very simple reason: Democrats gain votes from minorities who no longer have to show voter identification, and Republicans gain campaign contributions to maintain an unskilled minimum wage workforce. Thus, the impact of illegal immigration on wages and voting trends is a boon for both parties, and furthers the ability of globalist elites to profit poverty. As long as both parties benefit, no matter who you vote for, you may notice that nothing has ever changed – or ever will.
Our inner-city schools have never be effectively addressed for an equally simple reason: Democrats gain votes from poorly educated, desperate, dependency-minded citizens who need social welfare programs to survive, while Republicans profit from a never-ending war on drugs and a privatized and profitable prison industry. Both parties then support the import of immigrants, who work for lower wages in return for a green card. So why educate American kids when corporations can exploit so many uneducated foreigners?
Our military recruiting crisis has never been addressed, because we now recruit Latinos with the promise of citizenship, since 70 percent of our kids who apply to the Army can’t pass a basic aptitude test in reading and math. Of course, when corporations want Congress to fight a foreign war for resources, worries of voters reacting at the polls if their kids come home in caskets is no longer as mitigating a factor, since dead non-citizen soldiers and their families don’t vote – and therefore don’t count. La explotación de la humanidad!
Our employment crisis has never be effectively addressed, since unemployed college kids with debt traditionally vote Democrat, while banking boards in New York send their jobs overseas for profit – and Democratic donations. What’s not to like? Republicans agree, since unemployed conservatives vote, too, on the same premise the problem will be fixed. In the game of divide and conquer, you first create a problem, then promise us a solution. If we only knew how much big banks and corporations contribute to our political parties!
Our drug problem has never been fixed because so much money is made by so many, except the families burying their kids, of course. Depression and stress are the leading causes of abuse, and if you can’t get a good job, it’s hard to be happy, so people get high. That’s why 30 million Americans are prescribed anti-depressants to cope with our toxic society. Democrats then promise voters to crack down on cops and ban guns, while Republicans promise voters to crack down on drugs and protect guns. Both play to their constituents, while nothing changes, and the root cause is never addressed: hopelessness.
So why would either party fix the border, or education, or the economy, if their globalist campaign contributors are getting rich using people as human commodities to boost every billionaire’s bottom line? Why fix anything indeed. They like it this way, and that’s why it stays this way. Sadly, that’s also why angry Arabs flew planes into the World Trade Center, and angry Americans voted for a president who views globalization (and our government) as the source of the problem. Financial and social instability breed conflict.
American citizens voted for change with Barack Obama, and then voted for change with Trump, but media outlets owned by multinational corporations now pit us against one another, fighting over political scraps, while their billionaire bosses in Davos cut the steaks out of our financial future. No president has the power to save a democracy whose sovereignty has been supplanted by a plutocracy, but as long as billionaire elites can pay for political campaigns that promise no real power to the people, democracy as we know it will be in place for a very long time to come.
Joseph M. Mazgaj is a substitute teacher who lives in Rogersville.