Saturday, September 19, 2020

Showing Up

Democracy
Winston Churchill famously spoke: “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…”

What is a “democracy”?  Nothing more or less than “the people rule.”

For my part, any other form of government – monarchy or aristocracy – is a form of tyranny, no matter how well-meaning.  Which is not to say there is no good argument for them – they may have their place – but they are still tyranny.

"One person, one vote" democracy, a failure
However, democracy – our brand of democracy, our Constitutionally limited representative democratic republic – has utterly failed us.  If you don’t see this, don’t waste your time reading Ben Paine.  The self-evident reason behind its failure is democracy’s easy corruption by the influence of money.  I have written about this at great length.  The other problem is: the people in "We the People” are clearly not up to the task.

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Whose America Is It, Anyway?

We Americans need to get a grip.

Many white Americans identify with the Pilgrims, with Jamestown settlers, with our Founding Fathers.  But most white Americans are descendants of much more recent immigrants.  Most white Americans' ancestors did NOT arrive on these shores via Plymouth Rock, most white Americans’ ancestors did NOT fight in our Revolutionary War, most white Americans’ ancestors arrived here in the last 150 years.  But even these children of immigrants choose to identify with Puritans rather than later immigrants.  Many white Americans would like to ignore the black experience, even though the first generation of blacks arrived here well before their European ancestors.  Many white Americans would like to ignore the indigenous experience, even though they populated the Americas for 10,000 years before the first Europeans set foot on these shores.