By Kenneth Howard
The military government of Myanmar recently released their democratically elected opponent this week after 9 years of house arrest. President Obama hailed Aung San Suu Kyi as an icon of democracy. Certainly this icon offers the stark reality that you never appreciate democracy until the election you fought hard to win ends in a military coup forcing a different result. The true winners of this long standoff are not the democratic leader but all those supporters who trusted the government with their votes. In a world full of oppression, democracy has drowned in a sea of corporate misinformation, omissions, and deceit.
Our own country voted in 2008 for a change in management and demanded that we stop fighting endless wars that corporations mislead the public into starting. Throwing trillions of dollars away on wars that never end the people voted for change. The American public voted to end favoritism towards corporate handouts without cutting education and other necessary services of democracy. After the election it might as well have been a military coup dashing our hopes of change because the following two years amounted to a corporate supported coup. Banks were given the largest bailout in history with no accountability, no strings attached. The endless wars continue under the guise of downsizing. Yet our brave soldiers lose their lives in Afghanistan instead of Iraq.
Unlike a true democracy, information we receive on these issues are full of misinformation. Our heads full of omissions and deceit we do not know the full story that is Iraq, Afghanistan, or even 9/11. Our corporations have lulled us into the trap of a corporate Pravda, killing true journalism necessary for normal checks and balances of a government by the people for the people. Our news information might as well come from Socialist Era newspaper, Pravda, because rampant capitalism has produced a democracy vacuum in America.
Each time we voice our wishes for campaign finance reform the tinkering causes far more loopholes and advantages for corporations to get the upper hand. Ronald Regan, I remember, ran promising campaign reform. What we got was less limits on corporations under the guise that the money would go to political candidates to express their voice. This voice is manipulated by obliged politicians to the sheer amount of campaign donations by corporations and their allies. The media steps in to misinform the public on any bills that might help them and convince them to vote against their own foot. The whole corporate game remains an uneven playing field that individuals lose on every day.
The patriot act remains a sore on free speech and democracy that festers until the next time the government wants to pull the wool over the public eye. Any exception where individuals based on suspicion remove basic rights in democracy the entire civilization loses. Another empty promise this administration failed to deploy change.
The only change in health care is no true change at all, but yet another example of a government handout to corporate lobbyists. The health care bill was written for a public that did not include the legislators themselves. What place does elitism have in democracy? Until leaders work to unite this country we will die divided. Abraham Lincoln demonstrated the will to show a Union divided can not stand. In the aftermath of that struggle asked that people who fell for liberty should not perish in vain. The hope that he wrote in his famous speech at Gettysburg should be the proud words of those who truly stand for democracy. The sacrifice of our fallen soldiers for democracy should not fall in vain; that our country of government by the people for the people should not forever perish from the world.
Our country and its democracy are needlessly dying, being carried away by unchecked capitalism. Our jobs carried overseas and our politicians to corporate will instead of the will of the people. In order to regain democracy world wide we need a basic minimum standard for workers everywhere. For the sake of humanity all should agree to a minimum standard and stand by it unless jobs continue to landslide to the next lowest bidder. This standard should apply to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Not just in monetary value but in quality of life. True carriers of democracy will support this. Corporations and the media that they control will not support this because they are not democratic; they are capitalist. Democracy and capitalism is not the same thing. They are as opposing ideals just as Democracy and Socialism. Capitalists are not motivated by human concern but by profits. The people in this country and the soldiers who fight for democracy need to stand for a minimum quality of life worldwide regardless of race or creed. Then once a minimum standard can be agreed apply it to political campaign finance reform. I would imagine the world wage may go up dramatically once corporations are limited to donations to their favorite political campaign to the amount of the lowliest worker on the planet.
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