America 2.0

America 2.0

The upgrade to the Political Operating System of the United States

There is a growing sense that something is wrong with the operating political system of the United States. Fewer and fewer of us exercise our right to vote on a regular basis. Known as Voter Apathy, in most Federal and state elections in the United States less than one third of all registered voters actually make it to the polls during most elections to cast their votes for their candidate. Many Americans have completely stopped paying attention to the statements of our political leaders and the promises they make. This growing voter apathy, like a serious physical disease, is a deterioration of the political identity of a nation and a direct contradiction of the principles of democracy upon which this nation is founded. Voter participation is critical for the optimum operations of any democracy because without it, those elected to represent the majority have no clear idea about what the people want or need and they give us what they think we want or need and many times these guesses prove to be wildly off target.

The war in Iraq is one glaring example of this breakdown in democratic machinery. Congress, in our name, elected to give the authority to President George W. Bush to go ahead with his plans to invade Iraq. The vast majority of people were not informed as to the real reasons for invading Iraq and it didn't matter because most of us had turned off to the participation in this and many other decisions. Therefore the Congress had no choice but to grant the President his wishes to invade. This, in light of the knowledge they had that the true enemy, Osama Bin Laden and the avowed reason for going to war with Iraq was not in that country. We had very good intelligence that the terrorist was and still is, residing in Pakistan in the lawless border regions that separate Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Without Voter Participation then, gigantic mistakes like this one are allowed to happen time and time again. I could cite the Viet Nam war as another major example of mistakes in foreign policy brought about by voter apathy. In this case, President Richard Nixon relied on what he called, The Silent Majority that supported him on his escalation of the war. In reality, he was not aware of any Majority that supported him on this cause nor could he be since there was no way of knowing at the time. As it turned out later, the vast majority of Americans opposed this war, but were not given the chance to express their opinion to their leaders. Therefore the Nixon use of the phrase, Silent Majority was a ruse, a deception, a sleight of hand, so to speak that worked for years to disguise the truth. Nixon knew that by using the term, it could not be disputed in any manner that would gain any political traction and therefore would become the operative justification for the war.

There are so many lesser examples that I could cite here to make a case that voter apathy has come about due to failure after failure of the government of the United States to do the bidding of the people or to act in the interest of the majority of American citizens. The most glaring example currently is the rapid rise in the price of gasoline, this nation's lifeblood, at the pump. There is no competitive product due to government inaction with and even interference of alternative energy production. In fact, the only alternative to oil that has been supported by the Bush administration is Ethanol, but Ethanol uses corn as it's principal ingredient and this drives up the price of food. Therefore, by placing an emphasis on ethanol, this administration is driving up the price of one commodity while taking from another, the net result is zero since the price of food and energy are intimately intertwined.

This apathy is engendered primarily due to the growing belief that voting for either of the two major political parties, the Republican or Democratic Party, does not deliver any overall benefits to the voters. And so, voting for either party has become less and less of a concern to the American electorate. In a healthy democracy such as Switzerland, voter participation is nearly 90% of all registered voters during any given election and in this article, we will explore the reasons why participation in one's government is taken so seriously in some countries while participation in the United States, the world's role model for democracy, has taken on this much weaker role.

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