Wednesday, December 19, 2018

GLOBAL COLLAPSE OF DEMOCRACY

-->JAZZMAN CHRONICLES: THE TRUMP YEARS






THE GLOBAL COLLAPSE OF DEMOCRACY

By Jack Random



In Common Sense, one of the most influential writings in history, Tom Paine makes his case against monarchy and hereditary succession by essentially stating that the proof was in the pudding: 

“One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in Kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an ASS FOR A LION.”  [Sic]

The King of England and leader of the British Empire at that time was George the Third – aka Mad King George – a man who reigned by divine right for nearly six decades.  In losing the crown jewel of the empire to independence, Britannia’s curse became America’s blessing and the first experiment in modern democracy was given birth on the world stage. 
Now, nearly two and a half centuries later, Paine’s argument against the monarchy has turned on its head, taking aim at the nation of its birth.  A system designed to weed out the unfit and unqualified has failed in stunning fashion.  We have elected a succession of corrupt, morally challenged, inept and/or power hungry leaders, culminating with an individual who embodies every disqualifying characteristic in triplicate. 
The assault on democracy in the United States of America is unprecedented and has taken numerous tracks.  Disenfranchisement targeting minorities is a particularly American phenomenon.  Applied to Florida, it accounts for the election of George W. Bush.  Applied to Ohio it may account for his reelection.  With the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act (Shelby County v. Holder 2013), we have seen a spirited revival of the Jim Crow days.  Targeted disenfranchisement has become a standard practice of the Republican Party.  The strategy is key to holding on to the South and other states with large and growing minority populations.  Designer redistricting – otherwise know as Gerrymandering – is another technique applied to congressional districts to insure that Republicans have disproportionate representation in the lower house of congress. 
If your goal was to erode trust in democracy you could not have devised a more effective measure than that delivered by our Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission 2010.  In the wake of that malicious decision a corporation gained all the rights of citizenship and money gained the status of constitutionally protected speech.  The highest court in the land was warned over and over that its decision would empower those with the most money to purchase the institutions of government.  While the Court was not impressed with the argument that is exactly what happened. 
The cost of running for public office has skyrocketed but the dollar amounts do not tell even half the tale.  Given the extreme amounts required to mount a successful political campaign, both parties in a two-party duopoly have abandoned the working class.  The Democrats used to be the party of labor.  No more.  It has been decades since they have staked claim to that designation.  The Democrats pay lip service to the cause of labor but when it comes to protecting the right to organize they consistently fall short.  They would lose their corporate backing and the support of Wall Street in particular if they acted on their pro-worker rhetoric.  Moreover, representing labor is not necessary when the Republican Party is openly antagonistic to the working class.  The party of the wealthy opposes a raise in the minimum wage and promotes Right to Work laws that cripple a union’s ability to organize in the workplace. 
Because neither party genuinely represents the interests of the workers the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us continues to grow.  Subsequent discontent with the institutions of government and media continues to increase. 
While money in electoral politics can go a long way toward explaining the American political system the same cannot be said for European nations.  Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Spain and Germany have no limits on contributions or spending yet their campaigns do not attract the same extreme amounts of money as ours do.  France, Canada, Greece, Ireland and Japan, have strict limits on both spending and contributions.  The United Kingdom has limits on spending while others limit contributions.  [1]
With such a variety in campaign financing laws and regulations, it would be difficult to find a direct relationship between such laws and the kind of corruption that would destroy public confidence in government institutions.  Therefore, other factors must be operating to create such widespread international discontent.  [2]
It is the betrayal of the working people that crosses international boundaries and invades the body politic of virtually every democratic republic.  It is the gap between the rich and the rest that creates an opportunity for toxic propagandists to attack the institutions of democracy with pseudo populists like Marine Le Pen of France, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and our own Donald Trump. 
Instead of standing up to our example, other developed nations in Europe and Latin America have stumbled.  While Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel put up a show of dignified defiance, the peoples of France and Germany are so disillusioned that they find themselves on the same wobbly ground as the American electorate did in 2016.  Brazil – the largest and most influential republic in the southern hemisphere – has elected an autocrat and sworn enemy of democracy while other notable republics in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America are stumbling on the edge of the same self-destructive madness. 
How did this happen and why?  Can we make corrections before the ship of state crashes into the rocks, taking the alliance of western democracies with it? 
Representative democracy has always contained the seed of its own demise.  The people have the authority to remove themselves from the seat of power.  In the form of the vote, the people can elect a president and legislative representatives sworn to democracy’s demise in the ultimate display of political suicide. 
While it would seem absurd, the people of Brazil have chosen that path.  They have elected Jair Bolsonaro, a far right nationalist who embraces with all his heart the authoritarian form of government.  Just as President Donald Trump has praised authoritarian leaders in China, Russia and the Philippines, Bolsonaro has praised the military dictatorships of Brazil’s dark past.  He has expressed admiration for Augusto Pinochet, the notorious military strongman of Chile who tortured and “disappeared” his political enemies. 
In 1992 Bolsonaro stated:  “I am in favor of a dictatorship….  We will never resolve serious national problems with this irresponsible democracy.”  In 1999 he said:  “I’m in favor of torture.”  More recently he has expressed contempt for the rights of gays and racial minorities in a manner that would shame Trump’s declaration in Charlottesville.  [3]
Like Trump, Bolsonaro has exploited an inherent fear of those who do not look or act or talk like him.  He has capitalized on distrust of institutions, corruption and an ever-widening gap between the wealthy and the poor. 
Like Trump, the election of Bolsonaro was made possible by a convergence of unlikely circumstances – most prominently the incarceration of the leading socialist candidate combined with a devastating economic crisis and an explosion in violent crime. 
In France the people have taken to the streets in protest of President Emmanuel Macron ostensibly over a raise in the transportation tax.  The protests persisted despite Macron’s backpedaling on the issue because it ran much deeper than one tax policy.  Macron seemed out of touch with the people.  The root cause of their discontent is a distrust of the institutions of government and a growing disparity between the wealthy elite – of which Macron is one – and the working class.  France’s far right is poised to take advantage of this discontent despite the fact that there is not a chance on earth the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen would do anything to address working class woes. 
In Germany Chancelor Angela Merkel’s popularity has taken a hit over the issue of immigration.  Germany has the taken the lead in accepting Syrian refugees and trying to integrate them as a cheap labor force.  Much to Merkel’s dismay it is a situation that pleases neither the refugees nor the German working class.  Germany’s resurgent Neo-Nazis are more than ready to take advantage of widespread discontent.  Merkel is the central leader of Europe’s hyper conservative neoliberal economic policies that have punished the working class for the disastrous excesses of the financial elite.  More than any other single leader, Merkel is the enforcer of the austerity regime that has stripped away the social safety nets of those nations whose economies imploded when the Ponzi scheme of international finance was exposed.  
The disease of which Donald Trump is only a symptom has spread rapidly throughout the democratic world.  What used to be confined to developing countries where corruption is a way of life has now invaded the most established representative democracies in the world. 
Why?  It would be easy to blame it all on the Russians and their brigade of hackers and paid propagandists.  It would be easy to blame the Chinese for unfair trade practices, stealing the core of our economic wealth.  It would be easy to blame foreign immigrants for overwhelming our culture and taxing our systems of social support.  All of these things have had some role in weakening public trust in our essential democratic and financial institutions but none of them are responsible at the core. 
It is always easier to blame the infamous other for our woes but it is rarely true.  If we wish to rectify the situation, we must first recognize the enemies of democracy at home.  We have created and systematically fortified a system that embraces the rich, diminishes the working class and discards the interests of the poor outright.  
One factor impacting elections in both America and internationally is the rise of social media and the simultaneous decline of traditional news sources.  There was a time when Trump’s accusations of “fake news” would have generated near universal laughter.  There was a time when newscaster Walter Cronkite had more credibility than any politician of his time. 
When citizens distrust the mainstream news media and give as much credence to web sources as the New York Times, the fourth estate collapses and the propagandists are elevated to the status of policy makers.  Mainstream news sources are not free of blame in this phenomenon.  The paper of record lost much of its credibility during the coverage of the Iraq War when it was used as a fence for the Bush administration’s pro-war propaganda machine.  For those who forget the infamous Times reporter Judy Miller, the administration fed Ms. Miller stories regarding weapons of mass destruction.  She quoted reliable sources and released the reports for public consumption.  The administration then cited the Times as proof of their claims. 
The Times was not alone in cheerleading for the war and the media eventually suffered for its betrayal of the public trust.  That was before news agencies started firing their reporters and people started turning to other sources for their news.  It was not before international corporations started buying media with an eye to exploiting their investment for their own financial gain. 
Some argue with validity that the decline of print and television as news sources was and is inevitable but it cannot be denied that the decline was accelerated by lapses in responsible journalism.  These lapses are by no means strictly American.  The corporate buyout of news sources is a global phenomenon though it is often difficult to uncover. [4] Media titan and rightwing propagandist Rupert Murdoch owns an estimated one third of the British market. [5] The German media received relatively high marks for independence and objectivity but relatively low marks for social inclusiveness and market plurality. [6]
The ultimate question becomes:  Would the propagandists – foreign and domestic – be able to influence our elections if the mainstream media and news sources were fully functional? 
There is no single factor responsible for global democratic failure and there is no simple remedy.  We have allowed our institutions – from the media to all branches of government – to be corrupted by the real holders of power in our world: the economic institutions.  There is no greater cause of systemic failure than this:  We have allowed the bankers and market manipulators complete freedom to operate as they wish.  They in turn have convinced the governments of the world that wealth can be created where none actually exists.  When the system collapses, as it inevitably will, the common people pay the price while the wealthy accumulate assets from the rubble left behind. 
It is relatively easy to destroy a democracy; it is hard to build it back.  It is impossible if we do not understand the root cause of systemic failure.  The primary function of economy is not to accumulate wealth just as the primary function of government is not to enable the accumulation of wealth.  The primary function of government is to provide for the needs of the people and the function of economy is to serve that cause. 
In the end, the failure of democracy is like the early stages of global warming.  We are beginning to witness the damage.  We have time to recognize the danger signs and take determined action.  If we ignore the problem and pretend it will self-correct – as we have with climate change – then we will observe a series of disasters, each one more alarming than the last. 
We have to rebuild our institutions from the ground up.  We have to elect individuals who actually believe in democracy.  If we believe in democracy then disenfranchisement and gerrymandering become crimes worthy of incarceration.  If we believe in democracy then we will find a way to curtail the influence of corporate money and false propaganda carried on social media.  If we believe in democracy then we will establish and protect the rights of organized labor.  If we believe in democracy then we will regulate the nefarious behavior of Wall Street and the investment class.  If we believe in democracy then we will use the people’s money to provide universal healthcare.  If we believe in democracy then we will strengthen objective media while discrediting those news sources that distort the truth in service to corporate or foreign interests.  If we believe in democracy the antiquated Electoral College will at last cease to exist. 
Can we do all this?  It seems doubtful.  We are all too busy with our technological toys.  We are too tired from the wars already fought.  We are all exhausted by the daily display of tragedy and disaster.  How much more must we do? 
Still, we have accomplished a great deal against daunting odds before.  We have built unimaginable monuments to the gods.  We have walked on the moon.  We have fought back and defeated dictators and tyrants.  We have struck down kings and emperors.  We are humans and there is no limit to what we can do when we believe in a cause. 
In the latter part of the eighteenth century a man without formal education persuaded the common, working people of thirteen American colonies that democracy was a cause worth fighting for.  The achievement of that cause stands as a testament to the human will.  Now we must rally to the cause again. 



1.  “How Our Campaign Finance System Compares to Other Countries.”  The American Prospect, April 4, 2014. 

2.  “International Campaign Finance:  How do countries compare?” by Nick Thompson.  CNN World, March 5, 2012. 

3.  “Who is Jair Bolsonaro?”  The Guardian, September 6, 2018. 

4.  “Who owns the media in France?”  Reporters Without Borders, December 8, 2107. 

5.  “The Elephant in the Room:  New Report on UK Media Ownership.”  Media Reform Coalition, April 24, 2014. 

6. “Monitoring Risks for Media Pluralism in the EU and Beyond.  Report: Germany.”  Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom.  December 2016. 

No comments:

Post a Comment