THE root problem in the US, and other representative democracies, is excessive government power.
It does not matter if the “right” or the “left” governs; excessive power in the hands of the executive, legislative and judiciary continues to grow.
With direct democracy, the US would not give rise to Trump, or Sanders; they would not be “necessary”.
Excessive power in the hands of politicians in the US has resulted in the current crisis.
The excessive power politicians have is a problem since the foundation of the US, it has been buidling up from the beginning.
But let me keep things in perspective; the US still is one of the most successful representative democracies, but it might have come to an end if what is happening now continues.
US politicians always have had excessive power, like politicians in all representative democracies. This is why government in representative democracies keeps growing in size and power; its control of citizens also grows. As it grows, it becomes progressively more remote to the people.
There are a few representative democracies which, function fairly close to direct democracies. This happens to some extent in Scandinavia, because consultation before making laws and regulation is wide and deep. But still does not give people the actual power direct democracy brings, Scandinavian governments have the power to govern as they wish between elections and, sometimes, they do.
This excessive power, by its own nature, continuously increases in all representative democracies: being excessive it creates a never-ending spiral of power accumulation. This happens at the expense of the power of the people. As times passes, representative democracies are less and less with the people, for the people or by the people.
This is why in the US, where the problem is worse, perhaps because of the prevailing political culture, have the problems they have.
In the US now they have things like high pay for executives, often even if they perform poorly or get fired, hyper expensive university education, a Third World social system with society divided in the hyper-rich, the very poor and a struggling middle class, no universal health care and, amazingly, many rich “leftist” politicians.
They also have Third World inner cities, breakdown of the family; most Black babies with no father, and many White, Hispanics and native American babies too.
They have riots, “defund the police” and on and on. Millions no longer want to wait for elections because they suspect nothing will change; if the Democrats win, only brings cosmetic changes for the people, if the Republicans win, it is the same, but with different rethoric. It is all about superficiality; mere marketing.
The American people have lost control of the federal government; they are now subjects of the federal government. Half of the population is controlled by government, in turn, the government is controlled by the lobbies. The other half of the citizenry is also controlled AND, even worse, they are also dependent on the government.
The US, and other countries, have arrived at a situation where most people are fed up with the power of politicians. In desperation, millions have turned to populism of the right and the left and, in the US, away from the Republican and the Democratic parties.
If the situation is not fixed, in desperation, the majority of the people may turn to Fascism or Communism; it has happened before over and over, it will happen again.
The US is now split into two camps, with positions making normal political debate and dialogue impossible. No democracy can function forever with such deep division.
We need real power to the people; we need a peaceful, non-radical revolution to reduce the power of politicians. It is necessary to add, to the voter’s current power to elect politicians, the power to decide, to accept or reject, to vote, on the decisions politicians make.
But to get to that, the people of all cultures and ideological persuasions will have to insist together. They can disagree on everything else, but they have to agree on this.
That is what they did in Switzerland. Swiss elected politicians, initially, also resisted direct democracy, just like they do now in all the rest of democracies.
There is a reason why you do not hear even populist or socialist politicians pushing for direct democracy, they do not like it one bit because they will have far less power. All elected politicians like power for themselves, both oppose power to the people. Some may do it because they are convinced the people can not be trusted, others because power means a better life for them.
Do something if you want to have direct control of the politicians you elect!
