In Pollyanna Democracy, people run for office as the result of a calling to serve. Citizens are independent minded and their votes are based on well thought out analysis of the issues. Political parties facilitate citizen’s participation in the political process. Pollyanna Democracy is a comforting notion and is the political system that is popularly imagined to be in place in the United States. But, Pollyanna Democracy exists nowhere but in the imaginations of American voters.
In the real world, the Democrat and Republican parties are more like competing crime families than public service institutions. Public opinion is easily managed so elections are highly limited in terms of possible outcomes. Early in life children are groomed to adhere to arbitrary loyalties and to trust unconditionally. Western society assumes that those who excel in getting elected have characteristics typical of the population they represent. Without exception, those who reach the highest elected offices and positions of leadership are sociopaths. It is possible for a non-sociopath to get elected but those kinds are never ruthless enough to hold on to their offices. Among successful politicians, obtaining and holding on to power is the driving motivation and public service is a superficial image that they are experts in projecting. Leaders in a real world democracy are both ruthless and more intelligent than the trusting docile citizens they ostensibly serve.
Our real world democracy has stopped serving as an instrument for administering justice and has deteriorated down to being a tool for redistributing wealth and income. Citizens who profess to be conservatives wrongly believe resources are being transferred from those with high incomes down to the poor. When government is used as a tool for dividing up resources, money goes to the top, without exception. The rich and powerful are far more adept than their less prosperous counterparts at using government as a means to make a profit. Redistribution of income through government always turns out badly and always ends up benefiting citizens who are higher up on the income ladder. Right wing socialism is a serious threat to what is left of our free market system and is sadly undetectable by the radars of today’s professed conservatives.
The problems faced by the U.S.A. today are not restricted to the economy. The economy is in trouble only because our system of government has become as corrupt as many of the dictatorships our people despise. In a democracy, trust and arbitrary loyalties are lethal and Americans have both in abundance. In my personal life I am finding a way for my family to survive and prosper during a time of political, and economic chaos. For all of us, it will be necessary to avoid or respond to sporadic outbreaks of violence.
The crisis we face today is real. Our population is ignorant, childishly trusting and much too docile to rise to this occasion. To save our country, two things must happen. 1.) Conservatives must take control of the country. This is difficult because all but a few Republicans are apologists for corporate welfare. They are conservatives in their own minds only. There are no conservatives in the Democratic Party. I was the last one, and I have vacated that organization. 2.) People in general will have to give up trusting.