Why Democracy Doesn't Work

We've all heard people say that the reason anarchy would never work is because human beings are not responsible enough to take on that kind of burden. We then hear the same people go on to say that democracy is the way to go and that all countries and all humans on this planet deserve the right to a true democratic government. How is it that we cannot handle the responsibility of anarchy, but we're supposed to be gung-ho about democracy? We can't handle democracy either, that much has to be obvious. At this point in history, you have to be able to see that.

Take the 2000 US election. George W. Bush was not elected and it's been proven beyond a doubt. Major media sources have run stories (albeit short, or in the back of the paper) on the fact that Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris had approximately 51,930 who had full rights to vote, wiped from the voters list. 54% of those people were African American, who predominantly vote democrat.

"Here’s how they did it: A few months before the election, Katherine Harris’ office used computer systems to make up a list of people to purge from the voter rolls of people who were supposedly felons – people who committed serious crimes and therefore in Florida were not allowed to vote. We now know those lists were as phony as a three-dollar bill. That maybe approximately 90% of the people on those lists, and there were 57,700 people on that list, approximately 90% were not felons and had the right to vote. Surprise, surprise. At least 54% of the names on that list were black. We know that because Florida is one of the few states under the U.S. Civil Rights Act that actually has to track the race of each voter. They used this racial targeting system as a way to target and purge black voters. This was a very sophisticated Jim Crow operation done by computers, completely hidden from the public eye. And when they were asked about it they basically lied. The Governor, the Secretary of State, and the head of the Florida Department of Elections all lied under oath to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission about how that was done. Now that was completely covered in the British and European press. That is one of the reasons why when Bush came over to Europe he was seen as a usurper and a pretender to the presidency - not elected, but a guy who had conducted a sort of racial coup d’etat. He was not seen as legitimate. The U.S. press did little bits of the story and then buried it."
Dispatches from exile, Gregory Palast
San Francisco Bay Guardian, 5 June 2002

This is only one example of a story on this very subject. The Associated press, the BBC, The London Times, The Miami Sun Herald, the Los Angeles Times and many, many more media outlets have run stories on this. Anyone who was half awake during the time after the election has heard this before. There were also stories about how the overseas votes were made up almost entirely of votes that shouldn't have counted, being post-dated from within the US or later than election day, but all were counted. Some were even counted twice! So everyone had a good chance to figure this all out, to realize that their presidency had been stolen, that, in essence, a coup had occurred. In the next couple of days, this country will be killing civilians of another for this exact reason! Because they deserve the right to a true democracy! Well, don't Americans, too?

The problem with this is that no one has done anything! Americans have the power and the right under their own constitution to oppose this and get rid of George Bush, but they haven't! They have a social responsibility as citizens of a democratic country, to make sure that he steps down and that the true elected leader is put in place. Then, and only then, should anyone be following the leader of such a country into war.

This is not only proof that American citizens haven't the maturity to take on the responsibility of democracy, but proof that the British people, the Spanish people, the people of every nation that is supporting the Americans in their slaughter of innocent people, CANNOT handle the responsibility of democracy.

Canadians have taken on this responsibility but we can't be finished yet. As the one democratic country in the world with as much pull and proximity, we still have a social responsibility. We can't let the dictator south of the border, pull us into World War 3. We can't let him take the lives of so many people into his hands. He should not be followed into war and we need to stop shaking our heads and saying "that's a shame, but what can I do?". You can do a lot. If everyone in North American who's ever asked that question, assembled and acted on their convictions, we really could do something. It's time that happened. Never has there been so much opposition, never in my lifetime have so many people disagreed with an idea that has no opposition in the media. People have chosen this stance for themselves, they've made the decision for themselves, this war is wrong and it's about time we really did something to make that known. Forget about the permits, forget about dinner, forget about your favorite TV shows! Get your ass outside and do something!

Join us in our protest @ the peace arch border www.angelfire.com/alt/revolt/