One of the first books I was required to read while studying political science was The Iron Law of Oligarchy, written by Michels and Pareto. It pointed out a flaw in democracy, saying oligarchies would arise among them. An oligarchy is rule by a few from behind the scenes, such as a strong military or religions group or a wealthy elite. Sound familiar? It should because that's what you're currently living under in these United States of America. We aren't a full-fledged oligarchy, not in the sense perhaps like you'd find in other countries, but we're definitely no longer a full-fledged democracy either.
We still vote politicians into office, but what's behind all that? Nobody can get elected to Congress these days without the support of big money, and the country is full of monied people looking for influence in government. Most of your representatives in Congress are essentially bought and paid for, and beholding to groups with money who put them there. That, partner, ain't democracy. Want to be President? You'll have to sell yourself to these monied interests, or you won't get there, and the same is true all down the line. I grew up in a small town that was essentially run by a few wealthy and prominent men, and they never held public office. Everyone who lived there knew this, didn't care because they trusted the elite more than they did the politicians. I now live in a small town run the same way. None of the people who really wield power around here hold public office, but they still run the town, and again, nobody cares.
We have a hard time getting people to vote in America, and when the public doesn't vote in big numbers, the changes grow that somebody behind the scenes will end up running things. They have a better chance of getting their folks elected to office with a low voter turnout. If we can get over 60 percent of the registered voters to the polls for a Presidential election, that's good. That percentage goes down some for other public offices, and it seems that the further down the line you go, the lower the percentages go. Here in my home town, which has a population of around 6,000, city council jobs are usually won with some 500 votes. County offices are won with low vote totals. Members of the state legislature are likewise won with low vote totals. That means most people choose not to vote, and if you ask they why, you get a response like, "It doesn't make any difference."
I've studied voting trends for a long time, and I used to tell my college classes that democracy in this country has turned out to be lazy and indifferent. Most people just don't care enough to vote in big numbers, and the people who do care enough want something from government. And when the people who want the most have big money, the outcome is inevitable. They buy government. The grand idea of an independent representative going into public office has not come to pass . . . but the warnings from Pareto and Michels has. It's a basic fact of life that the elite will always look for ways to take over, run things, reap the rewards of those efforts, and that's not part of the democratic principle. I wouldn't dare say that allowing the elite to govern, whether it's out in the open or behind the scenes, is always a bad thing. But it's a bad thing for democracy, for the people who live under it. The only way the masses can stop that is by voting, and you can't do that until you work toward organizing people. That's a near impossible job.
We work through political parties in America, and most people don't like politics much. I suppose one could make the argument that a political party itself is an oligarchy wanting to control government. We choose not to identify them as such, and that's perhaps proper. That's the system we have, so it's the one we must work with. We have choices between candidates from the two major parties, Democrats and Republicans, and from a few independent office seekers. The best we can hope for is that our party wins, and that means that for a while we have government by Democrats, or government by Republicans. That way, we know who to give credit to when things go well, and who to blame when they go wrong. My worry is: Who should we blame when things go wrong most of the time?
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