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Just exactly what is the future of our Democracy? Are we just lost in our own times and seeing them as more critical than other times because they affect us personally? Is there anything left to do, or is the planet as a whole just tumbling down a course of inevitable doom?
I suppose that a very great percentage of Americans, believe that a "Capitalistic Democracy" is Democracy... period! This is not true. You can have a Socialistic Democracy. They exist and thrive right now. Failure of Capitalism as the primary driving force of our Democracy, is not surprising, yet is also not finite. In the time of unlimited resources it worked well, but that time is gone. In our Democracy based on Capitalism there are definite signs of an inevitable end approaching. We do not have enough successful Capitalists who recognize their good fortune as being just that, good fortune. Thus, we have fewer philanthropists, proportionately than there should be. Instead, Capitalist greed has prevailed and developed into a social class. This class is comprised of "Takers" that have banded into a power structure, that lobbies its needs, into the structure of our government. These Takers have so invaded the Legislative Branch of Government that attachments to bills, absolutely insure that they always get their way, no matter what the cost to other people. If the Bill is stopped by trying to disallow the attachment, nothing gets done, so compromises are almost always made because of time restraints and prioritization. Their unlimited need for greater and greater wealth and power has simultaneously generated a class of citizen that is essentially a "new form of Slavery"! Millions of people work full, hard weeks for pay that is not enough to support them, so they slip day by day, month by month, year by year into un-resolvable debt to "Takers", those being banks, credit card companies, mortgage firms, power companies, etc. Only by moving toward a Socialistic Democracy will these particular problems ever be solved. The Capitalists will not dot it! There is a vast difference between a purely Socialistic society and a Socialistic Democracy! There is now a rapidly growing section of the population that feels hopeless and no longer can bring the "American Dream" into their sights!
Hopelessness is one primary instigator of drug and alcohol use and abuse; possibly the single most dangerous problem in our Country, though it is not publicized much recently. Desperation combined with hopelessness translates into crime. Very seldom discussed is the "Black Market" that is supplied by crime, that in turn becomes a market for those underpaid people, struggling to make ends meet. This then makes the buyer supporting the Black Market into a criminal, also. This has made the prison system into a "Cottage Industry" that, in states like California and Texas, is now an integral part of the State economy. This is all a result of not addressing the growing numbers of U.S. citizens living at a poverty level so that a privileged few can live like "Royalty"! Day by day, people are slipping from the middle class into the poverty level. As the middle class shrinks the divide between wealthy and poor grows. The middle class has traditionally been the class of Americans that can see hope. This hope is what drives them to vote and try to be part of the Democracy and hold our Social structure together. Poverty drives people into survival mode often resulting in poor decisions that separate them from the greater Society. They literally have to live in a different World!
We are not just seeing Worldwide problems through the narrow time frame in which we live. Global warming is a phenomena never faced before. For God's sake, the polar caps are melting. Just how bad is that? Dwindling supplies of fuels and natural resources has not always been a problem visible to and felt by the average American. It is now an undeniable reality! Nuclear proliferation has never been in the hands of underprivileged Nations that might actually profit from nuclear warfare. Life as we Americans know it is in the hands of people whose only philosophy is consume, take, consume take, and they are not facing reality. In this day and age, something must change radically for the existence of not only Americans, but the human species as a whole to continue.
As a society, America is at a critical point, and what happens in the United States may very well determine what happens to life on Planet Earth. We need to come together as a species, and that cannot happen when we are still having "class wars" like those of the time period before the Industrial Revolution. Our problems are all solvable if we can accept the need for very abrupt "Change" in our Government and our Life Styles and must include every single occupant on this Earth as having "Worth".
In regard to Foreign Policy, the U.S. has to become a global role model (as it once actually was) and not try to Police the World. We cannot believe that everyone else in the World is some lower form of life, incapable of making their own decisions. If we can provide Health Care to everyone. If we can guarantee that every citizen is fed. If we can adopt a policy of "no one left behind", as we have tried to do with "no child left behind". I think we will then, automatically become a role model for all others. We have a Constitution that works when properly adhered to. We have nearly unlimited technological resources. We have abundant natural resources if we can learn to prevent waste. We can do this! The question is "Will we?" Is this political phenomena that seems to be happening, in America indicative of a shift of priorities or is it just going to turn out to be another lost dream leading to demise of the Planet. This is how important the future of our country is. I believe that the entire World is watching. I believe the people of the world are waiting, like they never have, since we entered WWII. I surely hope that "Change" is our destiny, or I pity my Grandchildren and what they will inherit from our failure!
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