Working As Designed

We have to say again that we are disturbed to see so many comments about government "dysfunction" regarding the debt ceiling debates in the popular press. The fact is that our government is working as designed. Tosoc.org's concern is whether the attitude of the popular press reflects a widespread dissatisfaction with the processes of democracy in the U.S. We are concerned whether it reflects a true desire to enforce political "function" by any means – ultimately meaning giving up democracy. How long can real democracy last if the people do not want it anymore?

Just as the purpose of capitalists is to make money, the purpose of political parties is to win elections. Do not expect a capitalist to save capitalism if it costs too much. Capitalism is nice in theory but capitalists are about the bottom line. Who cares what the economic/political system is as long as the money is pouring in? The ultimate goal of a capitalist is to make ever more money and keep doing it until everyone else is run out of business.

In the same sense, do not expect a political party to save democracy if it costs too many elections. Democracy is nice in theory but parties are about winning elections. Who cares what the political/economic system is as long as the party wins elections? The ultimate goal of a party is to win ever more elections and keep doing it until everyone else is run out of politics.

If a party succeeds in this, they may still call their system a democracy or a republic because they continue to have elections. In any meaningful way, however, their democracy is dead – it has become a zombie democracy like they have in Zimbabwe. They can have as many elections as they want, but they cannot change anything.

Another example is North Korea. There are elections in North Korea, too, but as we pointed out in The Rich You Will Always Have With You, the Kim family is really a dynasty. This became official last August when it was announced that the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" legally had made the Kim family hereditary rulers in its "constitution," or 10 founding principles. See the UPI article Hereditary Rule. Far from being an egalitarian system, the fundamentals of scientific evolution force Communism to adopt the idea that some people are better than others and some bloodlines are better than others. Egalitarianism in Communist systems is an illusion and genetic superiority is the reality, however hidden it might be by the illusion. The only surprising thing is that North Korea has now thrown the illusion away and publicly proclaimed the reality.

All the above means perhaps that Democracy/Republicanism has the same problem that Capitalism does. When one or a few participants become enormously powerful compared to the others, the system becomes competitively unbalanced and the very people who are representatives of democracy and the republic actually work to destroy it.

Therefore, instead of wanting our representatives to join together, pick a goal, and march unified in one direction, we should cherish it when they publicly disagree. We should cherish the fact that they are still able to publicly disagree. We need tolerance and diversity, not hardline people who will never negotiate. Beware of monolithic, single-party systems in which everyone by law must agree with the party line.

Tosoc readers, we say again that the problem facing us is not the debt ceiling or the sequester or the fiscal cliff or the rising national debt. The true problem is that we are chained to the rich by the dollar – the single currency. All those other issues are just manifestations of the rich jerking the dollar chain to make the rest of us pay more. This will continue to happen and we will become increasingly impoverished until we divorce ourselves from the rich by divorcing ourselves from the single currency. Support tosoc.org.

The way capitalism should be.

Socialism for the socialists and capitalism for the capitalists.

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