Letter #1 Representative Democracy

“There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know.” – Ambrose Bierce

From your earliest days in American schools, you will be taught American history as a nationalization process.  I am currently watching this education process as EJ and I study together at the 5th grade level.  It is the first history you will be taught in the school system and it will continue throughout your public school career.  It is a sort of indoctrination process, similar to religion, which forms a nationalist view of the rest of the world governments (often enhanced by media spin) and events occurring between these governments in relation to our United States.  Do not get me wrong, I love the United States.  I realize the ugly history of its existence (land confiscation and genocide of the original inhabitants of the land, slavery), but I love the United States because it was the soil my parents and their parents worked on…..and it will be the soil that my daughters and their children work on.  I love the thought of what our society and nation can be one day.

I strongly advise you to study and understand all forms of known government throughout history and currently operating on the global world stage today.  The world is large, but not too large to understand.  Like all lessons that I hope you learn, it will benefit you to understand these governments instead of allowing others and the national media to ‘tell or instruct’ you what to think (causing prejudices to develop in your views from the nationalistic indoctrination of your early childhood education).  Just and honest actions are just and honest actions while economic interests are economic interests.  Nothing in international politics happens because there is an evil fairy tale king or queen.  Conflicts and actions occur over economic struggles, monetary struggle, industry, trade, land usurpation and occupation.  Often these realistic facts which cause international conflict will be guised under the false decorations of religion.  To understand governments, I would suggest studying the major systems first: democracy, representative democracy, socialism, and communism.  In this manner, it will be easier to understand world history from an un-bias view and will provide better critical thinking for analyzing events as they occur or have previously occurred in history.
As your earliest public school teachings tell you, our United States is a democracy.  What they do not stress as important is the type of democracy that we are.  We are not a direct democracy.  We are a representative democracy.  There is a major difference in the two forms of government.  Many Americans pay little attention to the day to day activities of the government above them, specifically the activities of Congress where decisions and votes are made daily which impact all Americans, communities, and funding areas.  Sure, every four years, when there is a presidential election (ultimately decided by the Electoral College instead of the full spectrum of direct voting by the American people) our American peers will pay some attention to what is media-fed to them, but normally they are preoccupied with working long hours and consuming inorganic mass-produced popular culture in the forms of television and internet.  Why are the day to day activities of the government above you so important?  As previously mentioned, our government is currently formed as a representative democracy (quite different from direct democracy).  In a true direct democracy, every man and woman would have a vote on issues, laws, funding, and so forth.  The people could elect their presidential candidate, vote on possible military conflict, national budget cuts, and the establishment or elimination of established or proposed laws.  In our current representative democracy, a limited amount of representation votes (either democrat or republican affiliation) vote to pass laws and measures on behalf of the American people.  These laws and measures, voted on by representatives, impact Americans from top to bottom:  disbursement of fiscal year funding to fields such as military, education, prisons, law enforcement, welfare and Medicare/Medicaid and foreign aid.  Keep in mind, the American people DO have the direct vote when it comes to congressional representative seats (votes).  Sadly, non-presidential election years (Congressional) rarely show a voter turnout higher than 20% (and that is being generous).

At this stage, we must acknowledge the economic influential force of lobbyist organizations.  They come in many forms from corporate to foreign, religious to political. An individual American is allowed one geographical representative in the House of Representatives and one geographic senator in the Senate to write to, call and bring their American concerns to.  The major lobbyist organizations, on the other hand, are allowed to wheel and deal, make promises and provide campaign contributions to EVERY seat in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and lobbyist organizations can manipulate government actions through influencing (economically and otherwise) a majority of representative seats (votes).  Lobbyist organizations often play both sides of the two party political representative democratic system, both democrat and republican, so that their pursued interests will never lose or be delayed, regardless of which political party takes the majority of votes (in Congress) or wins on election day.  Some of these lobbyist interests, corporate and economic in nature, include laws that allow corporations to set up manufacturing plants in foreign nation-states (with lower wage requirements thus creating a higher profit margin) and lower import tariffs and tax breaks for those corporations.  Foreign lobbyist organizations often impact military and economic aid to foreign governments, sanctions that often lead to military intervention on other foreign nation-states (which require nation rebuilding efforts that accumulate great debt sums), and blind international support.  One of the most powerful lobbyist organizations, a lobbyist organization that takes marching orders from a foreign nation-state government, which strongly impacts our American government, is AIPAC.  AIPAC is a pro-Israeli lobbyist organization with a sole emphasis on the foreign nation-state government of Israel.  I hold the opinion that no lobbyist organizations on behalf of a foreign government should be allowed to contact or influence representatives that decide American domestic and foreign policy.  Two blatant examples from the time period of 2011-2012 is the AIPAC paid Congressional vacations to Israel and the free trips to the annual AIPAC student government conferences (which were extended to student government presidents throughout 1A major college universities across the United States).  Representatives of the lobbyist organization of AIPAC make no secret that they want to reach the future U.S. leaders of tomorrow.

These lobbyist organizations are so powerful and so ‘influential’ that they are feared in Washington.  In many situations, any government representative that attempts to oppose or expose the interests of the lobby, especially the foreign lobby, will be slandered, blackmailed or economically strangled out of the next election race (regardless if the interests of the lobby hinder or oppose the interests or well-being of the United States).  Cynthia McKinley was one of many American representatives who found herself stonewalled out of Congress for her attempts.  If all else fails, a representative will be labeled a racist or an anti-Semite for challenging lobbyist promoted interests of the foreign nation-state government of Israel and their career will be destroyed.  If the majority of Americans understood the process of representative democracy better, then positive reform could be achieved.  I have often held hopes that both of you will become involved in student government early in your educational development, but I must be clear about one thing when it comes to national, state or congressional reform: any negative choices, words, relationships, or secrets that a man or woman has hidden in their past will be exposed and used against them by the lobby at the first instance that reform is attempted to be implemented or economic or foreign interests are opposed.  Therefore, if you develop the passion and love for your American people and find yourself ever pursuing a career of representation of our people….every element of your actions and words must be considered early on in life.  In short, you must conduct yourself like you are a representative of the American people from youth, long before you ever realize that an opportunity exists for you to represent the American people and create reform on behalf of the American people and the American future (the reason i am telling you this now).  It is time for true representatives to emerge into our representative democracy from the American people and for the American people to rise up to replace the current corrupt channels of entrenched lobbyist networking, and the individual greed of our current representatives who consistently sell out the American people and American future for individual economic incentives and future campaign promises.  Keep in mind that many our our so-called government representatives have been silver spooned and prepared from birth to take their places in our representative democratic government system.  In order to promote positive, long standing change in our nation's representative democracy, we need real Americans, who have developed a true love of nation and moral integrity, in those places of decision making (the House of Representative and the Senate).  In order to create this historic reform within our American representative democracy, your generation needs to fully understand representative democracy, how our political system works (interior and exterior factors) and every element of daily operations and the history of those operations.  Believe me, these things will not be taught to your generation in the public school systems.  Your generation must also learn discipline; avoid greed and gluttony (because if they do achieve the honor of representing the American people, they WILL be bribed), and the consequences of words and actions.  Any character blemish on a member of your generation, excludes them from bringing positive reform within representative democracy because their character and identity will be instantly be slandered and blackmailed by those whose interests are being opposed.  These categories include drugs, abortion, adultery, prostitution, derogatory comments toward individual groups or demographic factions within the United States or worldwide….basically anything that can be used against you, will be used against you in a court of social judgment.  Always speak the truth upfront.  The American people can forgive and understand many things, but dishonesty and false denial are not among them.  An individual can be slandered or assassinated, but an honest, just and positive collective movement to better the collective people is hard to destroy once it has started ...if it is indeed honest and just on behalf of all citizens equally.

I truly believe that reform through representative democracy can be achieved in your generation or your children’s generation.  The question is….will this timeline be long enough?  I believe that to physically oppose a corrupt government system is counter-productive and destructive to infrastructures and populations.  These physical revolutions, known throughout history to be inorganic in nature and inspired by external or internal forces on purpose, often do more damage than good, allowing future justification for martial law, physical oppression, and more stringent laws against liberty in the aftermath.    I believe that once your generation studies the current political system, that the system will no longer look as complex as it appears on the surface. It is not a complex system at all.  It is a system of multiple votes, bribery and manipulation, yet it is a form of democracy that can be reformed and changed to work properly on the best behalf of the American people.

It is the understanding, moral discipline, organization, actions and passion of your generation that are the most complex and most difficult areas that must be mastered in order to establish positive reform within representative democracy for your children and their children, my daughters.