I think what you mean by, "I refuse to worry about something that doesn't exist" (our democracy) is that you don't worry about, and get distracted by, trivialities, like virtually every discussion in Washington DC, when NONE of the so-called elected representatives involved in such discussions can prove that they have a right to be there. Half the 'elections' in the U.S. cannot be verified and the other half have not been verified. We have no proof that these people are our true representatives, and it is very likely that most of them are not. So why should you or I waste our time on their debates?
Is that what you meant?
Further, every ill that we currently see in our democracy--past ills magnified a thousand-fold, and new ills emerging every day--is traceable to WHO is getting empowered by the 'TRADE SECRET' voting systems that were spread across this country like a plague during the 2002 to 2004 period.
Why is no one addressing climate change?
Why is no one addressing the greatest theft of the public coffers in our history--or maybe in anybody's history--the bankster "bailout"?
How could the banking regulations, put in place during the "New Deal" to prevent economic crashes, be gone?
How is it possible that the U.S. government permitted speculators to bet on, and profit from, people being unable to meet their mortgage payments? What the Hell is government for, if not that?
Why is the U.S. killing people all over the world with drones, operated by anonymous assassins, without accusation, prosecution or trial, and often involving innocent bystanders?
Why hasn't Guantanamo Bay been shut down, and IS the U.S. government STILL involved in torture? (They certainly are of Bradley Manning.)
Why are Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld not in jail?
Why is there no regulation of gas prices? Clearly, the oil moguls are price-fixing and gouging? Where is the debate?
How in God's name can we allow insurance companies to run our medical system?
Why are the homes in Oklahoma not bolted to their foundations, let alone have tornado basements, and why, in God's name, do some of their schools not have tornado shelters? I mean, these things are unbelievable in this day and age!
Why are our people being fed "Frankenfood" and why do we not even have LABELING of such foods, so we have a choice? How dare Monsanto mess with our health and with the "food chain"? How dare they? How can that be permitted?
Why are so many Americans bankrupt with debt and even able-bodied, willing, educated Americans struggling to find employment? And what of the penniless, the very poor, the poorly educated, the forgotten, the homeless, the hopeless? They don't exist in the crapola "debates" oozing out of Washington!
Why is the federal government harassing, raiding, prosecuting, jailing, confiscating the property of and destroying the lives and families of small marijuana entrepreneurs in states where what they are doing is LEGAL? SWAT teams. Ferocious prosecutions. Billions spent on this!
Why is our educational system falling apart--and why is education bankrupting families--when plenty of money can be found to imprison multi-millions of people in hellish jails, with draconian sentences, for nothing--for drug possession, for drug use, for minor drug sales, for minor theft, for prostitution, for being homeless, for being poor?
Why do we have the least progressive tax system in the world, when once we had one of the best?
How can we be permitting corporations to outsource jobs? How can we be permitting them to avoid taxation? How can we permit them to parade as "persons"?
Why is there no "Fairness Doctrine" for use of our public airwaves? Why is there no fairness in news reporting and political opinion? Why is it all lockstep Wall Street propaganda and worse--outright fascism?
How is it that billionaires are getting richer while nearly everybody else is descending into poverty, just like in the 1920s? How could this happen again?!
And on and on. It all comes down to the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines--and the one, private, far rightwing-connected corporation that controls most of them (ES&S, which bought out Diebold, and now has a 75% monopoly over U.S. voting systems)--an obviously rigged system that is being used to blockade reform and to conduct the final looting of this once great and prosperous country.
So, yeah, I understand not worrying about our "democracy," if that's what you mean--concerning ourselves with the irrelevant debates in Washington, and often in state capitols, trying hopelessly to influence them in all the normal democratic ways. We have a huge task that must be done, to RE-START our democracy, to recover its most basic function--a limited transfer our sovereign power as a people to those whom we truly elect to represent us and act in our interest.
We've lost the very foundation of democracy--counting of our votes in the public venue--and until we get it back, nothing is going to change, no matter how hard we try, on vital issue after vital issue.
There ARE other fundamental things to worry about--mainly, the corporate 'news' monopoly and its propagandistic nature, and the utter filth of our campaign money system. I sympathize with people who see these fundamental problems and try to do something about them, thought I know that they will get nowhere--other than educating people--because our non-elected public officials are blockading all such reform.
I also support what might be called "guerrilla farming"--people who are pouring their energies and hearts and entire lives into creating an alternative food system, AND people who are working on sustainable energy solutions. And there is, for instance, an important campus divestment movement against Monsanto (like the one that helped get rid of apartheid in South Africa--with a national protest coming up May 25). Market-based campaigns CAN change things. The "guerrilla farmers," for instance, may actually be a key factor in saving Planet Earth and humanity itself. Their movement is growing by leaps and bounds.
But the transglobal corporations, banksters and war profiteers who are running things--and our government officials, who are either (s)elected by ES&S/Diebold or permitted to be elected, who, either way, serve those interests--are capable of huge damage to people, to the planet and to all aspirations to democracy, in the meantime. We must find the way to reassert control over these out-of-control powers, and that starts with vote counting in the public venue.
= new reply since forum marked as read
