June 08, 2008 ... The audacity to demand change.

As of this weekend, it would be fair to say that America has seen the end of democracy as a meaningful process for positive change. This is because Hilary Clinton, in spite of gaining the most votes in the presidential primaries, privately agreed to concede to Barrack Obama because the Democratic party's Super-Delegates, etc., reckoned that this was strategically the better choice in order to win an election for the Democratic party, and for Hilary Clinton to decide on what arrangements were good for her future, political career. A career which may well continue for another 15-20 years, as a 2012 presidential candidate, or some powerful long-term position in the Senate, etc.

The Democrats have prior on this kind of behaviour. In the 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore conceded the popular vote in his favour and, in the face of blatant corruption in Florida with such issues as voters being disenfranchised because of manipulation of the voting register, Al Gore allowed the Supreme Court to rule in favour of the Republican party when he should have held the whole systems' feet to the fire, come the January deadline. For Al Gore and the Democratic party it was better to concede for the good of the system. No government by the people for the people here, it would seem, but many Republicans and Democrats were content enough.

Since then, and post 9/11 and the rush to war in Afghanistan, Iraq and further possible entrenchment in the middle east, America has become to all an intents and purposes a police-state, with the safety from external threats that such a state offers to its citizens.

Under questioning at his Nuremberg trial, Herman Goering, said:

“Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can hope for is to come back to the farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

As of today Herman Goering's observation vis-à-vis 'some poor slob' has succumbed to change: The 'poor slob on the farm' who hopes to come home in one piece can now hope to come home in one piece with the added incentive that he/she may now be eligible for free college funding, so that they can become good socialists-cum-stakeholder capitalists, and be better able to subvert the constitution for future generations.

This inexorable tendency towards catastrophic change is the change Americans will get to enjoy, which is a far cry from that which too many believe they will soon enough be having. For this outcome to be changed, Americans must begin to hold democracy in America to a vastly more stringent level of scrutiny than they are currently prepared to do. They would do well to begin with a very serious reexamination of their constitution and its principles.