The democratic creed tells us that it is the people who should be in charge, and wanting to have a democracy we often pretend that the people are, in fact, in charge. Are they really?
We the people have a few levers of control. First, every so often we can vote - but only for one of a usually tiny collection of candidates, sometimes as few as just one, but more often there are two; rarely there are more but we believe only two have any chance of winning, so we would be fools to give the single vote we have available.
Second, we can protest in the streets, but our government may declare this is terrorism or a riot or something, throw us in jail or perhaps even shoot us for protesting.
Third, we can write or call our representatives in government. The last time I did this (about a week ago) I was told to send an email; my Senator was no longer taking calls. The only other option seems to be to write an article or comment on some web site.
The common man's leverage with government seems too weak. But also, government does not seem to work as intended. Congress was designed to be center of government power, but over time it has surrendered much of its power to the executive and judicial branches. It has allowed the Judicial branch freedom to supervise itself with no outside supervision, but also allowed the Court to intrude on the legislative prerogatives of Congress. The Court now has the final word on the legislative decisions of Congress, even after passing review of the Executive branch; the Court can make a ruling, however frivolous it may seem, that a law or part of a law is unconstitutional. In doing so, the Court effectively re-writes legislations to fit its current whim, often to satisfy big money interests.
In turn, Court rulings of this sort have allowed big money interests, to gain excessive power over members of Congress. Congress has become populated less with ardent defenders of the public good, and more like attendants in a phone bank who spend their days dialing and begging for campaign dollars. For this, Congress can blame their predecessors who allowed the Courts to usurp their control of the legislative process.
The democratic creed tells us that it is the people who should be in charge, and wanting to have a democracy we often pretend that the people are, in fact, in charge. Are they really?
We the people have a few levers of control. First, every so often we can vote - but only for one of a usually tiny collection of candidates, sometimes as few as just one, but more often there are two; rarely there are more but we believe only two have any chance of winning, so we would be fools to give the single vote we have available.
Second, we can protest in the streets, but our government may declare this is terrorism or a riot or something, throw us in jail or perhaps even shoot us for protesting.
Third, we can write or call our representatives in government. The last time I did this (about a week ago) I was told to send an email; my Senator was no longer taking calls. The only other option seems to be to write an article or comment on some web site.
The common man's leverage with government seems too weak. But also, government does not seem to work as intended. Congress was designed to be center of government power, but over time it has surrendered much of its power to the executive and judicial branches. It has allowed the Judicial branch freedom to supervise itself with no outside supervision, but also allowed the Court to intrude on the legislative prerogatives of Congress. The Court now has the final word on the legislative decisions of Congress, even after passing review of the Executive branch; the Court can make a ruling, however frivolous it may seem, that a law or part of a law is unconstitutional. In doing so, the Court effectively re-writes legislations to fit its current whim, often to satisfy big money interests.
In turn, Court rulings of this sort have allowed big money interests, to gain excessive power over members of Congress. Congress has become populated less with ardent defenders of the public good, and more like attendants in a phone bank who spend their days dialing and begging for campaign dollars. For this, Congress can blame their predecessors who allowed the Courts to usurp their control of the legislative process.