Election Day Alert: When Democracy Broken, Progress Impossible
"As most expensive mid-term elections in history take place Tuesday, a progressive voice wants Americans to remember this: 'When elections are not democratic, even the most populist discussions become superficial.'
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
When democracy becomes numb to the desires of its citizens and political campaigns become sporting events for television pundits, the ballot box becomes a sad (if necessary) expression of populist will.
That's the argument put forth on Tuesday by one progressive candidate who challenged the political status quo this election season.
In Guardian op-ed on Tuesday, Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham Law School professor who this year took on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a primary challenge from the Left, says that amidst many other valid theories about the source of the "disgust and apathy" so many feel toward this year's election, the simplest explanation may be this: "people don’t like being told falsely they have power when they don’t."
What's essential for Americans to recognize this Election Day—set to be the most expensive mid-term in U.S. history—says Teachout, is that confronting this reality of disempowerment is not something to avoid, but the key to achieving the real progressive change so many desperately desire."
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http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/11/04/election-day-alert-when-democracy-broken-progress-impossible
"There is one issue that subsumes all other issues, upon which all other issues depend," she writes, "and that is restoring democracy itself."
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