The Federalist Diaries

Are We Going to Lose This One?, Part 1

Libertarian ideologues and moneygrubbers stand aside. Make room for the people.
Statement of August 19, 2008, by Don McCanne, retired physician and an advocate on behalf of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of fourteen thousand American physicians advocating for single-payer national health insurance.

One of the announcements in this issue mentions the deficiencies of our democracy.  Apart from those, there are indications that our democracy is becoming less democratic.  As you read the following, ask yourself whether it would matter how democratic our country was.  In other words, is democracy an end in itself or just a means to an end?  If the latter, then, if we found a better means, would we replace democracy with something better to achieve the end?

Maryland Troopers Put Peace Activists on Terror Lists  

I can't quite believe that I'm linking to the Washington Times, but they have good coverage of how Maryland troopers spied on activist groups and put people on lists marked with "crimes" such as "terrorism - anti govern(ment)" and "terrorism - anti-war protestors". These are people who attend meetings of small nonprofit organizations concerned with U.S. foreign policy. The focus in the article is on the state troopers, but don't we have to ask why these categories are even listed as "crimes" in the first place? There are over a million people on these lists now (no doubt you know and work with several people on them) and the utter political purpose of the lists has reached a level of absurd obviousness. http://news.gilbert.org/clickthru/redir/6778/10524/rms  

Amnesty Int'l Focuses on Americans' Voting Rights  

You know your democracy is in trouble when Amnesty International starts focusing on voting rights in your country. What country am I talking about? The United States of America . Despite the best efforts of hundreds of civil society organizations, thousands and thousands of people across the U.S. (especially in so-called swing states) are being removed from the voting rolls. The mechanisms for counting votes are less and less transparent. The ballot box is one of the republic's insurance policies against violent change. (Nonviolent non-cooperation, an arguably still more powerful alternative, is increasingly suppressed by violence or the threat thereof in this country.) This makes me wonder if our policy is about to lapse. http://news.gilbert.org/clickthru/redir/6773/10524/rms

November 6, 2008