Clearly, the greater the role of government in our lives, the
greater the importance of ensuring that it is democratically
controlled by the people and not by some elite class of rulers. The
Bill of Rights must be restored. The democratic political processes
must be protected by minimizing money in politics--only
individual humans (not corporations) should be allowed to
contribute money to parties--and only limited amounts. We need to
re-examine the election process to fix problems ranging from rigged
e-voting systems, to spoilers due to plurality voting,
gerrymandering, and the electoral college [Unger-Broken]. Wide open discussion of political
issues must be encouraged. A greater variety of news sources should
be encouraged, and governmental secrecy reduced drastically to a
bare minimum.
Is the above wish-list unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky? Not really.
Many of the above ideas have been implemented, at least partially,
in the Nordic countries, which, tho not without their own problems,
seem to be far more egalitarian than the US. But, in terms of the
current US political scene, we appear to be going in the wrong
direction. None of the listed items are even discussed by the
politicians comprising the two major parties. As I write this, we
are just emerging from the exciting donkey-elephant show, in which
lunatic Republicans, forcing a partial governmental shutdown, took
the spotlight off both the revelations of the assault on our
liberties being perpetrated by the Democratic administration, and
the Syrian debacle.
In the usual election day scenario, the great majority of those
most sympathetic to the above ideas, fearing a Republicans victory,
hold their noses and vote for the Democrats [Unger-Best]. But now, the Republicans may have
antagonized so many people who normally vote for them that their
chances at the polls have greatly faded. So there is at least a
chance that those who usually vote on the basis of the lesser evil
argument might feel that it is safe to vote for parties that come
close to representing their views, without risking a victory by the
party they most fear.
References
BLS, "Union Members
Summary", U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 23,
2013
G. William Domhoff, "Wealth,
Income, and Power", Power in America, 2005-2013
Global Macro Monitor, "Chart
of the day: US Manufacturing Employment, 1960-2012", Global
Macro Monitor, May 1, 2012
Steven Greenhouse, "Union
Membership in U.S. Fell to a 70-Year Low Last Year", NY Times,
January 21, 2011
Jim Hightower, "The
Trans-Pacific Partnership Is a Corporate Coup in Disguise",
Truthout, October 2, 2013
Elisabeth Rosenthal, "The
Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath", NY Times, October 12, 2013,
p.1
Murray N. Rothbard, "The
Libertarian Manifesto on Pollution", Mises Daily, April 17,
2012
Michael Snyder, "19
Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Make You
Weep", Business Insider, Sep. 27, 2010
Richard Stallman, "What is free
software?", Gnu.org, 2013
Karl D. Stephan, "Engineers and Technological Unemployment: What Are People For?", Engineering Ethics Blog, September 23, 2013
Stephen H. Unger-benefits, "Where Did the Benefits of Technology Go?", Ends and Means, February 10, 2012
Stephen H. Unger-Best, "Should
You Vote for the Best Candidate?", Ends and Means, August 7,
2012
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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