Do we really have a democracy?

by Ed Martin
OpEdNews
June 1, 2007 at 05:11:31

Democracy is rule by the people, rule by the majority. A look at the evidence shows that our idea that we have a democracy is not true. The people in our government, George Bush and congress, who keep telling us that we have a democracy, are the very ones who have taken it away from us. Here's the evidence.

In 2000, a majority of over half a million people democratically elected Al Gore President. A group of Republican government employees on the Supreme Court overturned that election and appointed George Bush to the Presidency.

In November of 2006 the majority of the people elected to throw out the Republicans and turn control of Congress over to the Democrats. That congress continues to do exactly the same as the previous congress. They bow and scrape and tug their forelocks to do the will of the Republican president.

After the November election, we had hope, what Emily Dickinson described. "Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul." We were so proud of our efforts to unseat the Republicans and re-gain control of congress. We danced around and did high-fives and grinned like fools. It turns out that we actually were fools.

We have a government that can appoint its leader in disregard for the will of the people. We have a government that is under the control of one man, that does what he wants and only what he wants, in the way he wants it done, in disregard for the will of the people and the law of the land. I submit to you that that is the definition of a dictatorship, not a democracy.

George Bush gives us his simplistic, black and white choice, "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists." Given that Bush has created more terrorists that there have ever been before, that is a distinction without a difference. There's no difference between being with the terrorists and being with the man who creates them. Thanks, but no thanks.

We have the choice between George Bush and a congress that is a George Bush clone. That is a distinction without a difference. Thanks, but no thanks, we'll choose neither.

We thought that prior to last November the knowledgeable people who wrote articles eloquently and spoke movingly, with passionate pleas to put the USA to rights, had made a difference. We had been and still are pointing out the obvious. We thought that was enough, but the current congress, the same as the previous one, proved us wrong.

So, what do we do now? What do we do about a government that refuses to acknowledge and act on the will of the people, that instead follows the will of one man?