HRC Speaks Out

I read the article and thought it was one of the best pieces yet on the whole horrible Trump administration, how democracy is dying if we don't do something soon, how we got here going back to early days of the Koch Brothers, and where we need to go to fix things once the current GOP cult of darkness is extinguished).  She didn't say anything I didn't know but she put it clearly and simply and brought order to a chaotic confusing time. I am grateful to her for that.

I would love to hear what others think of the points she makes.  

To put it lightly, I was never a huge fan of HRC. I grew though my teen years back during the 90's and, admittedly by choice, ate up right-wing propaganda against the woman during my developmental years. This continued through my mid-twenties when I had a change of heart on a great many things. Due to my brainwashing, as such, I deeply disliked her even going into the 2016 elections, right up to the point when I cast the proudest vote in my life... in her favor. I felt at the time that it was that vitally important to keep Trump out of the White House and I will never regret that vote, regardless of my personal feelings about her.

I think she hits the nail on the head with what she writes here. In the second half of her essay she elaborates on a point that I believe to be vital to this country's ability to move forward in a viable manner: our system is in dire need of deep reform. I look at it this way: the ancient Athenians developed a system I like to call Democracy v1.0. It was noble in its intentions, allowed a level of freedom for Athenian citizens unheard of in the rest of the ancient world, but was also ultimately flawed and did not scale well beyond a city-state level. It was taken in various directions, notably by the Romans as well as by certain medieval city-states, but was never really able to provide a vision of society that could compete with more authoritarian systems until the Founding Fathers got together and developed Democracy v2.0. They created a system with the idea of addressing the flaws and imbalances of the old system that would scale well to a more modern world and provided a means to implement "patches" (to use a programming term) to keep the system somewhat up to date. They were charting new ground and created something quite marvelous compared to the governing systems that preceded it.

And we've maintained that system and have tried to keep it up to date -- maybe we're on Democracy v2.56, so to speak. After World War I & II and the fall of the colonial empires, the rest of the world started to adopt some of the great ideas that had their start here. They did it with recognition of the flaws in our system: they developed Democracy v3.0. It's practiced in Canada and throughout Europe and Asia and it's even more answerable to the will of the people than v2.0 ever was and yet still retains the stability that the Founding Fathers worried would disappear with too much democracy. The rest of the world is on v3.43, which provides nice features like universal healthcare, eco-friendly policies, high standard worker's rights, and affordable college education.

Unfortunately, an overly represented minority of the American electorate decided to vote for a party that runs on the platform that Democracy v2.0 is the best that it gets and we really need to roll back all these patches we've added to the system over the years. And, unfortunately, one of the biggest flaws of Democracy v2.0 is that it allows that minority to be overly represented and to do that very thing. They do so at a time when the long-term sustainability of both our nation and our very world require that we be working with the rest of the world towards the developing Democracy v4.0.

So I think Hillary hits the nail on the head when she calls for housecleaning and reforms, although I would also state that this is just the start. What we really need is a complete overhaul of our system itself in such a way that it educates and empowers the electorate itself instead of the various interests that have heretofore been able to manipulate the electorate for its own ends.

One of the reasons I've lurked here on this site and in these forums was that the visions you have all shared have given me hope for the next decade in light of the dark times in which we currently live. The visions here have allowed me to contextualize current events in a way that I can see a path forward. I believe it was in one of the older predictions on this site that Jeanne mentioned seeing Hades with the flower of Persephone, the sign of renewal in the time of greatest darkness. The problems in our current system cannot be overhauled until they've first been brought to the forefront of our social consciousness, which I believe is the one upside of the chaos through which we're currently living.

We've moved into an Age that is characterized by an energy of liberty and freedom and, despite where the world and our societies stand today, everything will move in that direction over time. That movement will occur with us or without us and the degree to which we cooperate rather than impede it will determine where we stand in the world order over the course of the decades and centuries to come.

Matt, thank you for laying it all out so well.

Matt - I agree with all you’ve said and I’d like to add something to your post. Democracy can’t exist side by side with labor slavery, which was the downfall of the localized Roman Empire.

As the Roman Empire shrank, its gov’t couldn’t give up ownership of people. It fell.

Another country, the UK, fortunately learned the lesson. While shrunken to current form, the UK is still sovereign and still exists — two of the greatest “home” democracies (meaning that men who owned both land and/or people had a democratic say while all others did not) - the UK survived and the Roman Empire did not.

Historians now agree the difference between the Roman Empire and the UK is NOT how they both shrank (e.g., letting go of capitalistic colonies nonviolently when it became clear that perpetual war was too expensive), but in letting go of the existing caste systems in the home country AS they shrank (slavery and indentured servitude - in other words,  extending enfranchisement and economic equality for the largest number of citizens possible)

Unfortunately for colonialists (and more so for the people whose necks where crushed by their boots) - as above, so below. As in the colonies, so at home. Unbridled home capitalism was rampant during these times - some due to simple legal ownership and some due to royal decree - they segued one into the other seamlessly.

In Roman times, the loss of colonies resulted in escalation of inequalities at home - so they fell. In contrast the UK tried to hold steady overall at home - they’re still here.

So, with the US, I’d say we’re at about 2.5 on your democracy scale for three reasons: (a) we still haven’t gotten rid of slavery in all its forms (from racism to overall income inequalities to the obvious rule of capitalism with few checks), (b) we are still trying to demonize the citizens we have invaded/colonized/enslaved, and (c) we are still Consitutionally a republic which replicates the original intent of protecting landed (rich) men’s interests.

I’d like to say we’re the world’s shining star for small-d democracy. We’re simply not. We’re an object lesson. All we have to do to understand this, is read the historical and political literature from successful, actual small-d countries. We’re in the same boat as the Roman Empire and the UK Empire as failing/fading global rulers.

Where the US goes from here is collectively up to the US populace. We’re on the precipice of actual small-d democracy (v.5.0 that would blow the planet away), or a major step backwards to realities that are 60 years old and quite damaging to everyone. Seems it’s all up to us here in the US.

The US Shining Beacon on the Hill was always a mirage - maybe we could now make it a reality and for once actually lead the world towards better things. But right now, no.

I’m so sorry.