Honoring a national hero, Part 2.

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By Kathie Malley-Morrison

Andrew Bacevich has confronted our nation with some hard truths about the dismal state of democracy in this troubled and troubling election year.  He has also shared his wisdom on the forces that led to our current debacle.

Factor 1 is the evil effects of money.   Bacevich suggests that people read Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig’s book,  Republic Lost, Version 2.0., or see Lessig’s 18 minute TED talk .  The message is not a happy one: “Professor Lessig argues persuasively that unless the United States radically changes the way it finances political campaigns, we’re pretty much doomed to see our democracy wither and die.”

Factor 2 is “the perverse impact of identity politics on policy”—the assumption that increasing diversity in our leaders will necessarily lead to better politics, truer democracy. Bacevich comments: “In the end, it’s not identity that matters but ideas and their implementation… Putting a woman in charge of national security policy will not in itself amend the defects exhibited in recent years.  For that, the obsolete principles with which Clinton along with the rest of Washington remains enamored will have to be jettisoned.  In his own bizarre way (albeit without a clue as to a plausible alternative), Donald Trump seems to get that; Hillary Clinton does not.

Factor 3 is “the substitution of “reality” for reality.”  To understand this principle, Bacevich recommends reading Daniel Boorstin’s book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.  Presidential campaigns today are, according to Bacevich, using a term from Boorstin, “pseudo-events.” By now, he comments, “most Americans know better than to take at face value anything candidates say or promise along the way.  We’re in on the joke — or at least we think we are.  Reinforcing that perception on a daily basis are media outlets that have abandoned mere reporting in favor of enhancing the spectacle of the moment.”

So, what do you, the reader, think? Is democracy being steadily subverted by the rich and powerful, their banks and international corporations legitimized as human citizens by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision? Is electing a man of color or a woman to the nation’s highest office enough to ensure that democracy can be strengthened and extended to all?  Can we preserve democracy if the corporate media create exciting public spectacles that serve to protect both the status quo and those very same rich and powerful people who control them and much of what goes on in politics?  Or do none of these factors seem like the real problem to you?  Is our democracy doing just fine?