Americans let Democracy become transactional

[Tom Rinaldo]

I think Americans collectively lost sight of what Democracy actually represents, until voting became more or less just a means to an end, a route to consolidate power, with the fruits of that power, when wielded, becoming all that mattered. Democracy is not just a means, it is itself an end. Voting affirms ownership of government by the governed, but more and more election day has been treated like a final opinion poll, with the tallying of votes reduced to a scorecard reporting which team came out ahead. When the results of an election are all that anyone cares about, when the intrinsic value of the democratic process is taken for granted, if it is thought of at all, democracy is in peril. When seizing control of government, for the sake of advancing this or that agenda, becomes paramount, the means by which that is accomplished is reduced to being "tactical." Here we are.

[cilla4progress]

1. It brings to mind

Machiavelli.

Power for its own sake.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Yes. The Democratic ideal stands in opposition to that

It is our finest national heritage, even though it was tragically truncated at inception and very imperfectly implemented and expanded on in the centuries since. Our Democratic ideal is at the core of what Americans should feel proud of as a people, but it is slipping away from us, to a large part due to civic neglect. Without it being taught, extolled, and fiercely embraced, it will inevitably be choked out by those who are power hungry, who care not how they obtain it.