Our Constitution established the United States as a republic, not a democracy. But the definitions have become clouded and confusing. When it is said that America is not a democracy it is meant that America is not a pure democracy. By definition, America is both a republic and a democracy.

A republic is generally defined as a form of government in which the head of state is an elected president rather than a monarch. A republic is a form of government in which the sovereign power is widely vested in the people through elected officers and representatives responsible to them.

A democracy is generally defined as government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. For lack of a better definition, America is supposed to be a republic of representative democracy. A form of government wherein the supreme power ultimately rests with the people.

However, since the United States Constitution was established, the supreme power of the people has been fatally compromised, overcome by the growth and power of political parties, moneyed factions and the personal power assumed by the people's elected representatives. Our form of government has been transformed into something undefined. By any definition, it has become a threat to the people's liberty and freedom.

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Do we really have democracy in America?

Absolutely not! Rather than government by the people through elected representatives, we have government that has seized powers far beyond those granted by the Constitution. Our elected representatives and government have assumed the roles of domineering parents. We are looked upon as helpless children who must have everything in our lives decided for us and controlled by government.

Public policy is not created by the public. It's created by the elites of government, academics, corporate powers and the media. Only 27 states allow some form of ballot initiatives and/or referendums. However, what is supposed to be a form of direct democracy for the people is dominated by government and special, moneyed, interests. Ordinary citizens are generally unable to initiate or complete the highly restrictive and costly process. Even when they do, the will of the people can't make it past the courts. National initiatives and referendums are not allowed.
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Representative democracy has failed.

Over the 220 years of our history, democracy has been eroded to the point where the people have literally nothing to say about government. Partisan political powers, pre-selected candidates, special interests and the money behind them have completely undermined democracy. And the media has taken a dangerously complicit role in doing the same thing. The presidency has assumed the role of monarch and has circumvented Congress in declaring wars. The Congress has become an aristocracy, abused its power to tax and spend, and has accumulated massive debt upon the people. The judicial and legal systems have compromised the Constitution and justice.

Nearly a third of the electorate are nonpartisan independent voters. Their numbers are growing and they are not represented in government. That is blatantly unconstitutional because the Constitution is nonpartisan. Moreover, discrimination against nonpartisan citizens is no less unconstitutional than discrimination against citizens because of race or sex. The two-party systems has undermined the republic and democracy. All elected Democrats and Republicans believe in, is partisan power and control at any cost. The Constitution says nothing about political parties because they have no place inside the election process or government. Partisan politics have destroyed representative democracy and the cultural fabric of America.
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The two-party system has divided and conquered the nation.

The two-party system of Democrats and Republicans controls the election process, the Congress and the Presidency. In essence, the two-party system controls all state and federal government. With few exceptions, all elected officers and representatives are identified as either Democrats or Republicans. One party or the other, whichever is in the majority, controls the legislative and executive branches of government and influences appointments to the state and federal judiciary.

The Democratic Party's political ideology is known as the liberal left. The Republican Party is known as the conservative right. Over time, the most liberal and conservative elements of the two parties have engaged in uncompromising battles creating deep divisions among themselves and the American people.

Combined, moderate (centrist) Democrats, Republicans and nonpartisan independent voters comprise the great majority of the electorate. It has become common practice for most candidates in major elections to campaign from the moderate center, get elected, then govern from the left or right against the will of the people, until re-election time.
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Most of what the people know is communicated to them by means of the news media. Most people are exposed to information from the dominate news media. The dominate news media is mostly television news programming. The dominate print media's presence is being expanded by means of the Internet.

Combined, the dominate television and print news media controls the public mind. If the media was responsible to the protections of the First Amendment, the media wouldn't be a problem. But they are a problem because they're politically biased, profit-driven and irresponsible elitists. They gain audience and make money for their corporate owners with scare, shock and tabloid sensational news, then carry on with their partisan agenda.

Neutral reporting in the dominate news media simply doesn't exist. In fact, their agenda is so politically partisan, they should be required to register with the Federal Election Commission as political action committees and pay fees to the FCC for daily political ads over the public airways.

The media brands Republicans as the only extreme partisans, while ignoring the equal, if not more rancorous, partisanship of the liberal Democrats. The media also includes talk-radio which is dominated by Rush Limbaugh and partisan Republican conservatives. Neutral news media covering politics and government is generally limited to C-Span.

The media buys and sells democracy with constant public opinion polls of every description, primarily political, social and economic. The question is, how can the media conduct credible polls when all the people polled know is what they are exposed to by the media? They cannot and they've betrayed democracy in the process.

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We the people are only necessary because we're the consumers of government, giant corporate powers and the media. Those powers consume us with overwhelming propaganda and pander to us, only because we pay the way for them. We're important, only to the extent that we'll buy what they're selling, with taxes, cash or credit. But whenever we stray from what they want, we're held in lowest of contempt and ridicule. All we have left is the vote, and very little of that. Everything is decided for us, but that moment when we vote. Our vote is the only thing they fear and respect.
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Government has become a giant centralized and insulated community, unaccountable to the people. Elected officials and representatives won't give straight, truthful answers to simple questions. Instead, they are either evasive and unresponsive or they reply with contrived, self-serving statements.

Whether campaigning or holding office, most politicians promise everything and produce nothing. Political rhetoric, no matter how outrageous, has become painfully acceptable, enabling elected officials and representatives to deceive the people with impunity.

Government departments, agencies and bureaus have become impenetrable bastions of bureaucrats, nearly impervious to accountability to the people's elected officials and representatives and public who employs them. Truth and accountability are unenforceable in government. They simply don't exist. People in government are not the problem; the system is.
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"Equal justice under law" are the words chiseled over the portal to the United States Supreme Court. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are at least two levels of justice in America. Justice for the few who can afford it and injustice for the majority who cannot. The so-called rule of law has become so massive, complicated, convoluted and confusing that most people cannot understand it.

Laws are supposed to be in simple language, constitutional and few. Except for widely known criminal laws, the previous statement does not apply to most laws. Coupled with laws legislated by the courts, there are so many laws, rules and regulations that ignorance of the law is not only an excuse for most people, it's inevitable. That's why we have so many lawyers who produce nothing and make a lot of money doing it.

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Government has no money and it doesn't own anything. Everything is paid for and owned by taxpaying citizens. The problem is, citizens don't control government's taxing and spending habits or anything else. The aggregate rate for local, state and federal taxes for most people amounts to about 40 percent. If Social Security and Medicare are not fixed, retiring baby boomers will cause the aggregate tax rate to double by the year 2030.

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America is steeped in uncertainty. Over the past 45 years, our society has been assaulted by selfish interests and battered by the failures of good intentions. Indeed, we have turned into a superficial society of extremes. We have been subjected to social aggression, legal anarchy, commercial excess, corporate corruption, governmental tyranny and media-driven chaos. And our education system has been reduced factories of liberal indoctrination, moral relativism and ignorance, and warehouses of violence.

The 2000 election was a democratic farce wherein the president was selected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Over 20 years of unanswered terrorism against the United States resulted in the September 11, 2001 attack on American soil. The war against terror began and escalated to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 9/11 and the war in Iraq is all about oil. Radical Islamic terrorists don't want our presence or influence in the Middle East. But like it or not, we will be dependant on Middle East oil imports for many years. Our economy and our national security would collapse without it. Therefore, we must maintain stability in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Saudi Arabia which contain the world's largest oil reserves.

The 2004 presidential election has become a media-driven partisan civil war at the worst possible time. America could be staring World War III in the face... If we as independent and moderate voters don't get our act together, and demand nonpartisan common sense and unity, our liberty and our survival could be at stake.

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