Down On Democracy

Through a conversation with a co-worker I discovered that he voted for George W. Bush twice! I can forgive once. We all have heard the pop wisdom phrase of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. So yeah, he got fooled twice and is just now realizing that he may have made a mistake.

Of course I was fascinated by the opportunity to talk politics with this person. One of the benefits of working in manufacturing is the opportunity to mix with 'regular' people and crawl inside the workings of their minds. Rather than going ballistic on him, I made inquiries into how he came to vote for the shrub both times, who is he considering this time around and why.

The major theme was one of anti-liberalism. The other candidates were just too liberal. How so? He didn't know. He wasn't even sure what liberal meant. He thought that a liberal was for keeping things the same and that conservatives wanted to make changes. Taking both terms literally he would be dead wrong. Taking them as political positions he would only be half wrong since both parties have a major interest in keeping things about the way they are now. So this time around he is voting for John McCain because we are at war and Obama is just too liberal. Whatever that means.

So I asked him (or 'aksed' him, as he says) what exactly he thinks the next President should do. He wants to see a balanced budget, an end to the war in Iraq, an increase in American exports, a decrease in American imports, and for America to stop being the world's police force. Then vote for me! I'm right in line with exactly what you want. But I don't think he took me seriously.

American style democracy is doomed, dieing, or dead. I don't know which. Or maybe it is working exactly as intended when first devised by the rich white land-owner business men who framed the constitution of this country. But as long as a majority of Americans can be so easily swayed by rhetoric, catch-phrases, propaganda, lies, and all the other trappings of a main stream political campaign, nobody who might do a decent job as President will ever make it past the primaries. The average American will make certain of that.

But I'm still in the race. If Democracy is a joke than there may as well be a punch line. Vote Jake!