Democracy Fails With A Poor Informed Public

Having said that, I think it is obvious that we do indeed have a poor informed public. Sure, it's due to MSM being under control of the major corporations that actually run this country, but that doesn't change the fact that the public is not told about a lot of things (i.e. the "civil war" in Syria). On that same line of thought, would the public even care if they were informed?

Really, the point or question I'm trying to bring up is, what will or has become of the United States of America? Is it still a democracy? Is it on it's way to NOT being a democracy?

I ask these questions because the general public seems to have lost touch with what is actually taking place in Washington. Most of the public has no clue why we are involved in the wars overseas. Even more importantly, they don't seem to care.

So I ask you, is the United States past the point of saving true democracy due to a poor informed public?

Disclaimer: Yes I am aware that the US is technically a republic.

Originally posted by solongandgoodnight

Disclaimer: Yes I am aware that the US is technically a republic.

Well you answer your own question US was never a democracy.

reply to post by solongandgoodnight


The U.S. is not a Democracy or a Republic anymore. Its a oligarchy/plutocracy/corporatocracy all rolled into one.

it will only get worse too. I was just reading this article this morning.

disinfo.com...

Last Friday the administration got what it wanted – an ice-cold chilling effect — from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled on the case of New York Times reporter James Risen. The court “delivered a blow to investigative journalism in America by ruling that reporters have no First Amendment protection that would safeguard the confidentiality of their sources in the event of a criminal trial,” the Guardian reported.

Obama has gotten what he wanted.

The Executive Branch fought for that ruling — and is now celebrating. “We agree with the decision,” said a Justice Department spokesman. “We are examining the next steps in the prosecution of this case.” The Risen case, and potentially many others, are now under the ominous shadow of the Appeals Court’s pronouncement: “There is no First Amendment testimonial privilege, absolute or qualified, that protects a reporter from being compelled to testify … in criminal proceedings.”

So it will only get worse I think.

And yes, the average American is woefully misinformed and apathetic to the circumstances in this country today. I think the general feeling is, "Well, I can't do anything about what the governement does anyways, so why bother to care?"

Besides, most people are just trying to get by and work, pay bills, put food on the table etc.

Who cares about Syria, Benghazi, or the IRS scandals when you're flat broke.

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." Thomas Jefferson

"Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?" Obi Wan Kenobi

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw

reply to post by lord sword


That was in no way helpful.

reply to post by solongandgoodnight

... the general public seems to have lost touch with what is actually taking place in Washington. Most of the public has no clue why we are involved in the wars overseas. Even more importantly, they don't seem to care.

So I ask you, is the United States past the point of saving true democracy due to a poor informed public?

Maybe. Things are indeed declining at an increasingly rapid pace. Secret courts that authorize secret spying on Americans... secret courts that can arrest and detain without constitutional law.

All of this would have been inconceivable just even a decade or so ago. But here we are now... our economy in shambles, our industrial plant in China, our government (apparently) answering to authority that is not We the People...

Personally, I find myself questioning how this could go so unnoticed and then one watches the political divisions grow... and you realize that so many are focused on the 'other guys' and their little petty red vs. blue, left vs, right partisan wars. We don't notice because we are so well indoctrinated to look in another direction.

reply to post by solongandgoodnight


Poorly informed, and apathetic. Both of which are poison to a representative republic, such as ours.

Too true. ...and it's happening right before our eyes, and all too many don't give a hoot.

Kinda lends credence to the aphorism of "You get what you deserve.".

Originally posted by solongandgoodnight
Having said that, I think it is obvious that we do indeed have a poor informed public. Sure, it's due to MSM being under control of the major corporations that actually run this country, but that doesn't change the fact that the public is not told about a lot of things (i.e. the "civil war" in Syria). On that same line of thought, would the public even care if they were informed?

Really, the point or question I'm trying to bring up is, what will or has become of the United States of America? Is it still a democracy? Is it on it's way to NOT being a democracy?

I ask these questions because the general public seems to have lost touch with what is actually taking place in Washington. Most of the public has no clue why we are involved in the wars overseas. Even more importantly, they don't seem to care.

So I ask you, is the United States past the point of saving true democracy due to a poor informed public?

Disclaimer: Yes I am aware that the US is technically a republic.

America never really had a democracy or even a republic. Systematically and throughout America's history, minorities have been socially and economically eviscerated, from the Native American to the present day African American through various sociopolitical instruments. The corporate expansion of the state and federal penal system since Nixon's war on drugs began, has seen an increase of 790% incarceration. Blacks represent 13% of the population but over 40% of the prison population. Unchecked racism allowed real estate speculators to deny blacks home loans through the late 60s, relegating them to intercity decay, crime and lack of opportunity. Naturally, this isolation has led to the sort of social despair making them more vulnerable to drugs, violence, incarceration. There are police depts. that have special squads trained to shop poor neighborhoods for drug users, who then receive mandatory jail terms for small possessions. It has a devastating social effect on wives, children and family members, leaving them less prepared to become productive citizens. The studies are clear that these mandatory terms are out of proportion to the crimes and target poor black men, thereby decimating the entire communities they come from.

If one looks at the event-horizon of political oppression historically, it is marked by a campaign of minority criminalization. The parallel stages can be seen in 1930s Germany and in the post WWII Israel, as well as the entire US history, under non-discretionary drug and terrorism laws aimed at black Americans and people of the Islamic faith.

Under this precipice, we now find that Homeland Security has a contract to purchase thousands of armored vehicles and millions of M16 rounds. America is militarized and ready for any national threat or economic calamity that will allow it to usher in the Patriot Act as the new constitution.

I wouldn't even stoop to blame it on a "poorly Informed" public.
I'd blame it on an obviously informed and selfish public who is in it to "get their cut" before it all goes to hell.