May 5

Written by:
5/5/2009 6:35 AM 

With the defection of Arlen Specter the media pundits, particularly on the right, have been bemoaning the decline of democracy supposedly brought about by having the Democratic Party in control of both the Congress and the White House at the same time.  They urge the expansion of the Republican Party in order to head off what they call a one party state. 

Those of us who have worked in Green Party politics can tell you from experience that the USA has been a one party state for decades and perhaps more than a century.  A German economist was recently quoted as saying that never, since the time of Abraham Lincoln, have the elites in America allowed anyone to get their hands on the levers of power unless they were totally in the debt of the rich and powerful.  That’s just as true of Obama today as it was of previous presidents.  The Plutocracy Party is the only party that runs candidates for high office in the US, either under the Democratic label or under the Republican.   Party labels are just flags of convenience, with different rhetoric and promises attached, whatever will sell best, none of which are taken seriously by the backers or implemented. 

But at the local level there is still a very vibrant democratic process.  There are many parties like the Greens, Libertarians, Socialists, Independents, and so on, that have been active for years, well organized, and with articulate and thoughtful ideas and programs.  Candidates for these parties have been repeatedly elected to local offices, city councils, school boards, utility districts, etc.  The key seems to be that these smaller parties can function only at the level where media access and money are not critical to their success.  Above that level the crushing weight of the plutocracy is brought to bear, and unapproved candidates and ideas simply disappear.

What we have in America is a two-tiered governmental system, with many competing parties and ideologies at the local level and a much more restricted pseudo-democracy at the top, with a single ideology controlled by the Plutocracy Party.  That party is the party of the dinosaurs and is rapidly destroying the host that supports it, unable to free itself from its need to control all aspects of American life and incapable of allowing the innovation that is required for survival today. 

Freeing ourselves from the domination of the Plutocracy Party is the key to restoring real democracy and finding our way out of the mess that we’re in.  There are two priorities that we must address.  First, we must reform our electoral process to break the stranglehold that the plutocracy has on it.  We know how to do that and the techniques are already in use at the local level.  It requires public campaign financing, ranked choice voting, and proportional representation, to bring a much wider group of candidates into the democratic process and allow real debate among them, without forcing them to depend on the wealthy for campaign patronage. 

Second, we must regain control of the media as a public utility.  The enormous cost of campaigns today is very much a function of the vast sums that the media conglomerates require in order to publicize a candidate’s ideas and programs.  Debate on these ideas is fundamental to the survival of our nation, and must be made into a public good that is supported by public funds.  We need today to debate deeply about the future of our grandchildren, and consider every option that can be articulated.  Ideas should not need millions of dollars or the approval of multinational corporations to be considered. 

Those are the two goals that we need to achieve in order to make democracy work for us again.  Until they are achieved we can expect the Plutocracy Party to lead us ever deeper into the hole that they have dug for us and for themselves.