A Definite Recipe For The Death Of Democracy

I never thought I would get to read what I have read today in any other place than, perhaps, a high school student-run newspaper - a mind-boggling exercise in utter intellectual sloth-driven immature, reactionary adolescent-thinking drivel published at Information Clearing House (no less!) and titled "Time to Boycott Voting", care of one Joel S. Hirschhorn.

In essence, Mr. Hirschhorn argues the following: "Just imagine if voter turnout was cut to 25 percent or less! Let the whole world see Americans boycotting a broken and corrupt political system and rejecting what has become a delusional democracy. To keep voting in an unjust political system makes us willing political slaves that the rich and powerful elites exploit."

One could not be more wrong in so many ways - and here's why.

Is the current political system corrupt and broken? There are many indications that the answer to that is yes - not just in the U.S., but increasingly likewise in Canada and elsewhere. Hence, I am not disputing this premise on Mr. Hirschhorn's part.

What I am disputing is the blatant omission by Mr. Hirschhorn in actually considering - and taking into account - why the political system has devolved to such a sorry state of affairs.

And the why is indeed central not only to the whole question of "what to do about it?", but furthermore emphasises the glaring wrongheaded-reasoning behind Mr. Hirschhorn's "solution" of boycotting voting.

Let us first begin by examining Mr. Hirschhorn's "call" (emphasis mine):

Just leaving the major parties is not good enough and, besides, most Americans are not party members. We need a bolder strategy. We must humiliate the political elites in both major parties and the corporate interests that support both of them. We can send a shock wave throughout the political establishment by not voting in the 2008 presidential election.

Stop playing THEIR game. Take back control. Take back YOUR nation. Time to boycott voting. This strategy is consistent with the thinking of Gandhi and King: peaceful resistance to political tyranny that can bring the corrupt system to its knees. Ultimately, the most effective protest is through civil disobedience – to visibly and stubbornly refuse to respect what has become a corrupt, untrustworthy system. Before it can be fixed it must be deconstructed and then rebuilt. Taxation with MISrepresentation means we need a Second American Revolution; it must begin – not with violent action – but with massive withdrawal by citizens that have seen the light. We have a good head start with about half of eligible voters already so turned off that they don’t vote. Obviously that has not been sufficient to change the system.

Aside from Mr. Hirschhorn's disingenuous twisting of the meaning of civil disobedience and the actual requirement of active engagement (as in its use in diplomacy) this underlies, thus adulterating the works of Ghandi and MLK at the same time by such twisting on his part, the amazing thing here is that Mr. Hirschhorn actually reveals a large portion of the reason why the political system has become so corrupt and broken, and yet he remains incredibly blind to it.

In other words, what he has done here is akin to diagnosing a disease, and advocating a treatment, without taking into account the actual cause of the disease and how it progresses with its symptoms.

A good part of the reason why lies in three things mentioned in the excerpt above:

A) most citizens are not party members;
B) about half of eligible voters don’t vote;
C) voter apathy has not been sufficient to change the system.

The why then becomes obvious, doesn't it?

If we remove ourselves from actively participating as party members in the nomination of a party's candidates to Congress, Senate and/or the Presidency (using the U.S. as example here), opting instead for a "wait and see", or "let others decide", lazy approach before deciding who to vote for, then of course such nominations will always be the purview of a few, especially what is commonly called the "party apparatchiks" and the party's "power brokers". If you remove yourself from a process, then do not be surprised to find the results of said process increasingly to your dislike and disdain.

From there comes voter apathy - which can be perceived as a nation-wide extension of the lack of interest in "local" party politics and nominations. Regardless of whatever happened in 2000 and 2004 (again - the U.S. being used as example here), the bottom line is that too many people did not go out and vote, thus resulting in the last six years or so of "superb" governance. Once again - if you remove yourself from a process, do not expect it to yield results to your liking.

And when one considers the lack of involvement of citizens in party nominations, added to the crippling state of voter apathy, one should therefore not be surprised that the system not only never changed throughout the years but has actually worsened.

We The People - this is what it has, and always has been, about. In a democracy, it is the electorate who holds all the keys and guard all the doors - provided that the citizens actually live up to their responsibility.

Granted, Mr. Hirschhorn acknowledges citizenship responsibility but, as in the case of his reference to civil disobedience above, his reasoning remains superficial and twisted (emphasis mine):

"Many will think that taking such action violates our responsibility as citizens. But taking that responsibility seriously as engaged citizens in the Jeffersonian sense must reflect that there is still a valid contract between citizens and their government. When we vote we have the right to a political system that respects we the people and gives us an authentic representative democracy. We have a right to a constitutional republic operating under the rule of law. But we have elected representatives that no longer have the public interest as their primary commitment, nor truly honor and respect our Constitution.

They have been corrupted by corporate and other special interests that fund their campaigns to get the laws, loopholes and largesse they want. They have been corrupted by power and the perks of office. They are political cowards and mostly intellectual midgets."

Once again - we are the ones who have broken the "contract between citizens and their government" because, in essence, we thought somehow that our vigilance and implication were optional.

We have abrogated our responsibilities by virtue of A) that we do not get involved in party politics and nominations; B) that too many of us do not bother to vote; and C) that voter apathy not only perpetuates, but furthermore exacerbates, the problem. Yet, now, we are carping about our rights (like Mr. Hirschhorn does in the excerpt above) - all the while conveniently ignoring our responsibilities in the matter!

Intellectual sloth and the need for instant gratification are the primary cause of the current state of affairs in the political system - what I call the metastasizing cancer on the body democratic and society. As I wrote recently:

More than ever, we would rather be serviced an opinion, like being served fast-food, instead of making the effort to forge an informed one for ourselves. We prefer to wallow body and mind into reality-tv shows, infotainments, games and leisure, instead of putting the effort in exercising our duties as citizens in our democratically-based societies.

We must have our instant gratification with minimal effort.

This in turn is the root cause for our current tabloid news and politics - a society-wide dumbing down.

That is why the overwhelming majority of politicos are often either timid, "dumb and dumber", or "uber triangulators", all the while seeking to appear as the most toughest and decisive leader-like leader-to-be - no substance, but all appearance ... which is what matters in election years, because that is what we want.

Indeed - the politicos are only responding (or trying to respond) to We The People.

We have become so superficial ourselves that we make our democratic choices based largely on appearances, not on substance.

(...)

In the meantime, we - meaning those of us who actually bother to get off their tv couch and go out to vote - keep electing demagogues that "make us feel good, make us feel secure, make us feel at ease, tell us what we want to hear" while rejecting with disdain and mistrust genuine candidates that are actually knowledgeable and better qualified as leaders.

Yes indeed - we can easily blame the politicians, the media, the corporations, the lobbying groups, or anyone else, all we want ... but the painful and ever so tragic truth remains this: we have only ourselves to blame.

I reiterate: we only have ourselves to blame - because of our lack of involvement due to intellectual sloth, lack of taking responsibility as citizens and overall laziness on our part.

We gave the keys away to the foxes and let them guard the hen house without supervision, because we would not be bothered anymore with our "burdensome" responsibilities as citizens. Hence, we are only reaping what we have sown.

Therefore, Mr. Hirschhorn's bold call to "Take back control. Take back YOUR nation. Time to boycott voting" is akin to keeping all the doors and windows of your house wide open, while you contentedly spend an indefinite time away on vacation. And when you finally come back to find your house sacked, robbed, vandalized and/or burnt to the ground, you rant and condemn your neighbors for not having your "interest as their primary commitment" by having failed to watch over your house while you were gone.

Or, to continue with my "cancer" metaphor - it is like injecting live, metastasizing cancer cells in a patient afflicted with advanced cancer to begin with, "thinking" that this will save the patient. The result will be indeed a "deconstruction" of the patient ... however, you won't be able to "rebuild" him and certainly won't be able to "fix" him - because he will be dead.

In short: what Mr. Hirschhorn proposes is nothing less that the complete surrender of the country and its democratic process to the same "corrupt elite" he decries, thus further facilitating and accelerating a process of establishment of authoritarianism.

And that, folks, is what an example of intellectual sloth-driven, immature and reactionary adolescent-thinking is all about - as glaringly illustrated by Mr. Hirschhorn.

(Should you remain unconvinced of the immaturity of Mr. Hirschhorn's reasoning, then re-read his own words, such as "We must humiliate the political elites in both major parties and the corporate interests that support both of them" and "Stop playing THEIR game" in the above excerpt, as but two examples)

I will spare you the rest of Mr. Hirschhorn's feuille de chou, since all of his justifications place the blame not where it lies primarily, i.e. with the citizens, but with the corrupt and broken system.

A corrupt and broken system that we have allowed to be, by our very own negligence.

And now the solution would be to simply walk away, hoping that increasing our negligence and lack of concern will somehow bring about the necessary changes to fix this ailing system?

Might as well march out in the streets to demand authoritarianism today and now.

Either way, we will yield the exact, same result: democracy will be dead.

In conclusion, what Mr. Hirschhorn advocates is nothing short of the ultimate act of incompetence on our part as citizens of democratic societies.

(Cross-posted from APOV)