time to do democracy

 
We should never sacrifice our values 
or refrain from questioning the values 
or understandings of political leaders. 
That IS democracy. 
Yet, this is also the real world in which 
we must accept less than perfect 
leaders because we are all human. 
We can elect the best choice for the 
time and work with each other to keep 
them honest. 
We can also understand that government 
is not our uberparent or otherwise 
omnipotent, and do what we can for 
ourselves, including whatever 
it takes to reach our social goals.

political parties do not democracy 
make but rather they can be a danger 
through the divisiveness that's killing 
our better natures
if the citizens of a democracy were doing their due diligence 
within the firm understanding that they are their government, 
there would be no separate entity “government” to oppose. 
There would be people working out what they need and how 
to make the world they want to live in. There would be power 
hungry narcissists, but they would be easily shouted down by 
the people who understand the politics of power and the 
difference between power over others and power to achieve 
our common goals. The education necessary for well-informed 
citizenry would be an underlying given, including frequent
 practice of problem-solving through democratic means.
We have to stop abdicating our democracy to 
political parties (remember Washington's warning)
 -- get together with people you trust with similar 
political beliefs.  Get out there and find people 
you can trust, with similar beliefs, who have shown 
their knowledge and effectiveness and promote them 
for the position you think they are best suited to. 
 Or run yourself.  
Make Democracy about The People Again






voting is the basic duty of a citizen in a democracy 
(necessary, not sufficient)
the problems in our democracy mostly stem from 
We the People abdicating our role as self 
governors, allowing "parties" and "media" to take over 


the thing is, with politicians, there should never 
have been such an industry. Democracy is not 
about top-down ambitious salesfolk raising exorbitant 
funds to tell us to put them in power. We were meant 
to care enough about our self-governance to find the 
people who rise up as leaders, who know how to put 
into words what we want to say, and imbue them with
 our trust to, with others from other regions, do the 
daily due diligence of governance.

We claim we want to live as a democracy.
Let’s do the job of an active electorate.


Democracy, government by the People, is only as good as the majority of participants


Capitalism does not require Democracy
Democracy does not require Capitalism
Democracy can accommodate any
economic system the People embrace.
Capitalists get along best with pro-profit
Authoritarians
Our Capitalism experiment has
failed.
Unfortunately, those who have
decided they are benefiting
exceptionally, and therefore have
too much power, would rather
destroy our experiment with
Democracy.

It's not a democracy because
we vote.  It is a democracy if we
do the work to rule ourselves.


Isn't the essential point of democracy
-- rule by the people --
to create and maintain a social structure
that provides for all citizens' needs?


When we talk about threats to #democracy, it may seem some
philosophical argument without real daily life immediacy.
Think, though   we are talking about our long, hard, mortally
fought for rights: our ability to be who we are and demand more,
hope for better futures, power to speak our minds, to demand
our human dignity, our possibility to improve the background
rules we live by, to not be helpless against uncaring aristocrats
and ignorant mobs.


voting is not just about POTUS
 it is vastly important to elect Congressional
representatives that will more likely
vote as you would prefer. And then
there are the initiatives and such, and
participating in your democracy.


Maybe the problem is that what
the People want is not democracy,
but the pomp and glitter of
aristocracy. The Hunger Games
type society, where the poor are
made useful as brutal entertainment,
the wealthy privileged are entitled
as the ruling class.



we have a democracy, but the rulers (The People)
have abdicated in favor of big money propagandists
we really need to do our job in finding people who
truly have the background, skills and values we want,
then keep them honest by paying attention and
praising or complaining as appropriate -- and doing
our job of learning about the people we vote for so
we can't be taken in by flashy big money paid for ads and such

So defeated we lose the fight
while they chortle.
The flaw is there is no such
thing as perfect people, perfect
government -- the point of democracy
(instead of just giving in to dictators)
is to keep trying, especially when it seems
overwhelming, learning to do better
and find the very real people who are
willing and able to do better
with and for us


we make our lives worse by not taking the
responsibilities of democracy seriously and
letting our so-called representatives act like
spoiled middle school brats because, hey,
that represents us, doesn't it.


we used to have public education that
emphasized civic knowledge -- the point of public
education was to have an educated citizenry to
participate in a well reasoned democracy.  Now
our political reality is a Reality TV game show,
much more like football than Jeopardy.  It has
become the major tactic of a highly competitive
either/or to keep the public ignorant of how
our system is meant to work and
heap on the propaganda.


we as a democracy should know
that it is imperative to have a well
educated citizenry who understand
our history, philosophy, system(s)
and structures to usefully
participate in self rule

I am not perfect, nor are you.
"Perfect person" is an oxymoron.
If we the People expect perfection,
that is not democracy:  rule by we the People.


There is a great deal we can do -- if we are willing 
to do and not just post complaints.  We can create 
bit by bit that world we want, first small steps 
until we get into the swing.  Most "government" 
happens locally -- yet we focus almost 
exclusively on the national, POTUS, whose 
power would be greatly diminished if we 
all practiced democracy from the bottom up.


It s not the tribes, but elite rulers who
obstruct tribes from having equal voice
that thwarts democracy.
Democracy is not a homogeneous group
agreeing, but diverse tribes negotiating
for common rule that works well enough
for everyone.