I posted this as a reply, but I think it needs its own post.
Last edited Tue Oct 2, 2018, 06:04 PM - Edit history (1)
It's about our democracy and how we are to keep it.
If Trump goes, our electorate is still primed to vote for another idiot to replace him. Because, as the Atlantic article below says, people are no longer personally familiar with the way a democracy works. About "regular order" and have no respect for it.
In the past, even as kids, we would join groups and organizations where there was an elected president and officers. Each one in the group would have a say but there were rules they all respected. Like Student Council for example. At every level and every stage in life, democracy would be seen personally.
Now there is much less of that, particularly in the under-educated. They are open to the idea that all of "them" are corrupt and need to be thrown out. Who needs rules and laws? Just get a charismatic demagogue to watch over everything and believe in his false promises! So much easier! Blind faith I think they call it.
This article is well worth the read: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/losing-the-democratic-habit/568336/
Like most habits, democratic behavior develops slowly over time, through constant repetition. For two centuries, the United States was distinguished by its mania for democracy: From early childhood, Americans learned to be citizens by creating, joining, and participating in democratic organizations. But in recent decades, Americans have fallen out of practice, or even failed to acquire the habit of democracy in the first place.
The results have been catastrophic. As the procedures that once conferred legitimacy on organizations have grown alien to many Americans, contempt for democratic institutions has risen. In 2016, a presidential candidate who scorned established norms rode that contempt to the Republican nomination, drawing his core support from Americans who seldom participate in the rituals of democracy.
American government’s most obvious problems—from its dysfunctional legislature to Donald Trump himself—are merely signs of this underlying decay. The political system’s previous strength and resilience flowed from Americans’ anomalously high rates of participation in democratically governed organizations, most of them apolitical. There is no easy fix for our current predicament; simply voting Trump out of office won’t suffice. To stop the rot afflicting American government, Americans are going to have to get back in the habit of democracy.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Then, they inject our culture with a massive array of fears and doubts of everything.
Makes us easier to divide and conquer and it's working well for them in families, friendships, communities, companies and governments.
Thanks for the great post and link.....
