The Age of Democracy

The culture trend of our day is quickly sweeping us into the age of democracy.

For over two centuries the US culture has been an age of Constitutional Law, but over the last 80 some years we’ve been shifting, changing. The massive and insanely rapid technological advances we’ve been seeing over this period of time have greatly aided this shift towards a far more democratic form of government.

The odd part of this trend, and it seems almost contradictory, is that as governments, businesses, and banks get bigger and bigger, the close relationships built between them and the people at large are getting further and further apart. How many people have, or have had, a close personal connection with someone who has major decision making power in say Amazon, Apple, the Green Bay Packers, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, The Presidency, Nike, The New York Times, Samsung, Google, etc.? Or are they under such lock and key, special body guards, and highly private and invention only parties and meetings?

The further away these powerful people get, it seems the more involvement customers want in those companies. The bigger the company gets and the richer these men and women become, the more the people despise and seek after their demise. The more polarized politicians and companies get on issues, the more the flood gates open of hateful memes, tweets, and vines.

We want to have our cake, but we demand to be able to eat it too. This is not a good place to be.

The Age of Democracy

The desire to have the cake and to eat it too very nicely sums up the sentiment that Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville and The Federalist by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote about on democratic forms of government. Let me be blatantly clear, this does not mean the democratic party, simply the democratic form of government as opposed to a republican form of government.

A big win for the whims of men, as opposed to the rule of law, came in a time of crisis and several companies were considered too big to fail. Many people were angry and understandably frustrated that they were too small to be cared about; thus being allowed to fail. Many people lost their jobs, their homes, their security, their credit, and their confidence in the law.[i]

When the law is on our side we’re all for it, but as soon as the benefit for another starts hitting our wallet we can’t stand for the treachery. When government and bank representatives came knocking on thousands upon thousands of homes saying you no longer own this property and you have two minutes to be out. Let me back up a step real quick: by law they were required to give eviction notices with ample time to move.

So many people thought they owned their home, it was not just a house, but their home. Their car. Their things.

The hard cold truth of the matter is that if it’s mortgaged, if it’s financed, if it’s collateral it belongs to someone else. Period. There is no security in debt. The piles of paperwork to sign for a home, a credit card, a car payment, same as cash checks, and title loans are so easily signed. The immediate pressure of paying the wolf pack of money collectors to get them off our backs, or to provide for the expected

Christmas joys, or whatever the case may be comes so easily. But we agreed to pay the piper when it is time, and we struggle to understand why my home isn’t actually mine. Why the judge would be so cold, why the Sheriff is so cruel, why the real estate agents would do such a thing, why our very own government is doing these things to us.

We then cry out, demanding to have our cake. We then cry out foul play. We then cry out to be saved. Big business, big banks, and big government have leveraged the law to win big. They’ve turned the law against the people, making so much fine print that the average person making a living, living a good life, won’t be able to understand.

As more and more people come out hurt and wounded, blind-sided by The Three Bigs (big business, big banks, big government), the people are the biggest of them all and they demand that they are too big to fail. If government officials want reelection, if bankers and businesses want customers and not riots, they’ll start giving the benefits demanded. This has led to the modern middle class squeeze. The wealthy know how to get breaks, the poor get the benefit, and the middle class ends up paying.[ii]

Many of the American Founding Fathers wrote—and many political scientists before and afterwards also came to a similar conclusion—that once a people realize they can vote themselves benefits the society is not far from destruction.

By Whims or By Law

The law used to be in favor of the people at large. But somewhere in the last 80 years the people have stopped studying the law, paying attention to what the heads of each sector of society are up to, and holding themselves and others to the bounds of the law.  

If we were to divide the United States into two parts, I think a very clean line would be made between those who understand how the law works, and those who don’t. Those who know, often prey on those who don’t.

The law should be the check and balance between the elite and the other classes, but also amongst themselves. Once the law is used as a whimsical tool to aide one business over another, or one group over another, then the firm foundation by which the referee on human nature is founded cracks, slips, and crumbles. Then it becomes every man for himself. It degrades to whose whims can win over the law more than the next man’s. This war of human nature and its whims does not end well.

There must be a better way than for those who can’t cover the bills to become outcasts and/or babysat, for the middle class to be squeezed out of existence and be the main group paying, and for the elite to either sit idly by or to be siphoning off the labor of the middle and lower classes. There must be a better way than the self-destruction of a democratic or whim ruled society.

Simple or Complex?

What I’m about to propose is nothing amazing or outstanding. It’s not revolutionary, neither is it necessarily exciting and cool.

I’ve mentioned these things before in previous blogs and speeches. I’ve heard them mentioned dozens of times in various places by my mentor. I’ve seen these answers pop up in ancient times as well as modern, from the blue side as well as the red side, the poor side as well as the rich. They have been a common universal answer to practically every problem faced in the course of human nature.

The formula for greatness, for success, for freedom has always been simple. Rarely easy, but very simple. There is a lot of stress, fear, and doubt in our society today, many run from one place to another looking for the fix, the solution, the hero to save the day. We go from making one political party dominant to then making the other party dominant, and then back again. This mad scurry and swinging pendulum won’t stop until we take a deep breath and decide to hunker down and do the hard work necessary to enact the simple solutions needed.

Looking to the Future

We must develop in ourselves and spread the skills and principles of entrepreneurship.

We must become voracious readers and deep thinkers in all things great. This is definitely including the fine print of businesses, governments, and banks.

We must build communities. Building support groups, friend groups, trusting groups. There is strength and power in numbers. There is security, aide, and encouragement in great communities. Communities enable, fill gaps, connect, lead, develop, and strengthen empathy; communities

humanize and aggrandize the whole.

Become a student of success, find the simple solutions for yourself. I’ve found them to be as simple as entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship, being a voracious reader and thinker, and building communities.[iii]

The people have been breaking themselves against the law and not understanding what is going on. One or the other will give. What if both give? What if we lead out by using the three vital principles from above and we all come out of this struggle victors, a free society, a nation of opportunity and prosperity? 

Maybe we’re the next founders of the new golden age of America.

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[i] The Financial Matrix by Orrin Woodward

[ii] “The Middle Class Squeeze” by Orrin Woodward

[iii] Freedom Matters by Oliver DeMille (Or 1913)

Midlife Crisis of U.S. Politics?

Most voters think that whichever candidate gets the most votes will take the nomination for their party, but the reality is more complex.

More people are hearing about the “contested convention” that looks likely for the Republican Party. Even the Democratic race has seen a similar shake-up: Sanders often takes the popular vote, but Clinton wins more delegates.

As Ezra Klein from vox.com put it:

“Americans believe their elections are far more democratic than they actually are, and that’s because the most undemocratic institutions—like super delegates and the Electoral College—tend to follow the popular will. But that’s because the popular will is usually clear and easy to follow.

“This is a year, in other words, when voters on both sides will be looking for reasons to doubt the results of their primaries. And they will find plenty of them.”[1]

In a contested convention for the Republican Party most delegates will be able to vote however they would like. This will probably leave their constituents back at home a little upset if they don’t follow the popular vote. Maneuvering has already been taking place to get delegates who are sworn to one candidate by their State’s popular vote, but who would vote for another candidate in case of a contested convention.

Democrats have super delegates who aren’t tied to popular vote and can cast their vote wherever they see fit. They may “pledge” to one candidate during the primaries and this usually coincides with the popular vote of their state, but it doesn’t have to.  

These are just two aspects of the labyrinth of a republican form of government. In other words, a government by delegation or by representation. Every state has its own method of voting for the president, as well as party rules, and how the state itself runs.

Which One?

The question arises here, are we a government of delegation or a government of popular vote? It seems that the people think it’s popular vote—and get confused, annoyed, and angry when thwarted. But the party leaders and government are living by the rules of representation (granted, this is pretty much by default because they are required by law to abide by these rules).

The people are playing Baseball while the delegates are playing Football, and the rules of the two games don’t mix very well. In the overlap, we’re getting major chaos and only one side can prevail.

Before we continue, let’s take a few steps back and take a good look at these two forms of government.

Popular vs Delegate Societies

A pure democracy exists where the majority decides what happens. If 51% of the population wants free health care, then it passes a law and it’s the duty of the officials to make it happen. If 49% wish for slavery, they can’t pass as law because there is no majority.

Things move quickly, and usually vehemently, in a society ruled by solely popular vote. Even Aristotle categorized democracy as a bad form of government. Most of the founding fathers studied many different forms of government as they were putting together the Constitution of the United States. John Adams said:

“Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

Think of the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, or The Scarlett Pimpernel by Emma Orczy, or any history book covering the French Revolution, and you’ll get the picture of what everyone was so worried about when it comes to democracies.

On the other hand, a republican form of government exists where the populace gets together and votes for delegates or representatives who then decide what laws to establish. Instead of the populace voting for everything, their representatives or delegates take the duty to maintain society through necessary law-making and executing those laws. A classic example of this is the Roman Republic or the Roman Senate.

Another great example of this is our modern Presidential election. Every four years we have a national election—which is partly done by popular vote and partly done by a delegated vote, depending on the state—and a great number of citizens rally around this great cause. Once it is over most people hibernate again until something exciting comes along, like the next presidential election.

If you’d like to know more of what the role of the average citizen should be during this “downtime,” dig into these two books Oliver DeMille wrote for this very purpose:

1.       Freedom Matters by Oliver DeMille

2.       The U.S. Constitution and the 196 Indispensable Principles of Freedom by Oliver DeMille

What Is Our Identity?

When the endgame is unknown it’s pretty much impossible to win. If I’m given a golf ball on a soccer field, and I’m told to make the loop, what am I supposed to do? What if I’m not given any instructions? Am I supposed to be on offense? Defense? Maybe play goalie. Is there even supposed to be a goalie? Am I allowed to block, where am I to focus to help score, do I want a high score or a low score? Is there a scoreboard?!

Not knowing what you don’t know can be very frustrating and stressful, leaving you without any hope of making progress. We no longer seem to be a nation with a unifying identity. A similar thing happened in the 1770’s between the colonies and the British, again in the 1850’s-60’s with the Northern States and the Southern States, also during the 1940’s with bigger government deals as well as global community issues. We’re in another such period; over the next few years we will likely see society shift again in major ways.

Will it be a shift towards more opportunity, success, and freedom, or something worse?

What is the Coming Shift?

It might be too soon to tell, but this presidential race might just be an omen of the coming shift; a microcosm of what the future holds for the “United” States of America.

This disconnect and misunderstanding of how the elections actually work could be the perfect setting for a democratic revolt. The populace might demand, despite whatever laws, rules, and constitutional measures are in place, that government listen to the voice of the people. To do what the people vote for and right away. No more of this arguing, debating, and political maneuvering in Congress. Let’s get it done!

The checks, balances, and the democratic republican constitutional form of government we now see hanging by a thread could very well be severed and swing us heavily towards a government by the whims of men.

Now, because of the numbers, I know many who read this will still be asking: but why is this shift a bad thing? Isn’t it bringing us more freedom? Isn’t it getting the people what they have so long desired? No more ridiculous laws or government officials telling us what we can and cannot do; we will take the responsibility in our own hands!

If men were angels this would probably work out much better, but as history has shown again and again this is not the case. Remember the quote by John Adams earlier? Remember your French Revolution history? Logically we might “know” these things, but still! Look at what’s happening today in our society. The people are being held back as corruption in high places seeps further and further.

Who will win this fight? The corrupting upper crust of society, or the beaten down and squished populace?

Or is there a third option?

Another Way

Think of it this way: when societies were ruled by the whims of the masses, the leaders that rose to the top were Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Nero, and the like. Historically these are the type of men, and women, who rise to the top and gain control.

On the flip side of this coin is the rule of the wealthy or privileged. Enter the Feudal Age and the ancient and modern systems of slavery. King Henry the VIII wasn’t elected or put on the throne by a revolution of discontented people, he was born into the position. He was at times just as bad for the people and to the people as the tyrants mentioned before. That’s because these monarchs or oligarchies still rule by the whims of men.

What our Founders did differently—as did every other truly free people in the history of the world—was study freedom deeply, and then build organizations or communities that solved the issues of their time. In other words, they took responsibility to get things done themselves, and they developed their leadership to make sure their ventures and communities would succeed.

Let’s Pay the Price

What every free people in the history of the world did different was set up checks and balances, forms and processes, and auxiliary precautions to guard against these destructive tyrants, both of the general people as well as the individual tyrant and everything between. It’s safer in the long run to establish laws, rules, and forms that are no respecters of persons. This has been the formula for establishing freedom for generations.

This means the rules of the game must be understood and upheld by the masses. If the average citizen doesn’t, then we’ll quickly learn to vote for any and every benefit we can. Or we’ll have the threat of having our representatives and upper crust of society take power and rule with an iron fist—squashing the general populace.

I’m not saying the current forms and systems are perfect, but we should understand why they were established in the first place. If we throw off the bonds that make us free we will quickly spiral into an era of major losses of freedom and opportunity for generations to come.

Let’s pay the price of understanding the rules of the game to maintain freedom. 

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[1] “This presidential campaign is developing a legitimacy problem,” by Ezra Klein Vox.com, April 19, 2016