Many have referred to those in the Truckers Freedom Convoy and their followers as "Idiots". They are not "idiots". Many are well educated although in some important respects, they are undereducated. Many do not have a good understanding of one or more of the following: scientific method, probabilities, logical reasoning, critical thinking, democracy, fact checking. A sad commentary on our educational system.
It appears that over 50% of the funding came from the USA, and a disturbing amount came from right wing organizations and their followers. This is a new peril in our modern society. That peril is the ability of deep pocketed extreme groups (from anywhere in the world) to fund and rally these undereducated to disrupt society for their own political purposes. We need a major educational effort, not just for children, but everyone. We need to learn new skills in order to navigate this fast-changing digital world.
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We are witnessing the slow (and sometimes not so slow) disintegration of American democracy. Indeed, there is an erosion of democracy all around the world.
First some background. The United States is a constitutional federal republic, in which the President (the head of state and head of government), Congress, and Judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments. There are two chambers of Congress - the Senate and the House of Representatives. Since the civil war, there have been only two parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party (referred to as the GOP - Grand Old Party). The Democratic Party has a philosophy of modern liberalism blending notions of civil liberty and social equality with support for a mixed economy (a blend of a market economy and a planned economy). The Republican Party's 21st-century ideology is American conservatism, which incorporates both social conservatism (focus on traditional values and beliefs) and fiscal conservatism (fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, and limited government). The GOP supports lower taxes, free-market capitalism, restrictions on immigration, increased military spending, gun rights, restrictions on abortion, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. This system is unique among democracies of the world. For this system to work, the President and the two parties must negotiate and compromise to reach a consensus. This process worked quite well for at least 225 years since Independence on 4 July 1776. This process has totally broken down. Today, there are no meaningful negotiations and no meaningful compromises. It is "us" against "them" and what's good for the public is entirely lost. To compound these issues, the Judiciary has become politicized. The role of the Supreme Court is not to make law but to interpret laws relative to the constitution. Some justices interpret the law applying literal wording of the constitution and some apply some degree of intent. But as we have seen recently, these interpretations can be conjured according to political ideologies. Recent rulings limit the Federal government's ability to make laws and this is aligned with Republican ideology of limited government. Today, the majority of the Supreme Court judiciary unabashedly support the Republican Party. This gives individual States incredible power, and as we have seen, they can pass very restrictive abortion laws (when a significant majority of the American public supports some level of legal abortion), and alarmingly, they can pass voter suppression laws to suit their purposes. So how did we get to where we are today? For the past 20 years or so, public confidence in government has dropped significantly from about 60% in 2001 to a low of 17% in 2019. Since then, it has recovered a bit to the low 20's%. Still historically low confidence in government. And why is that? One contributing factor is an appallingly poor understanding by the public of how government works. But even more significant is the public's visceral feeling that something is wrong. It is this feeling that Trump tapped into so successfully. The more radical elements on the right and the left and many others are correct. Something is wrong. "Big money" now controls politics in the USA. This is especially true since 2014 when the Supreme Court ruled that corporate funding of independent election ads could not be limited under the First Amendment. Big money now controls much of what happens and what does not happen in US politics. This is described in startling detail in Jane Mayer's book, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. The other key factor impacting public distrust of big government (big anything for that matter) is the rise of the Internet and social media. Compounding this issue was governments' and big business's inability or unwillingness to limit or control the spread of untruths and hate. Freedom of speech laws, especially in the USA and to some degree in many other countries did not anticipate the Internet. Now a small number of more radical players can disproportionately influence the public. The Senate consists of 100 members, two from each state. The US continues to become less rural as people migrate to large urban centres. The 10 least populated states are largely rural states and rural states historically vote Republican. There is no guarantee that all these states will vote for all Republican Senators but the majority do. A clear advantage the Republicans want to protect at all costs. These 10 states account for 2.5 % of the US population but still get 20 senators or 20% of all senators. Whereas the 10 most populated states account for 50% of the population and they too get 20 Senators. U.S. Senate representation is deeply undemocratic — and cannot be changed without a fundamental change in the constitution requiring 2/3 majority vote, which will never happen in today's environment. For more info on how undemocratic the US Senate is, check the following articles.: https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2021/02/u-s-senate-representation-is-deeply-undemocratic-and-cannot-be-changed/ and https://www.vox.com/2020/11/6/21550979/senate-malapportionment-20-million-democrats-republicans-supreme-courtwww.vox.com/2020/11/6/21550979/senate-malapportionment-20-million-democrats-republicans-supreme-court The Republican House of Representatives benefit from Gerrymandering In representative democracies, Gerrymandering refers to political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent of creating undue advantage for a party, group, or socio-economic class within the constituency. In 2019, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Courts cannot stop partisan gerrymandering. Another blow to democracy. Yet another key factor that has arisen in the USA and around the world is the distrust of science. Once again, there is an appalling lack of understand about how science works. The rise of anti-vaxxers is the most dramatic example of that today. People are dying and governments are racking up billions in debt to no small degree because of this distrust in science. And the USA always seems to be the epicentre of this distrust. In Jan 2022, the US Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s mandate, which compelled companies with more than 100 employees to require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested regularly. The anti-vaxxers interpreted that as vindication of their anti-vax position. The politicized court is not helping democracy. Finally, technology is changing the world at an exponential rate. And people are frightened. The European Union, Australia, and others, even China, are trying to rein in Big Tech. However, the USA with its very capitalist and "survival of the fittest" mindset, not so much. This is adding to the "distrust" malaise in the USA. Today, there are concerning tends all of which threaten democracy:
The USA has always been the most individualistic society in the world - me comes before we. Don't get me wrong. Historically the USA has been the most generous nation on earth. Interestingly, recent historical works are showing that that generosity was not always altruistic. Political and capitalist gain often drove it. The capitalist system is by far the greatest engine for ingenuity and growth the world has known. And no country has pushed capitalism more than the USA. But capitalism is inherently "extractive and predatory" and while Americans love the idea of the American Dream that anyone can become fabulously successful and wealthy, they are starting to realize the "extractive and predatory" nature of capitalism. For example, the majority of Americans want government to do more about climate change - the result, in part, of poorly regulated capitalism. Even here however, the divide is evident. Twice as many Democrats support climate change action vs Republicans. The disfunction of government and the right-wing bias of the courts is hampering the kind of action that is required. Counter to intuition, the fear and stress of climate disasters is further deteriorating democracy. The US has been the economic and military leader in the world for a long time. The growth of China, India, and someday maybe even Africa threatens that leadership. Ironically, the US has educated many of the engineers and scientists that are now leading these other countries who will eventually surpass the US. The US has not come to grips with that reality. And that fear will push the US to become even more authoritarian and less democratic. Steve Bannon and many like him want to "Deconstruct the Administrative State" in order to build a new state with less regulation and more emphasis on unrestricted capitalism. There are many forces pushing the US to become less democratic. Currently, many predict that the Democrats will lose both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the upcoming mid-term elections in Nov. What amazes me is that few seem to realize that the "house of democracy is on fire". Either that, or they just don't know what to do about it. Like many, I have been concerned that Democracy is not working very well these days. After a considerable amount of reading, discussion, and quite contemplation on the subject, I have concluded that “democracy may not be broken after all”.
Democracy works between the two extremes of Dictatorship or Theocracy and Extreme Socialism or Communism. Democracy is the swing of the pendulum between these extremes. Usually quite small movements back and forth around the centre, but sometimes more substantial movements left or right of centre. But never reaching the extremes. When democracy is functioning well, there is a fairly peaceful transition of power during these movements. Another analogy could be the movement of tides in and out - very cleansing. A defining feature of the extremes is that they will do anything to maintain power. They will not allow the pendulum to swing away from their position of power. Corruption is present in all forms of government, even in the best democracies. Typically corruption is lower in democracies but these lower levels only occur with the help of robust systems of justice and law with many checks and balances built in. Transparency is a key element of checks and balances. Some of us are feeling a bit nervous about the more dramatic swings of the pendulum we have seen recently with Brexit, the US Presidential election, and other populist movements around the world. But we need to remind ourselves that these swings are still within the definition of democracy. The tidal swings are rather high these days, and although high tides can be damaging in some respects, they also cause other forms of renewal. While we have to build defences against the ravages of high tides, we also have to embrace the renewal and change that they can bring. Likewise, with more dramatic swings of the political pendulum, we have to guard against distortions in the system. One such distortion occurred when Republicans refused to hold hearings for the appointment of a new Supreme Court judge during the last year of President Obama’s term. They wanted to entrench their power by such a move. Actions by any political party aimed at entrenching their power long beyond their term are distortions of the democratic system of government, and we have to continually remind our politicians that we the voters do not want this. It is enticing to support one’s favoured political party when they engage in such actions, but we must remind ourselves that a healthy democracy depends on swings in the pendulum. A democracy caught in ever escalating distortions will hurt everyone in the end. The role that social media, and even traditional media, has played in recent political changes in the world is new. It has caused distortions with things like manipulative algorithms, “echo chambers”, and “false news”. But this is not a failure of democracy. It is a failure of media and our educational and social systems. We have not taught ourselves or our children how to be smart consumers of media and importantly to be smart and respectful contributors to media. So at the end of the day, I have to conclude that democracy may not be broken after all, even though I don’t like some of the things are happening. It does reinforce the need for everyone to become better consumers of and contributors to the media which includes learning how to be respectful. And equally important, everyone should become more engaged in political processes. Only then will we be able to keep democracy from becoming broken. There is an ongoing debate amongst historians as to when Globalization actually started. Some argue it started when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, and yet others argue it started long before then. 1750 is cited as the start of “modern waves of globalization”.
There is no question however that globalization had a significant uptick after WWII with the most significant growth occurring with the advent of the technological era in the late 1900’s. However you define globalization, it has never been a smooth progression. There have been periods when globalization actually appeared to have declined. There are wide-ranging debates about the pros and cons of globalization, however, I am going to focus on one clear benefit - the expansion of economic activity facilitated by trade deals around the world due largely to globalization. What Donald Trump and his administration do not seem to understand it that this aspect of globalization helped lift over a billion out of poverty and into middle classes in countries all around the world. It is a form of wealth distribution that benefits all parties. The US now has the potential of over a billion new global customers. The US has benefited from low cost technology (from global manufacturers) which has helped it grow and become even wealthier (albeit poorly distributed within the US which is now a source of many problems for them). Donald Trump and his administration is trying to preserve jobs which are going to be lost to rapid developments in technology. The majority of jobs in the USA today did not even exist 50 years ago and that change is just going to quicken. What Donald Trump and his administration should be doing is focusing on educating people in a way that allows them to benefit from the rapid and disruptive changes in jobs due to technology. The USA should be focusing on developing industries that will create these future jobs, many of which could benefit from open global markets. As it is, Donald Trump is focused on tearing up trade deals and building walls, both of which will cut off the USA from dramatically increasing global markets as more and more people rise out of poverty and into the middle classes. In many respects, the USA is no longer “great” nor “good”, and Trump is going to make that even worse. The decline of the American empire started in the early 2000’s and that decline is about to quicken under Trump. |
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