Salient Points in American Democracy

5. Monopoly Capital. In truth, we don't live in a democracy at all. This would be true even if we only considered that the majority of people eligible to vote don't. In fact we live in a nation which is, practically speaking, a monopoly-capital driven theocracy. If the founders of this country could see it now, they'd be nothing but ashamed.

4. Free speech brings moral obligations. In similar fashion to the notions in #3 below, having the right to free speech necessarily brings with it obligations, most importantly, obligations not to harm others with our speech (it has, can, and does), and also obligations to educate ourselves before we speak. On this latter point, America is in serious pain. Folks feel that simply because they exist, they're "entitled to their opinion." No one is entitled to an uneducated opinion; no one has the right to formulate or, God forbid, voice an opinion if they have not educated themselves or been educated on relevant topics. Uneducated opinions are not only invalid, they're quite literally dangerous.

3. Liberty brings moral obligations. One of the most important dilemmas in all theories of liberty is this: how can everyone be completely free if in so being they would necessarily infringe on the freedoms of others? They can't. We are not completely free; in fact, our freedoms end exactly where those of others begin. Freedom brings with it the essential obligation not to interfere with the freedom of others.

2. Democracy, not consensus. Know that the only place in our democracy where consensus appears is with the 12-member jury trial, and even its presence there is hotly debated to this day (it tends to lead to, as consensus always does, compromise and inferior decisions). It's clear our forebears thought to allow for it in this one place if not only because they felt (maybe rightly, maybe wrongly) that when a capital punishment is under consideration, unanimity is essential. Know that consensus decisions in history have been the worst, bloodiest, most cataclysmic decisions ever. And understand that the idea of consensus is basically _antithetical_ to the idea of democracy. Instead of the majority of people getting a decision they actually think is good, everyone gets a decision that they think is only okay. In what ways does that result serve justice?

1. Church and state are separate. George Washington himself said, "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion." Our forebears created this nation _because_ they could no longer tolerate the conflation of church and state. They came across the ocean to escape religious persecution. Know that all the God language in our Pledge of Allegiance, on our currency, and elsewhere, was added in the wake of McCarthy and the Red Scare. The founders of this country are turning over in their graves to know that their principles are so thoroughly disparaged and ignored. The Fourth Amendment, the Bill of Rights, a document which is much more confusing to most people than it needs to be, is, nevertheless, quite clear on an array of points. A person is free to practice whatever religion or faith they desire with no fear of persecution; but the other side to that coin is that a person is free to _not_ feel as though they live in a nation that _is_ founded on a particular religion, to not feel railroaded or like an outsider because they don't abide by the same faith as the majority. Conflation of church and state can only lead one place: an Orwellian world of mind-control.