Written by: Goemagog

We are not a democracy. The United States is a republic. It annoys me when people talk about our government, it's powers and structures, yet fail to grasp this important detail. We could have had a democracy and let everybody vote on everything, but just the safety regulations for housing construction would make that impossible. We instead, and rather wisely, leave the formulation of such regulations to people who know about those matters.

A dishonest press would also skew elections, as would Madison Avenue. There wouldn't be any accountability, since everything was voter approved. Those in favor of bad policies would claim it was a different policy that causing problems, or scapegoat population segments as being manipulative of the process.

We don't have a democracy though, we have a republic, which means that the public doesn't necessarily endorse any particular platform or issue. Politicians are elected based on the whole of their impact, not just a few key issues. If something goes wrong, the person takes the blame, not a policy, since almost all of the policies of that time are those of that person.

So why do we keep talking about bringing democracy to other parts of the world? If the people talking about doing that knew what they were talking about, it wouldn't be the establishment of democracies but of republics. Even genocidal fucktard commies try to play off of both, sticking them into the names of their many tyrannies (People's Democratic Republic of Deathcamps). But here, in the most prosperous republic (or even country) that ever was, it gets no respect.

It's all about the issues. The press, the most ignorant, dishonest, and misleading idiots that have ever soiled our planet (and yes, I do hold them to be more worthy of loathing than lawyers) keep complaining about the issues. They complain daily that politicians spend all their time muckracking instead of talking issues, and then the pundits spend the rest of their day facilitating the muckracking.

But what are the issues? They are everything. Water purity, correct spacing on wall studs, tensil strength of the rivets used in airplane manufacture, the best tax rates for government funding, the best tax rates for the public, how much federal money needs to be spent on earthworm studies, how much needs to be spent on city parks, etc., etc., etc. Everything is an issue, because our government deals with everything. Nothing is safe from regulation or meddling.

Why does it matter if one candidate is against puppy-blending and the other supports it? Would either position make them more or less likely to keep the streets clean and safe or stop a plague? How many different issues are the press going to ignore while they cover the pro's and con's of drinking blended puppies? Is a policy difference of one part per bajillion of a nasty substance in the water going to make you vote for the other candidate? How many parts per bajillion would it take to make you change your mind?

What they don't want politicians to talk about is their philosophy of governing. If we knew that, we could make an educated guess about the policies that they'd enact, without having to hear the mindnumbing details of each and every policy. The problem here is that they don't have philosophies of governing. Very few people do these days.

Public service is no longer a public trust. Everybody I know who isn't worried about their next rent or mortgage payment is a civil servant who doesn't serve, but makes neverending demands for the time, money, and energies of others. I want a politician who sincerely believes that public service is not a private fiefdom for civil servants to tyrannize the public, but instead I get a choice between drinking blended puppies or kittens.

The press believes that the whole public has to decide whether or not puppies are preferably to kittens as an afternoon beverage, because they believe 'democracy' is the solution to our problems. So long as they are honest and sincere in their philosophy, I'll leave others to their own choice of beverage, and stand by the republic.

Goe, not so much ranting as raving.