Elections 2010: Please Help Keep Democracy Alive

So this is how it ends. Not with gunfire, screams and blood as the United States is invaded by foreign forces, or the government captured by conservative forces applying the “Second Amendment remedy” Sharron Angle suggested if the conservatives don’t get what they want with the next election.

No, American Democracy ends with the grave tones of countless anti-democrat TV ads quietly paid for by anonymous fat-cat donors and giant corporations. It ends in the hush of indifference and the dull ache of malaise, as progressive and liberal voters plod dully through their day on November 5 without bothering to vote.

In a single day, without a shot fired, a patriot slain, or Keith Olbermann lynched, America slides irrevocably from a democracy to a conservative plutocracy. Done, finished, the end. Sit down and shut up. From now on the first amendment only applies if you agree with your conservative corporate masters. Put down that birth control pill, heathen.

Yes, what you say is true. The Democrats also have big donors that they cater to, but—and it is a big but—Democratic ideology leaves them conflicted over their debt to donors and their debt to the American people. That is why you see them pushing legislation like banking reform and the stimulus bill—which did create between one and three million jobs and saved the jobs of thousands of policemen and teachers.

Think Republicans have the same conflicts? Consider the image of John Boehner standing on the floor of the House handing out checks from the Brown and Williamson tobacco company to other House Republicans. Consider that Boehner, the House Republican Leader, has voted the way favored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 93% of the time throughout his congressional career. Think he is alone? If her were do you suppose the U.S. Chamber of Congress, and other pro-business groups, many with anonymous donors, would be funding advertizing that gives Republicans a 7 to 1 spending advantage this year?

Suggesting that this may herald the end of democracy in the country may seem overboard. Surely the country will survive two years of Republicans dominating the House and even the Senate. Unfortunately it won’t be for only two years.

On Sept. 23, 2010, Senate Republicans, for the second time, filibustered the Disclose Act. This legislation would only have required corporate and special interest donors be identified in the ads they sponsor and have tightened restrictions on foreign donations. Many feel this legislation fell well short of what is necessary to reduce the corrupting effect of corporate donations on our elections, but it would have been a small start. But merely requiring the identification of major donors to organizations that now are pumping anonymous money to the Republicans was too much for them.

Can we expect corporate controlled Republican Congressmen to enact meaningful campaign funding reform? If they win, uncontrolled corporate spending to buy elections will continue essentially forever.

The good news if we do have a chance to preserve our American Democracy. You don’t have to rally. You don’t have to donate. You don’t have to knock on doors for the Democrats. You only have to use Facebook, Twitter, and E-mail to spread the word to everyone you know. Imperfect as the Democrats may be, a vote for them is a vote against the coming plutocracy.