For more than a half century starting right after the end of WWII and at the beginning of the cold war America has been flexing its military might abroad with the banner of spreading Freedom and Democracy to the world.  Yet when the American economy tanked during the financial meltdown of 2008 all congress could do was polarize into opposite camps with uncompromising rigidity. What happened to political diplomacy, the art of compromise? How can we explain to the world that Democracy is the greatest political system in existence and that they should adopt our ways?

America is stuck on this reef of stagnation and can’t seem to get off.  Our enemies must be sitting back and laughing at us for our ineptitude and inequities at making Democracy work. How can we possibly say how great we are to the Arab people and states where we have military presence?  We are shedding American blood in a cause which makes no sense to these people or even to ourselves unless the goal is to protect oil reserves for Arab countries abroad.  We are the laughing stock of the world while 2nd world countries, democratic or not, are quickly catching up with us economically and socially.

Our country is still in the grips of high unemployment. We are in the midst of horrendous deficits.  Our educational systems are collapsing.  The rich are quickly getting richer while everyone else is slowly getting poorer.  The Supreme Court has declared large corporations as having the same rights as individuals regarding political contributions. The lifeblood of political campaigns is campaign contributions. Now corporations can dump endless funds into supporting candidates who are sympathetic to their cause.  Last year the rich were urging congress to reduce taxes for the wealthiest to encourage them to invest more into the American economy and industry.  But in truth they will continue to use their wealth to move more companies abroad, invest more elsewhere and make even larger contributions to candidates favoring the rich.  Their allegiance is not to their nation, but in making more money for themselves. That is why they are so wealthy. To them it’s all a game. The abuses of campaign contributions are unconscionable.  Congress is further being represented by members who have received enormous political contributions from the very rich and now from personalized corporations. To say this will not influence legislative decisions is absurd.  The rich and big business don’t make large contributions for nothing.  Campaign reform is desperately needed at all levels of elections from national to local to curb excessive contributions and influences from the very rich.

So where does this leave us, the 97 percent less affluent members of this nation?  The large middle class is rapidly shrinking and no longer exists as a political power. Ten years from now we may revert back to the old English feudal system which our forefathers fought so hard to free us from and who cleverly devised a Constitution which gives every citizen the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  What happened to that idea? What has happened to Democracy? What is happening to this once great nation?  Unfortunately the rich and resourceful can find a workaround the laws and even the Constitution.

Our legislative leaders have got to get their act together and think more about the needs of their nation and the vast majority of its citizens rather than about blind allegiance to their polarized parties. We have serious problems to solve.  Polarization will get us nowhere.  If our current legislators are incapable of putting the needs of this nation above their loyalty to partisanship then we should vote for those who will.  We must stop being the laughing stock of the world and start being its leader again. We need Democracy to start working for the majority of the people again as intended by our forefathers. We have got to get the Constitution working for the common people again instead of large and wealthy individuals and corporations. We need to fix this broken government.  We must elect only those who are willing to compromise and will help cure this government of polarization, stagnation, and ineptness.  But how?  The middle class is politically fragmented and powerless.  But if not then what?  Can Democracy still work?