How the Democratic Party can save civilization.

I claim that I am about to speak a profound truth about American politics and the end of history (EOH). EOH is a phrase used by Noam Chomsky in this context: http://inthesetimes.com/article/17137/the_end_of_history

A major factor driving EOH is American politics, which has been in serious decline since the election of Ronald Reagan. This decline has been so dramatic that a recent Princeton study (using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002) said that majority-rule democracy is more a theory than a reality in the U.S., that the interests of the wealthiest Americans are mainly served and what the rest of us want is largely irrelevant. The term “oligarchy” has been popularly applied to America in interpreting this study. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/princeton-scholar-demise-of-democracy-america-tpm-interview

Now, if you have stayed with me, here is the profound truth: WE NEED A NEW WAY OF CHOOSING CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND IT IS WITHIN OUR POWER TO DO SO. The recent way of choosing a candidate is selecting from a limited menu of people who have name recognition, power and money sufficient to make it onto that limited menu. Before that the candidates (and the eventual nominees) were selected by old white men in smoke-filled rooms.

Here’s the problem. We are ever-accelerating toward the collapse of civilization (see the EOH citation in the first paragraph above). Anthropogenic climate change is a growing crisis and civilization must take radical steps to confront and adapt to this crisis, or collapse from a host of geopolitical, economic, agricultural, social and ecological effects. I don’t want to digress by getting into the vast reverse-Robin Hood transfer of wealth starting with Reagan, but this phenomenon is closely related to the lack of action on climate change. They are symbiotic crises.

These crises must be dealt with, but the American political system is non-responsive in any significant way. We can no longer afford to be passive and wait for those with power and money to declare their candidacies. INSTEAD WE NEED A NEW ATTITUDE AMONG DEMOCRATIC AND INDEPENDENT VOTERS (most Republican voters currently lack the ability to make a relevant choice).

People of good will need to decide who they want AFTER a rigorous debate, based on fact, logic and open-minded consideration. Much, perhaps most of it, can simply be done online. If a pre-emptive online candidate is chosen before Iowa and New Hampshire voters get to provide a charade of democracy, I believe the Democratic Party could come up with a much better candidate than the one approved by corporate money and power. This is a far cry from the passive method we now use, which has resulted in foreign adventurism, a new gilded age and a rapid march toward the end of civilization.