Grassroots Democracy

House Majority leader,John Boehner, and his Republican colleagues with their emphasis on Free Market fundamentalism, privatization, and unbridled freedom for the investing class will continue their attacks on the social safety net. Their failed efforts to disenfranchise voters and cripple unions clearly highlights their vision of unencumbered capitalism. The danger, of course, is that their commitment to corporate dominance and the maximization of profits will result in future ecological catastrophe as the one witnessed on the East Coast. Their willingness to deny climate change in the pursuit of profits puts all of humankind in peril.

In contrast, President Obama and the Progressive wing of the Democratic party stands for inclusiveness, moderation, and the promise of ameliorating ethnic and class antagonisms. They advocate for a more just and equitable society. They envision capitalism with a human face that expands health care, that protects Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. They question Citizens United as the judicial shield protecting the power of the financial and corporate elite.

We can not rely on Obama and the Democratic party to ensure our democracy’s vibrancy, but rather, it is we the people who must curb the excesses of the corporate and financial elites by our energy, by our creativity, and by our commitment to the political process. Ultimately, it will be the citizenry, you and I, who determine whether democracy will flower or as in Langston Hughes’ poem, “dry up like a raisin in the sun...fester and ...explode”. We must be ever vigilant and active lest our rights are incrementally taken from us and we are relegated to submissive servants to an authoritarian elite.

Don T

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