Is American democracy dead?

Let's start at the top. We know Donald Trump will never change, only get worse. The Republican Congress has made it clear they will not give up support for the Oval Office lunatic. The MAGA maggots are firmly entrenched in their following of Trump. And there is a combination gang out there like the apathetics, the double-digit voters who chose the White House maniac in 2024, and finally those who are completely clueless about politics and political parties. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Trump has been working on the destruction of our democracy since day one of his second term.

The Crew site says Donald Trump has been "dismantling our democracy, one piece at a time," and that it is important to keep a record as a reminder of the damage that has been done. Dufus Rump is changing democracy gradually so as not to alert those who aren't keen on current issues. Here's an AI analysis...

"Approximately 67% to 70% of Americans cannot name all three branches of government, and over 70% fail a basic civic literacy quiz. Furthermore, 27% of Americans follow national political news "not too closely" or "not at all," while about two-thirds feel exhausted by politics."

So when you combine the percentages who don't know what's going on with those who don't care what's going on, there is only a small group out there voting who place their votes with the knowledge of what they actually voted for. Based on these scary figures, we have ended up with Donald Trump in the White House and a Republican Congress so cowardly in their fear of Dufus Rump that any of his utterances becomes their goal. Here are more AI facts...

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, more than 70% of Americans fail a basic civics test.

Gallup News indicates that 27% of Americans follow political news "not too closely" or "not at all".

Pew Research Center notes that 22% of Americans cannot identify a single strength in the nation's political system.

Looking at the above, either the educational system has failed at teaching political science in schools, or

a majority of Americans are just turned off by their government. With 27% of the public virtually ignoring the political news, you end up with a large block of misinformed voters. And the Pew finding that 22% of Americans cannot identify a single strength in the nation's political system, indicates to me another large block that has basically given in to the destruction of the Donald Trump administration. All three items considered are competent confirmation that Americans have lost their dream.

Getting back to how Crew explains how Dufus Rump is dismantling our democracy, one piece at a time, there are four core main categories used to identify the onslaught Trump is making on U.S. freedom and justice. They are, Corruption, Weaponization of the Department of Justice and U.S. military, Regulatory Retaliation and Hiding or Distorting Legally Required Information. Starting with the first...

Corruption, "Trump's abuse of entrenched power for private or personal gain. Over the past 10 years, despite some attempts to fight corruption including the creation of a National Strategy on Countering Corruption, we have seen a precipitous worsening of corruption in the United States." This has expanded to enormous proportions during both Donald Trump administrations. Corruption, in my opinion, is one of the worst factors in the overthrow of democracy,

Weaponization of the Department of Justice and U.S. military, When the dictator looks inward to shore up his strengths, the first move is to make sure the legal arsenal is in place that will loyally support his every move. "Strong democracies have a robust civil society, including an active and engaged opposition. A network of constitutional and statutory laws, as well as executive branch policies rooted in the First Amendment, are designed to prevent politically motivated investigations and prosecutions and ensure that government law enforcement and military resources are not used to suppress dissent." Trump, however, has made the Executive Order (EO) the new way of governing, his ploy to eliminate Congress from the process. He relies strongly on the Dept. of Justice to back him up on every move.

Regulatory Retaliation, To begin with, Dufus Rump has taken away the independence of government agencies, "an independence which has all but evaporated thanks to a series of Supreme Court shadow docket decisions permitting the indiscriminate firing of independent agency heads." Donald Trump, using as an example the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to enact regulatory retaliation. If the White House maniac doesn't like what you are doing, vengeance and retribution will follow you everywhere you go.

Hiding or Distorting Legally Required Information, "Transparency is the currency of democracy, because it allows people to know that their government is acting honestly and with their best interests at heart." Add to that the fact that anything that does come from the Trump administration is misinformation...lie after lie, after lie, after lie, after lie...into ad infinitum. And transparency to Donald Trump is the release only of that information that both pleases and honors him. What we should expect: "This category therefore tracks government attempts to hide or misrepresent information that is supposed to be lawfully available, obscure reliable data or make government decisions in secret outside of the eye of the American public." 

Unless you are living under a rock, you know the latter couldn't be farther from the truth. This all screams the question of why anyone would want to live with an authoritarian government. Here's an AI answer...

"Some Americans express a desire for an authoritarian government or strongman leader primarily as a response to perceived threats to their economic stability, social status, and traditional way of life. This mindset is often driven by a need for order, safety, and conformity in a society seen as increasingly chaotic, unstable, or threatening."

My opinion is that many of these ne'er-do-wells and apathetics are just too dumb or too lazy to make a good life for themselves. That leaves those of us who still have the will to be free to fight on, and I do mean fight hard, in the war against autocracy. I urge you to read the Crew article for the extensive timeline it contains on all of the above categories.

American democracy is not dead...it's just snoozing,

Gun control gridlock

California gridlock

The gun control issue is like a California freeway gridlock, except that in the Sunshine State you eventually get there. The Republican Congress reminds me of a broken-down vehicle on a Los Angeles freeway--I used to live there--that can't move and someone has to step in to make it work right. That would be the Democrats this November for gun control when they take over the Senate and the House. If something isn't done by the left, then I predict the Democratic Party will be replaced and Progressives will finally do what's right for the country. It's about time.

ECONOMY ON THE UPSWING-SO IS OBAMA

Working under almost insurmountable odds, Pres. Barack Obama has brought this country back from the brink with a significantly improved economy. A CNN/ORC poll found recently, "52% describe the U.S. economy as very or somewhat good, while 48% call it very or somewhat poor." These figures are a first for the Obama presidency but were a long time coming due to those odds. First, there has been a hateful Congress that opposed everything the President has done in the last almost seven years. A current example is the opposition of Loretta Lynch for Attorney General; it has taken 165 days and still counting. The other major odds he had to overcome is the massive damage done to the economy by Geo. W. Bush like the financial meltdown, two major wars, home market tanking, soaring oil prices, a shrinking dollar and more.

And what have Republicans accomplished during the Obama administration? Nothing, but confront and repel anything the President did. That's why the GOP Congress has an approval rating of 28%, disapproval of  67%.

WHERE ARE THE PROGRESSIVES?

Aljazeera America says, "The best way to create a progressive America is voting reform." We need "... to invest in unleashing the disgruntled progressive majority. A longer-term strategy for progressives should be to strengthen unions and boost turnout among politically marginalized populations."

Further, "If everybody in this country voted,” the economist John Kenneth Galbraith said, “the Democrats would be in for the next 100 years.” Pew Research found "Nonvoters preferred Barack Obama to Mitt Romney by 59 percent to 24 percent..."

Obviously you are there, you progressives I mean, so when election day comes you're just sitting there on your butt? Too damn lazy to go vote and bring this country back to a sane political state. Don't you see what you've done, just look at the Republican Congress. That should shame even the worst of couch potatoes.

Think about it!

Americans favor the IRS and communism over the present Republican Congress

Yes, I said Republican Congress.  It is less popular than the dreaded tax folks and the political ideology that is a direct opposite to democracy.  In this CBS rating, the IRS comes in at a colossal 40 percent, communism at 11 percent, the lowly Congress at 9 percent.  Only Fidel Castro ranks lower at 5 percent.  These ratings are taken by major polling services like Gallup and Rasmussen, and reflect the growing feeling that the people in Washington must be replaced in 2012.

In a release from CBS of the approval rating, it is clear that the GOP is continuing to block everything that would help jump-start the economy because they want the President to fail.  It is a blockade Barack Obama has been up against since his inauguration, conceived by a deranged Tea Party and implemented by fanatics like Eric Cantor, (R-VA) House Majority Leader with help from House Speaker, Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Minority leader, Rep. Mitch McConnell.

Communist symbol

According to the Addicting Info site, this is what the Republican Congress has done: “…spent their time passing anti-women bills, bills against birth control and contraceptives, anti-abortion bills, bills declaring pizza a vegetable, bills re-affirming ‘In God We Trust,’ as the national motto, anti-tax bills, anti-environmental bills.”  There is more but just as ludicrous. 

This gang of brainless GOP bullies has frittered away three years trying to convince the American public to hate President Obama and vote him out of office next November.  What they have accomplished is raising the ire of a majority of the voting public, including many Republicans and a number of Independents.  The country is fed up with their shenanigans and they’re not going to take it anymore.  The question is how to make sure voters remember this subterfuge on November 6, 2012.



Maybe it would help to illustrate more cases where the unfavorable is favored over the Republican Congress.  The airlines, which have raised rates and curtailed benefits for several years now comes in at 29 percent.  Keep in mind now Congress is at 9 percent.  Banks, one of the most hated institutions and the target of the Occupy movement rank 23 percent.  The oil and gas industry, often accused of raising the price of gasoline just to improve their bottom line, 20 percent.  And Hugo Chavez, Pres. of Venezuela, ties Congress at 9 percent.

The GOP Congress has done absolutely nothing to create jobs, improve the foreclosure crisis, and they want to repeal the health care bill that has already helped many needy Americans.  Stephen Foster of Addicting Info says, “Hell, Republicans have turned Congress into such a joke that even King George III was more popular during the Revolutionary War.”  He was the British monarch during the American Revolution, his favorability coming in between 15 and 20 percent.

I cannot remember a time in my life where the hallowed halls of Congress have been looked on with such contempt for the people who are supposed to be running our country but yet have let a small group of wacko radicals dictate their actions.  I would be talking about the Tea Party, of course, and until the GOP breaks the umbilical cord with these certifiable maniacs, there will be no breakthrough in Washington.