Delusion
Destroys Democracy
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
09 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Will Americans learn to trust
their fellow citizens or stay stuck on stupidly backing serial political
betrayers?
I have been watching films
from the 1940s and 1950s about World War II. It was well known that
Adolph Hitler was truly delusional. His delusions prevented him from
accepting wisdom and facts from experienced military officers and others,
and caused millions to suffer and die. Surely George W. Bush resembles
Hitler psychologically. His obsessive delusions about his Iraq war are
also causing incredible suffering and death, as well as squandering
our nation’s wealth.
Our constitutional democracy
makes it nearly impossible to free the nation from the grip of a seemingly
sane but deeply delusional president. The present constitutional provision
for impeachment is clearly inadequate. As with Hitler and other delusional
tyrants, Bush has surrounded himself with sycophants that share his
delusions, and perhaps nurtured them, and refuse to tell the emperor
that he has no clothes. Congress, even under Democratic control, commits
negligent cowardice. And our mainstream press has not rallied the nation
to free itself from misused presidential power.
Also clear to some of us
is that the delusional Bush has survived because delusion runs rampant
across the nation, blocking populist actions in the national interest.
Here are the main states of American delusion:
Millions of Americans persist
in believing, contrary to all historical evidence, that changing control
of Congress and the Executive Branch between Democrats and Republicans
produces sorely needed reforms. But mainstream politicians are serial
betrayers. Thus, people suffer from delusional political faith.
Millions of non-wealthy Americans
believe that the economy works for them. This persists despite reams
of facts that show how working- and middle-class people are not receiving
their fair share of national income and wealth. They keep running on
a debt treadmill that will not take them to the proverbial American
dream. What they get is economic insecurity, inequality and injustice.
Consumer confidence is an oxymoron. This is delusional prosperity.
Viral delusional thinking
is that America sets the gold standard for democracies. The rest of
the world, however, to its credit sees an arrogant nation with a government
that uses its military strength foolishly and sees its policies rewarding
the rich at the expense of all others. People from Finland to New Zealand
question why Americans do not receive universal health care, why its
workers are sacrificed for global trade and corporate powers, why millions
of its citizens go hungry and homeless, why so few people bother to
vote, why so many politicians are convicted of crimes, and why there
are more people in prisons than in all other countries combined. Yet
Americans by and large keep thinking that their constitutional republic
gives them first class democracy. This is delusional patriotism.
So, what are we to do? Keep
expressing dissent by marching and protesting in the streets? Keep signing
petitions on the Internet? Keep demanding impeachment of Bush? Keep
reading and writing angry diatribes on progressive websites? Keep voting
for mainstream politicians from the two major parties, hoping for a
political messiah? Keep obeying Bush by borrowing, spending, shopping
and consuming to keep our debt-ridden nation afloat?
Such activities release anger,
but are largely placebo self-medications, unlikely to provide the permanent
solutions our nation needs. Protests serve more as entertainment for
the nation than a force to tear down the rotten system. Scale is a problem.
Maybe if one million angry Americans sat down peacefully in the streets
all around the White House, defying police action for many days, just
maybe the system would crack. Protests must have a revolutionary character.
They must induce fear into the hearts of smug and delusional power elites
– like Dick Cheney.
The real needs are structural
reforms that combat the major societal delusions that are driving America
downhill. We must attack the root causes of problems rather than provide
temporary relief or cover-up of symptoms.
Delusional political faith
and delusional prosperity require profound reforms in our political
system. A new competitive political party is needed. One that is guided
by a set of principles that both mainstream Democrats and Republicans
can not opportunistically accept, because the principles clearly conflict
with their rotten behavior. A recent New America Foundation survey of
Californians found that “seven in 10 voters say they often feel
they must choose the lesser of two evils; more than half the voters
say California needs another major political party.”
Delusional patriotism is
tougher to remedy. To revitalize American democracy we must have a national
dialogue. Heed the words of the great John Marshall: “The people
made the constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature
of their will, and lives only by their will.” And James Madison:
“the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible
right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found adverse
or inadequate to the purposes of its institution.” Thomas Jefferson
believed that the constitution-drafting process should be repeated by
each generation of Americans. That’s what real freedom is all
about. A great democracy must be much more than stable – it must
be self-correcting.
When a political system no
longer deserves trust, citizens must trust themselves. Considering how
doggedly our unrepresentative democracy stays under the grip of moneyed
special interests and fails large fractions of Americans, more direct
democracy aimed squarely at major reforms is desperately needed. That
requires a lot more than protesting and ranting. Some urge citizens’
assemblies (see http://www.cusdi.org/
and http://www.healthydemocracy.org/),
or national initiative elections (see https://votep2.us/).
I and others believe that we have a constitutional right to Article
V Conventions (see http://www.foavc.org).
However, elitist status quo forces have made the population afraid of
such activities – a sick delusional, status quo bias belief. If
it persists, Americans will not set themselves free of the oppressive
forces that have hijacked their nation. They will keep venting their
anger as dissenters or stay distractive consumers rather than work to
return power to the people.
Let’s not delude ourselves
that all will be well after Bush is gone. As awful as Bush is, he is
a symptom of what ails our nation. Our nation will remain in need of
deep reforms. Millions of dissidents must wake up to what is really
needed and rally around a revolutionary strategy.
[Check out the author’s
solutions for fixing the nation at www.delusionaldemocracy.com;
for information on the Article V Convention concept contact him at articlevATgmailDOTcom.]
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