Finally Understand What Democratic Politics is...

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by upside-down cake, Jun 9, 2019.

  1. upside-down cake

    upside-down cake Well-Known Member

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    I think I finally understand what democratic politics is... Not the dictionary definition. Everyone likes to pull out a dictionary to define reality when the two aren't symmetrical.

    To make it clearer...I think I now understand what practical American democratic politics is about. At first I believed it was power-brokering. It's the government that decides who gets what, but...no. After a while I realized that the government doesn't have power. But the government often acts as the officiating agency to a decision, law, compact, or whatever that has been decided by other organizations, persons, or interests.

    At some point I realized that American Democratic politics is all about the brokerage of legitimacy. What makes our government Democratic? The people do not control anything. They could yes. The people could overthrow the nation tomorrow if they wanted to, but despite all the resentment and distrust and the calls to radically reform or secede from the government, why hasn't this occurred. Because there's a difference between the definition of democracy and the practical reality.

    The practical reality is that the only power we actually exercise is the power to vote someone in and out of office and, really, of late, it's debatable whether we even have that. The people do not decide anything beyond this.

    So were does the "brokerage of legitmacy" come in?

    The US functions locally and abroad largely under the veneer that it uses it's power and influence for the greater good. For democracy. That it's every action is ultimately benevolent. To maintain this image, it must appear actually democratic and so you have this huge spectacle know as an election. But we know that the decisions, the laws, the policies are actually being created by other entities other than the government. Businesses write the laws that then get passed through government for validation. This is policy they decide will be put into place. They will do it whether it is legal or not, but it's better to make it legal in order to maintain the air of legitmacy and so it gets passed through government and their job is to put an appealing image on it and sell it to you so that you vote for it and it becomes democratically legitimate.

    When you see something being debated in politics, often the resolution has often been made by the people who actually determine policy. It's rounds through political and media discourse are only looking for legitimacy so that they don't have to spend time being covert about it. The Patriot Act is a good example. US highly relaxed regulations on what is considered "food" is a good example.

    American politicians are deal makers. They get you to sign your public consent onto policies you know very little about and will often have a negative result for you. Benevolent plausibility is the gateway to democratic destruction. No matter what it is, they will always sell it as something beneficial and remarkable to you. Legislation that was supposed to fight crime often protects and inflates institutional crimes committed by law enforcement. Legislation that's suppose to protect you from financial malpractice often ends up protecting and abetting those institutions. Agencies voted into place that are supposed to protect the integrity of your food, your education, your rights...are often the very agencies working to dismantle them.

    And the reason is because Americans like to think of themselves as empowered, intelligent individuals. Go to a political rally and you will be told you are the center of creation. That you are the greatest people of the greatest city in the greatest state of the greatest country. But Americans are pretty dumb. We often sell our consent for hope. That's exactly what a vote is. You sell your consent for the hope that the person you vote for actually carries out your agenda. Worse, you don't even know the person that well. You listen to what they say. You're sold because their willing to pat your ego while they rob your wallet and carve out your rights. And just like now, when the effects start to build up, you look around and say...what happened? Who's fault is this? Yours. Mine.

    Our politicians do not serve us. They exist to enlist our consent onto policies that are often going to hurt us. Our discontent with these policies is not necessarily going to stop them from forcing it through or doing them anyway, but it's always better when they maintain the air of legal legitimacy and public approval. Look at Trump. Trump is a businessman. A known con-artist that has cheated people left and right? Remember his phony college? You can bet most of the people who signed into that con were white. But this is the guy you elect. The shark businessmen who was willing to con you out of your money...this is the guy you elect to solve the corruption in the White House.

    Do I even need to go into Obama and how Black people sold him their consent wholesale. The criticism is true, Black people tossed their consent at a person who pandered to their ego and told them all the things they wanted to hear- just like Trump. Trump is Obama. Obama is Trump. The legitimize the ambitions of the people who patronize them. The American Democratic Government is a guild- a legal front representing the collection and mediation of diverse interests where the largest patrons own the highest share of an organization designed to legalize actions and pacts through majority support. Government is not for the people. They are the front desk in the lobby of that elite, and now global consortium- the one you approach and appeal to for change. They represent them. They manage you.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2019
  2. garyd

    garyd Well-Known Member

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    You are starting to see the light, grasshopper but you aren't quite there yet. Trump was elected to fix things. Whether he can or not is debatable. I suspect the world is in for a very bumpy ride in the next few years. The very sentiments that sparked the French and American Revolutions a little more than two hundred years ago and again in the late 1840's and 1920's and '30's, are starting once again to rear their heads. People are starting to lose faith in all their institutions and leaders. The old boogeymen of Fascism and Naziism no longer have the power to strike fear they once did, in no small part because they have been over used and surprisingly overblown. Both Brexit and Trump are revolts against the status quo, in ways that Obama and Clinton never were or ever could be.

    Where are the leaders of this new revolution? Who are they? Who will be the new Metternich trying to stuff that genie back in his bottle? In an attempt to give this crop of elites a few more years to get it right, which they won't because they can't. The world is no longer capable of being run top down as the old order wishes. It is simply too big, too complicated, and has far too many moving parts.

    What will come forth from this next round of petite revolutions? The answers will be as many and as varied as the the cultures from which they spring.
     

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