No Democracy

Today I've got some new and some old news. New and old, but both illustrating the same timeless truth about our western democracies: there is no democracy!

The first video, linked below this paragraph, shows the new news. It's Jon Stewart, surrounded by representatives of American Veteran's advocate groups and organizations, giving a passionate speech one day after the Senate decided to vote against passing the PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act). Just so we're clear, the military is insanely popular in the United States in the sense that its citizens have always supported the sons and daughters who fought for the country. Not every war is popular, Americans don't always agree with the reasons for those wars, as they shouldn't. But their support for the individuals who do the actual fighting, who actually risk their lives and limbs, is unwavering, as it should. So when it comes to supporting those brave men and women, most Americans won't vote against that, regardless of their social, ethnic or political affiliation. This PACT Act, if it would have been given the publicity it deserves, would have had massive popular support and would have been passed without question in a functional democracy. Unfortunately there is no real democracy, and speeches like this one from Jon Stewart are both necessary and inescapable:

Stewart has been doing this for decades now; I'll never forget the monologue he delivered in defense of the 9/11 first responders, the police, firemen and women and rescue workers who came to New York from all over the country, and who were met with the same cruel neglect from their government. Jon said it in this new speech: "you don't support the troops, you support the war-machine." That's the truth. They spend hundreds of billions of dollars each and every year on the war-machine, mainly defense-contractors who get blank checks and never manage to work within their already copious budgets. Only two days ago the Congress cleared the CHIPS Act, a $52 billion check for Big Tech, funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Free money for the industries that moved manufacturing to foreign countries, supposedly to incentivize them to create new jobs at home... Who still falls for this obvious bullshit?

The old news is related to the wars but is mainly about how democracy is basically dead. The below linked video highlights a study published by Cambridge University, which is titled Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. It shows who really governs America and we all know who that is already, but it's helpful to see it confirmed in scientific research. From the abstract of this study:

Who governs? Who really rules? To what extent is the broad body of U.S. citizens sovereign, semi-sovereign, or largely powerless? These questions have animated much important work in the study of American politics.
_{source: Cambridge University Press}

The conclusion, which we already know, is that the average American citizen is powerless when it comes to influencing lawmakers. It contains a simple but telling graph that shows that policies or proposals have a 30% chance to become law, no matter their popularity among average citizens. If there's 0% support, it has a 30% chance, and if there's 100% support it still has a 30% chance to become law. This graph looks very different for the economic elites; in their graph the chance of becoming law increases with the popularity of the policy or proposal. They get what they want, and they don't get what they don't want. Watch the below linked video, it'll explain the larger context around the reason why veterans are denied the healthcare they deserve. And while the PACT Act is blocked by Republicans, know that both parties are guilty for this sad state of affairs, and that this is true for most western countries that dare call themselves democratic...

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!