THE END OF DEMOCRACY

America's experiment with democracy may be drawing to a close.

And maybe that's for the best.

It's been a long time since true representative democracy has been active in this country. It's becoming more and more clear that so-called "representatives" only pay attention to national party leaders, not to the folks back home.

Mitch McConnell, minority leader in the Senate, instructed his caucus to vote NO on the For The People voting rights bill, and his guys came through for him.

McConnell said the bill was a "bald-faced" attempt to shut down the Republican party. And he's right. Holding fair elections in this country is an existential threat to the GOP.

Republicans succeed (on the state and local level) by lying and cheating on a massive scale, mostly by gerrymandering districts and suppressing the vote. If they get blocked from doing this, they're toast.

The only other way a minority party can get by is to broaden its appeal, to attract more people and convince them to vote for their candidates. That's not only a hell of a lot more work, there's no guarantee it will succeed.

(Last time they tried, they got Donald Trump elected. After which he hijacked the party outright, a mess that has yet to be resolved—another existential threat for Republicans.)

Meanwhile, traditional lying and cheating has a sweet track record. Why mess with it if you don't have to?

What McConnell is accusing the Demos of doing is akin to a crook taking issue with the police for attempting to jail him for his crimes. It makes sense, in a limited, self-serving way, but the position is not remotely defensible.

Dismount from that high horse, McConnell, before you fall off. And mind how you go: It's a long way down to the ground.

The main problem with American politics is of course politics itself. It's an upstart sideshow to government that has taken over, like Donald Trump muscling his way through a crowd of international leaders to stand front and center for a photo op.

Most folks don't even seem to understand how representative government is supposed to work. They quiz candidates to learn their opinions on hot topics. What does the guy think about abortion? What does he think about immigration? What does he think about climate change?

Who cares?

The job of a representative is to do whatever the majority of the folks in the district wants him to do. His opinion on any given subject is irrelevant.

Is there a way around this nonsense? Maybe.

We now have the technology to abandon representative government in favor of direct government. Folks would log onto usgov.gov (or the equivalent) and vote directly on the bill in question. No need to worry if the monkey they sent to Washington is going to do his job. You do his job!

And I get it: Making sure all those votes are legit would be a bitch. But it's no doubt a problem of technology that will yield to hard work. The new system can be made secure.

Unfortunately, there is a much bigger stumbling block: Making sure the people who vote are not completely full of crap. This country is busting at the seams with conspiracy-theory believing ding-dongs:

Folks who think Donald Trump won the 2020 election (by a landslide, no less).

Folks who drool over the latest dribblings from the mysterious Q.

Folks who are convinced that Nazis and other White Supremacists have many good lessons for America to learn.

Folks who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19—or follow any anti-virus mitigation procedures—because it's a violation of their personal liberty.

Folks who are convinced George Floyd was murdered by the cops.

(Those guys are a subset of folks who know that Black Lives Matter got it right: White cops kill black guys for no reason—and are happy to do it in front of cameras if that can be arranged.)

Folks who deny there was any sort of insurrection at the Capitol on Jan 6. (And therefore no need to investigate, right?)

Folks who love/fear God and are awaiting the return of his slacker offspring.

In short, folks who know what they know and can't be wrong, however crazy-pants their thinking is on every issue.

So, what do we do about this? The people we need to stand at ground zero of government are massively defective mentally. How the hell do we fix that?

Maybe be applying the same fix as for presidential candidates.

You may recall I proposed a three-part vetting procedure for anyone who wanted to be a candidate for president: 1. Pass the test immigrants have to pass to become citizens; 2. Be evaluated by mental health professionals to make sure the person is mentally and emotionally stable; and 3. Pass an FBI background investigation to see if the potential president is worthy of a security clearance.

What if we put potential voters through the same process?

And yes, I can already hear the tortured screams of the Constitutionally violated! Talk about voter suppression! The country would be in the hands of a few thousand very qualified people!

(Is that so very bad? The number would certainly grow over time.)

What do you think? Would fully vetted voters be more likely to be Democrats or Republicans?

Beats me, but what if they rejected all political parties as an unnecessary impediment to good government. That would be a pleasant change.

So, anybody up for a new experiment in democracy?