The End of Democracy

The Lincoln Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg, PA
November 19, 1863

The End of Democracy

We’ve all heard or read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Lincoln gives us the definition of democracy: “of the people, by the people, for the people…”

I’ve included the entire speech as a reminder of what preserving democracy cost this nation 150 years ago.

I share it because of the sad reality that government of the people, by the people, for the people, has perished from the earth.

The US is no longer a democracy. It is now a corporatocracy.

Capitalism has been the economic heartbeat of the US throughout its history. And there is no doubt that capitalism has produced an astonishing quality of life for many.

Capitalists however are prone to glossing over the costs of virtually unbridled capitalism. These can be summarized in relatively few points.

• Humanity and untold other species are on the brink of extinction due to climate change, which corporations have not only failed to address, they have fought tooth and nail to avoid any regulation to reduce climate impact
• Massive islands of trash the size of Texas are now floating in the oceans of the world harming and destroying wildlife
• More than half the world’s wealth now resides in the hands of perhaps 100 people, who are proactively driving the world towards their dystopian vision of the future
• Our cities are filled with the homeless, drug-addicted, and mentally ill for which there are few if any meaningful services
• The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government in the US and many other “democracies” have been corrupted and compromised by the virtually unlimited depth of the pockets of the major corporations and the super-wealthy who control them
• The regulators, whose jobs have been to protect the people from the malfeasance of corporate greed now serve those corporations instead  of “the people” and it is common knowledge that the FDA, CDC, and other agencies are revolving doors between government and high-paying jobs in Big Pharma
• Science, which we have historically relied on to provide unbiased facts and reliable data has been coopted by the financial “contributions” of corporate interests
• What we have called the fourth estate, the free press we have relied on to uncover corruption and malfeasance in business and government has been completely coopted by corporate advertising dollars. Despite all the hard data and science that has shown the Covid fraud for what it has been, there is still never a peep of controversy appearing in mainstream media.

I could go on.

The World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, and others have been completely open about their dystopian vision for our future. “Human bodies are now ‘hackable’. Therefore, they can be reduced to units of production, where robots won’t do.” We will own nothing and be “happy.” A visit to their websites will show their full arrogance on full display.

A recent video documentary, Uninformed Consent, (you can find it on R. F. Kennedy Jr.'s website, childrenshealthdefense.org) shows the depth of corruption to which we have sunk. But its primary focus is on Covid, which is only a symptom of the underlying problem and just hints at the loss of democracy and the true horror of corporatocracy.

What we need now is to begin a new narrative that addresses the root causes of the profound challenges we face here in the US and in all countries, worldwide. Let's turn our attention from the symptom de jour and tackle the root cause, corporatocracy.

What is our desired reality as an alternative to the corporate assault on human rights? What would such a world look like, how would it work, and most importantly, how do we get there from here? What constraints need to be placed on corporations, investment companies, and the ultra-rich in order to restore government of the people, by the people, and for the people?

The only thing we can be totally confident of is that the ultra-rich and the major corporations will literally fight to the death to maintain their money, power, and control. And the recent Covid fiasco shows the scope of their population control capabilities.

Please consider this article a call to begin exploring in our minds, begin the dialog, start forming the narrative about a different reality than the one we find ourselves in, the unintended consequences of uncontrolled capitalism. What might such a life look like, and how we might get there?

Our lives, the lives of our children, and grandchildren depend on it. Thank you.