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Indybay Feature

Bourgeois Democracy: Tyranny of the Minority

by DLi
The Nov. 3 Presidential election came close to being a third time that a minority-elected candidate got selected as the White House Occupant. Had 200,000 more ballots--less than 1/5 of 1% of total U.S. votes cast--in Michigan and Pennsylvania been cast in T-Rump's favor, the U.S. would have witnessed an absurd Tyranny of a Minority for the third time in the last 20 years. Only in the "Corporate-bin-Laden" media cocoon would the U.S. electoral system be deemed as the " beacon of democracy."
But is this a historical aberration? Far from it, the USA since its inception and right up to today, has been ruled by a minority. First off, blacks were excluded until after the Civil War. (I'm also curious as to when Native Americans were finally allowed to vote?) Women also were barred until 1920.

Aside from the blatant biases listed above, bourgeois democracy in the U.S. offers the following grotesque examples of voter manipulation:
A) The feudalistic Electoral College--created during the Slave era to "balance" representation from the Southern slave states, thus guaranteeing that many small populated states a disproportionate stranglehold on presidential selection.

B) Voter suppression campaigns, mostly by the GOP, but not exclusively(Democrats have suppressed Green Party from competing, as well as the exposed sabotage of Bernie's nomination both in 2016 and 2020.)

C) Gerrymandering, the widespread use of redrawing districts in favor of the current ruling party in states and localities.

D) Big $$$ in politics, the worst and most blatant case being the Supreme Court ruling on "People United" that allows unlimited campaign funding by groups having access to billions of private wealth. It's "Capitalism with an Inhumane Face"!

E) The Cult of Personalities in elections. JUst noticethe so-called Presidential debates, almost no substantive issues, like Universal Healthcare, nor guaranteed Living Wage, nor the gross inequality in income & wealth, but especially no mention of the murderous U.S. Imperial interventions all across the Planet, have been duscussed. Instead, the media focus is on either T-Rump's Twitter tantrums(and there are tons of that!), or on Biden's age or his stumbling speaking skills(and plenty of that too!)

In short, Bourgeois Democracy in the USA makes a mockery of democracy, and in reality only equates to a Tyranny of a Minority. What we need is a form of Participatory Democracy...(to be continued)
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