Hidden Places

Ever since the election last November, I have been struggling with the apparent futility of the Ron Paul Revolution. Despite months of campaigning, talking to relatives, striking up conversations with strangers, and political rallies and debates, the American people remained unchanged. Even taking possible voting fraud into account, it is highly unlikely that we received even 10% of the popular vote in the last election. Even worse, no one seemed willing to hear the truth even as the evidence began to mount that our nation was in serious trouble. Even now, while confronted with the very real possibility of a severe economic depression, people are unwilling to make the necessary changes to avoid catastrophe.

This was one of the reasons that we were drawn to Ron Paul. Finally, we had a true statesman – a man of impeccable integrity who valued law, justice, and truth -- a man who was willing to speak the hard truths and make difficult decisions. We realized at once that he was special, but have we ever thought about just how special he is? Are there any other men like him in Washington? Maybe a handful, but the vast majority of our congressmen and Senators seem to exist only to extend their power and enrich themselves and their friends. Most are short-sighted and weak, happy to vote along party lines to ensure their re-election and political clout. Few, very few, are willing to truly sacrifice for the good of the nation.

As I struggled with that concept, I had a nagging thought – a shadow of doubt about Libertarianism, America, everything. It was elusive. I could not put my finger on what it was exactly that bothered me. Then a couple weeks ago, I read a book called “Avalon” by Stephen Lawhead that helped bring things into focus. I will talk more about this book specifically as well as Lawhead’s excellent series “The Songs of Albion” in my next post, but for now, as I considered the story that his book presented, a question rose in my mind:

What if democracy, at its very core, is irreparably flawed?

The repercussions, of course, are huge. Democracy is fundamental to the Libertarian movement, the Constitution, and everything that we stand for in the United States. As American citizens, we have been taught from the very beginning to value and cherish democracy. And yet, as I began to take a serious look at our government system, the weight of evidence began to crack the foundations.

Democracy by its very nature does not promote statesmen. Elections are primarily a popularity contest. They are weighted towards those who are ready and able to say exactly what people want to hear. Those who speak the truth are often demeaned or ignored – people simply do not want to hear that what they are doing is wrong. Or they are willing for changes to be made as long as they do not impact themselves or their neighborhoods. So, they vote for the person who will give them all that they want with the least cost. People are inherently self seeking and often short-sighted. Democracy rests its hopes that these selfish impulses will move society toward a better good, but history has not backed this assertion.

While in the beginning, there may be a higher concentration of statesmen to politicians, over time the power base shifts to those who desire power and know how to please people. Those who are actually most fit to lead start to avoid politics altogether as they see the corruption and greed and either want nothing to do with it or see how small their chances really are at victory. Even the few high minded individuals who do manage to achieve office are either lured into obedience by their more charismatic leaders or they are shunned, demeaned and reduced to irrelevancy.

The founding fathers did not establish a true democracy, of course. Instead, they established a Constitutional Republic that protected the rights of its citizens and established checks and balances. They also had a key advantage of presiding over a nation with a relatively strong work ethic and moral standards. The government was designed to be purposefully slow to change. These ingredients made the United States the most successful democratic society in history.

However they also created a condition where today it is virtually impossible to turn the ship from the iceberg. The task of convincing millions of American citizens to give up their lifestyles and make difficult decisions in order to benefit the nation in the long term is very difficult if not impossible. Even when you get them to agree on the problems, they do not all agree on the solutions. The end result is gridlock and political infighting. It is a sad fact that the greatest changes and reforms in our nation’s history came from those who abused their power to get it done such as Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George W. Bush. Of course, those people who are willing to go against the law are also much more likely to have unjust and corrupt regimes, thus most of these “reformers” made the situation much worse for the average American. People like Ron Paul who want to work within the system and its laws to affect change find that they are unable to because too few people share their views or are willing to work with them to solve the problem.

The very nature of our government that allowed us to establish the longest running democracy in the history of the world is going to be our undoing. We simply cannot make the changes fast enough to heal our nation because it is too hard to convince so many people to change their minds, and even if they did, there are too few statesmen to run for office to do their will.

Another key problem with a democracy is the educational requirements. This goes beyond the abysmal state of our educational system. Even if we were all highly educated and intelligent individuals, the amount of research and knowledge required to make informed decisions at the poll is daunting. How many of us were able to do a detailed analysis on not only the political positions of every candidate (local, state, and federal) but to check that against their actual voting records and actions in public office? How many of us were able to review the court cases presided over by the judges we elected in our counties to determine if the judge was fair? In order to truly be an informed electorate, we would need to spend countless hours into pouring over legislation, court records, news articles, etc. to check up on our leaders. Media outlets, as we well know, are not reliable sources of news. They have always been biased, and they are becoming increasingly tied to the rhetoric the government leaders want us to hear. How can we possibly hope to keep up without sacrificing our jobs and/or families?

The last item that really gave me pause was when I considered the actions of the NWO. One common theme from the last three presidents is the desire to “spread democracy”. If democracy is the bastion of freedom and liberty, why would they be so eager to see it spread around the world? Could it be because it allows them to more easily sway and control populations? After all, when things go badly, who can the electors blame but themselves?

I want to open this to discussion. Is democracy inherently flawed or is it simply a matter of implementation?