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Patriotism divides citizens into multiple factions based on variable notions of a nation and its history. Citizenship can unify voting citizens by focusing citizens on forming a more perfect union.

Patriotic Allegiance to a Nebulous Nation:

On the one hand, we have national patriotism. Patriotism is love of, identification with, concern for, and willingness to sacrifice/die for a nation. Patriotic individuals display their patriotism by pledging allegiance and by using symbols of one’s country: flags, flag lapel pins, bumper stickers, and wearing military garb. The problem here is that ‘patriotism’ is based on a nebulous, individually-defined entity: a country with a selectable history. One’s willingness to die for a variable entity should cause concern when patriotism results in violence by a few. As we know, this willingness to die for one’s nation can lead to victory (WWII) or an insurrection to overturn our Presidential election.

– “A fuller account of patriotism is beyond the scope of this article. Such an account would say something about the patriot’s beliefs about the merits of his country, his need to belong to a group and be a part of a more encompassing narrative, to be related to a past and a future that transcend the narrow confines of an individual’s life and its mundane concerns, as well as social and political conditions that affect the ebb and flow of patriotism, its political and cultural influence, and more.”

Citizenship for A More Perfect Union:

On the other hand we have citizenship.  Democratic Citizenship is about individuals of a nation who participate in a society’s political system such that they advance societal integration and cohesion. As members of a society, they have a moral responsibility to promote unity by equally protecting and empowering all citizens in that society. These citizens are committed to supporting, defending and fairly applying the laws established by their society. They promote a strong civic responsibility and the importance of political participation.

• “Active participation in processes of deliberation and decision-making ensures that individuals are citizens, not subjects.” 
• Citizenship “denotes membership in a community of shared or common law “.” 

Required Oaths of Office:

In our democratic community/society, we have many citizens participating by serving our society in our political process. A process that, among other things, establishes the common laws of our society. There are citizens we elect to office. Some citizens join the military, commanded by those elected officials. Other citizens administer or facilitate the election process and many vote. What is interesting about these citizens in our political society is that all, except for the voters, take an oath of office to… support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.

This language is key to oaths throughout our society, including our Constitution:

• Prospective jurors take an oath prior to jury selection where they determine guilt for violations of society’s laws. 
• Witnesses in a trial take an oath to tell the truth so jurors can better determine guilt or innocence. 
• Men and women take an oath when joining the military to defend our citizens and our Constitution as directed by elected officials. 
• Deputy Voter Registrars take an oath of office before they can register voters. 
• Immigrants, who earn citizenship, take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of their new country. Most new citizens then register to vote after taking their oath of citizenship. 
• After lawyers get their license to practice law, they take an oath. They will either defend citizens accused of violating society’s laws or prosecute accused citizens. 
• Judges, at all levels, take an oath before they can moderate trials of accused citizens. 
• Law enforcement officers take an oath to enforce our laws. 
• Elected officials take an oath as they take office before they can write or enforce society’s laws. 
• States require oaths for hired officials who administer the election process and count election votes. 
• Appointed/ratified officials of the government take an oath of office. 
• The elected US President takes an oath defined in the US Constitution.

Oath of Citizenship:

As, listed above, we have many oaths for everyone involved in our political/electoral process except for the largest group of participants: citizens who vote. We need a national oath of citizenship for all citizens who participate in the election process by voting. This will unify them more fully with our election process and those already taking such an oath. 

Just as all those who are elected or who control elections take an oath to support our Constitution, voters should also take a oath of citizenship. This oath would closely align voters as participants in a democracy – not slaves or serfs ruled by dictators. This oath would remind us of the unifying vision represented by our Constitution unlike pledging allegiance to a nebulous, factious, personally-conjured nation.

Citizens would take this oath when they register to vote and reaffirm it during every city, county, state and national election. Delegates to political conventions would also reafirm this oath as they register their presence. Here’s a suggested oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will endeavor to “form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” and that I take this oath freely and without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion.

Andy Hailey

Democratic Societies Need a Unifying Vision:

Democracy is not a spectator sport. Preserving it takes more than a willingness to die for a variable figment of the imagination – a nation. A democratic society requires participating, voting-age, citizens in significant numbers. Preserving our democracy takes political participation that should also include a citizenship oath for voters. This oath is similar to oaths for those who already participate in our political processes. This broadly shared, cohesive, oath, with an excerpt from the preamble of our Constitution, can provide a periodic reminder of the unifying vision represented by our Constitution. 

On the one hand, patriotism divides citizens into multiple factions based on variable notions of a nation and its history. On the other, a citizenship oath could more effectively unify voting citizens with all the others in our democratic election process to focus more citizens on forming a more perfect union.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. Keeping it takes more than a WAR budget approaching $1T and almost 800 USofA military bases around the world.  As citizens/voters, we have powers and responsibilities too for protecting and empowering our fragile form of government!!!

Billions Spent to Distract/Discourage Voters

My Saturday morning started off with talking heads on MSM bloviating about supporting our troops. Troops who are using our vast WAR arsenal to ‘defend’ our freedoms from the enemy de jour.  At the next break came a jingoistic, July-fourth-weekend,  commercial for sun glasses based on technology used by our troops.  Of course, the ad used the Bald Eagle and the USofA flag effusively.  It reminded me of all the ever-present, disaster/breaking-news de jour to which we are subjected. They are diverting our focus from what is really important – our fragile form of government.  As long as right-wing authoritarians distract us and point to our fellow citizen for what pains us, this authoritarian minority has a good chance to take our government from us.

Who Identifies Our Enemies for Us?

But remember this during this holiday/spending weekend, our children in uniform are under civilian command. The Executive branch of our federal government puts them in harm’s way.  Whoever holds those Executive positions decides which threats we need to neutralize through our children.  They decide, now with minimal Congressional oversight, what enemies our children must kill.  They will also ‘inform’ all of us to gain our support for killing their defined enemies.

Voters Must Chose These Executives Carefully

That means we must be very smart about making sure who serves in those Executive positions. The unbounded power we put in their hands can be used to fight a defined ‘enemy de jour.’  This power could also be used to define and attack an internal ‘enemy.’   Defining who and where our enemy IS depends greatly on the worldview of those who occupy the Executive positions of our federal government and command our gargantuan WAR machine.  They also impact our national guards and our local police. 

Voters Must Prepare For More Election Interference

We have a long history of peaceful Executive leadership change after presidential elections.  However, we’ve just seen, 1/6/2021, how fragile that transition has become.   In addition, rich and powerful authoritarians are taking steps to completely break that peaceful change process.    

What do you see in our future and what should we be doing to make it happens or to prevent it?

Whether WAR, humans hunting humans, profits a very few arms manufacturers or changes national leadership (Regime Change/Coup), too many others will lose their lives and their life’s economic gains.

WAR (humans hunting humans), for any excuse, is immoral!

Some WAR is international. Civil War has two forms: full blown or small, dispersed and haphazard. Regardless, though, WAR profits the few, destroys families and can reverse the vote of the people.

Monied speech kills, at home and abroad

Our Civil War

Relative to our Civil WAR, those who strive to ignore and distract us from our haphazard, internal, slaughter of fellow humans are just as immoral as are any human game hunters.

The few benefactors of our Civil WAR use various forms of other ‘frequent’ human losses in society, such as highway accidents, drug overdoses, or heart attacks, to distract us from the premeditated hunting humans by our domestic terrorists. These distractions are an immoral attempt at normalizing hate-based murder. Hate based murder is a key to conducing all WAR, civil or international.

No other ‘frequent’ death totals are comparable to our haphazard, escalating, slaughter of fellow citizens, except the murders of full blown WAR. Our Civil WAR has been underway for decades. More and more citizens are arming themselves and hoping to expand it. Most are hoping to complete their recent attempted coup.

Collateral Death

Our war in Iraq killed more Iraqi civilians, “collateral damage,” than combat personnel from all sides. Humans hunting humans in our public spaces is also collateral death from our on-going Civil War. We must to stop the one-sided arming of our Civil WAR for profit. Citizens need to stop regime change and the funding of legalized bribery (corporate monied speech) by gun profiteers.

Leaders have lied us into ‘accepting’ far too many collateral deaths of WAR, both overseas and at home. The lies and distractions from immoral deaths need to END.

Ending Our Human Game Hunting

If that means doing what Australia, England, Norway and New Zealand have done, LET’S DO IT. Being the exceptional outlier for humans hunting humans does not make USofA great again. It makes us look like a growing threat to the rest of the world.

The collateral human deaths in those four other nations have stopped. On the other hand, USofA is still exceptional with our rising, hate-based, accumulation of dead, mutilated and unidentifiable human bodies. THIS MUST END.

USofA has the highest rate of guns/person and the highest rate of deaths from enabled/armed, hate-based, humans hunting fellow humans. These two rates are beyond correlation. It’s causation and it’s profit/coup driven. (Enabling the hunting of children is also hammering another Republican nail into their coffin for public education by making parents fear public schools.)

Abused Freedoms Require Limitations

When freedoms are abused and harm others, those freedoms must be limited. Depending on self-control to avoid massive harms of WAR always fails. Letting hate-based WAR fester will not stop the huning. It only allows another hater hunting fellow humans.

This is about the need for a national effort to stop enabling haters (individuals and political parties). Stop them from optimizing their hunting of human ‘game,’ local and international.

And now hunting humans is a TV ad: 

Authoritarian Systems

A basic element behind any “evil” nation or national leader is authoritarianism.  On the one hand, there is the authoritarian nature of non-democratic, man-made, systems. On the other is the authoritarian personality, that authoritarian systems tend to protect and empower. 

Humans have created different systems within what we call nations.  Primary among these are political, economic and religious systems.  From the beginning, men created most of these systems of, by and for men. The dominate, monotheistic religious systems are authoritarian by nature with their imaginary social hierarchies for justifying superiority and inequality.

Authoritarian Personality

A common element within these testosterone driven systems has been right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) personality.  As John Dean and Professor Robert Altemeyer have documented, leaders of authoritarian systems, like the GOP, tend, significantly, to have an authoritarian personality.  Some of these leaders can be religious fundamentalists (Zionists, Islamists, or Christianists.

Based on Altemeyer’s psychological testing, Putin would probably score as a “social dominator” personality.  He may even test as a more dangerous “double high” personality.  RWA Putin rules Russia. The Russian nation consists of authoritarian politics (dictatorship), authoritarian economics (Oligarchy) and religious fundamentalism. 

Authoritarian Comparisons

For comparison, what nation could be more “evil” than Putin’s Russia?  Consider this first.  How much more “evil” could Nazi Germany have been if they had started with almost 800 military bases in over 80 nations and had a mushrooming budget of over $800 billion in today’s dollars?

Authoritarian Coup

Now imagine it’s 2030. America is now an oligarchy more “evil” than Russia in 2022.  It started with a massive take over of Congress by the GQP Cult of Trump in 2022.  In 2024, Republicans completed the coup. A group of Republican state legislatures rejected the results of the 2024 presidential election and replaced their voter selected state electors with a group of white, evangelical RWA electors.  

Next, imagine a constitutional convention to re-write the US Constitution and to codify the 1980 Libertarian Party platform of David Koch.  Next, imagine there have been additional SCOTUS decisions that totally eliminate the separation of church and state including ending Roe v Wade and mandating Christian prayer in all public gatherings.

Nightmare

At this point, eight years from now, the U.S. has become a totally authoritarian nation, with over 800 military bases and a trillion dollar military domination budget – far more threatening than either Russia or Nazi Germany.  The destruction of our democratic political system was completed under the leadership of the GQP corporatet lackeys.  Our authoritarian economic system has become more absolute under the control of individual and corporate oligarchs who have veto power over all government legislation under the new constitution.  Add to this, the work of our RWA SCOTUS to create a Christianist caliphate.  

The entire world is now condemned to extreme inequality, slavery, baby farms with women dressed in red and world domination as originally planned in 1997. 

Nightmare Antidote

The antidote to this nightmare is turning the spectators in our failing democracy into participants.  In 2020, we had over 80 million spectators!!!

Terminology

• – Political systems: authoritarian/totalitarian or democratic/republic led by socialist or capitalist political parties.
• – Economic systems: predominantly authoritarian controlled by either the state or privately
• – Predatory Capitalism: a replacement/improvement of feudalism. Still an authoritarian (employer/employee) economic system that endeavors to maximize inequality even during periodic crashes
• – Socialism: a critical review of capitalism and over a hundred years of trying to control/replace predatory capitalism

Nation Building

Nations are an amalgamation of many elements. They all include some combination of specific political and economic systems.  History shows most fail with age or with intervention by others.  Some lead to world-wide economic disasters.  Most combinations have been authoritarian in one or more ways and have abused citizens to differing degrees.   Some nations have been more egalitarian and better at equally protecting and empowering their citizens.   By examining mankind’s historical attempts at nation building, we can see how to “build a new model that makes the existing model[s] obsolete.”

The dominant political systems reviewed below are either democratic/republic or totalitarian/authoritarian and are led by capitalist or socialist leaders.  The dominant economic systems are historically authoritarian: slavery (owner/slaves); feudalism (lords/surfs); capitalism (employer/employee).  

In many nations, the authoritarian and democratic political systems try to control/regulate predatory capitalism. The degree of regulation varies from total to almost none.  With the rise of the industrial age, regulation of predatory capitalism has been critical to nation building. A few political systems have experimented with democratic economic systems in place of regulation.

Totalitarian Socialist Control of 20th Century Predatory Capitalism

In the early 20th century, predatory capitalism was wreaking havoc around the world. In response, both socialist and communist parties became serious threats for ending captialism’s abuse. The Soviet Union opted for total political and economic control to stop the abuse.

The Soviet Union created one of the largest socialist-led authoritarian political systems ever known. Their political system totally controlled the economic system with the government as the employer. The Soviet Union was a full-blown authoritarian socialist state.  They effectively banned predatory captialism.  They forbade private ownership and kept workers and consumers out of the decision process.  Eventually, this completely totalitarian empire failed.  

Total Embracement of 20th Century Predatory Capitalism

On the other hand, some countries responded to the threat of 20th century socialist and communist efforts to control predatory capitalism by doubling down with predatory capitalism.

Nazi Germany combined a capitalist-run authoritarian political system, fascism, with predatory capitalism, to fund, maintain and build their malevolent war machine.  Nazi Germany was a full-blown authoritarian capitalist state.   However, a group of more democratic, capitalism-limited, nations defeated this completely authoritarian empire and ended WWII.

Similarly, Italy and Spain attempted this authoritarian, predatory capitalist combination and also failed.

21st Century Democratic Socialist Regulation of Capitalism

Decades later, modern day Germany has a newly elected, socialist-led democratic political system.  This socialist led government is using/regulating a slightly more democratic, but still capitalist-owned, economic system.  Union reps are members of corporate boards of directors. The socialist government maintains and protects public services for citizens like national health care.  

Portugal is much like Germany – a socialist-led democratic political system that provides national public services. It also maintains strong control over their authoritarian, capitalistic economy to minimize its predadory nature.

Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom also used socialist-democratic governments to regulate of their capitalist authoritarian (employer/employee) economic system. They also had a greater focus on equally protecting and empowering all their citizens.  These nations limit the power and influence of capitalist billionaires.

Other nations, like Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Chile have governments run by socialist parties. These nations strive to protect their natural resources from capitalist ownership. They use their resources for supporting their people.  The socialist nature of these nations is used to distract us from learning and reevaluating our struggling nation and its failing systems.

Hybridized Authoritarian Socialist Control of Predatory Capitalism

China’s socialist led authoritarian political system has learned from the failure of the USSR. They implemented a hybrid authoritarian economic system.  Some of China’s economic segments are privately run yet government-regulated like European socialist led nations.  On the other hand, some segments are totally government-run for their public nature as was done in the USSR.   The Chinese auhoritarian socialist government runs the political system and totally controls their hybrid economic systems.

Decades of Democratized Capitalism under Fascist and Socialist Political Systems

In the Mondragon region of Spain, they established the best example of a democratic economic system. It has been in use since the end of WWII. This region is a large coalition of worker-run co-ops.  They have eliminated the authoritarian employer from the employer/employee capitalist model and democratized the workplace.   Workers in Mondragon own and manage the means of production. They democratically determine the distributions of their profit among the other profit makers and the business.  

Mondragon workers won’t send their jobs to other countries.   The workers of Mondragon won’t pollute their own communities.   Mondragon workers refuse to pay slave wages to themselves.   The workers of Mondragon don’t let profits accumulate with oligarchs. Oligarchs who would destroy their democratic economy for the sake of maximizing economic inequality.   

Mondragon has operated under both a facist and now a parliamentary constitutional monarchy government.  

FDR’s Legislative Control of 20th Century Predatory Capitalism

In the early 20th century, while Italy, Germany and Spain sought to save predatory capitalism by embracing it and the USSR took total control, FDR limited the predatory nature of capitalism by passing significant legislation that protected and empowered citizens. The New Deal successfully restrained capitalism such that it created the largest and wealthiest middle class of the 20th century.

Oligarchs Endeavor to Preserve US Predatory Capitalism

America has its own capitalist effort to totally embrace predatory capitalism like Germany. In the 20th century, it was led by The Liberty League. The League attempted to recruit retired Marine General Smedley Butler to lead a military coup in 1934. The coup would remove FDR and demolish his New Deal. The oligarchs funding the coup embraced predatory capitalism that concentrated wealth in their pockets. To hell with the middle class.

Like most nations, USofA has been struggling with a 400 year old authoritarian economic system – predatory capitalism.     Each time its oligarchs have gained the upper hand, the nation has suffered.  The slave-owner oligarchs started a Civil War.  The Industrial Revolution oligarchs gave us the Great Depression.  Today’s oligarchs gave us the Tech Bubble, The Great Recession and have become unimaginably wealthier during the COVID pandemic.

Our democratic political system struggles to prevent our authoritarian economic system from maximizing inequality. The authoritarian economic system enables the oligarchs to buy/privatize/co-opt our democratic political system and its public resources.   The oligarchs goal is to replace our democracy. They want an authoritarian plutocracy that will protect and further empower predatory capitalism and increase their excessive wealth.  

Since the failed coup of FDR, oligarchs have gained more power and undone most of FDR’s New Deal. They are closer to ending Social Security and Medicare than ever before.  They have returned us to a struggling democratic political system that is again threatened by unchained, predatory capitalism.  

A Nation Optimized For All of Us – Replacing Authoritarian Political/Economic Systems with Complimentary Democratic Ones

The key element that adversely impacts the political/economic combinations above is authoritarianism. Either or both of the systems are authoritarian in nature. What we have not seen is a combination where both systems are optimized for democratic operation. We have democratic political systems controlled by citizens through socialist factions like in Europe to maintain public services. But we’ve never combined that with a democratic economic system controlled by the workers to maintain private services.

Let’s create a more democratic political system where all voting age citizens can freely vote. One where we aren’t limited to two capitalist political parties. Where even if oligarchs still exist, they can’t bribe our democratic representaitives. Where tools abused by abusive political minorities, like the filibuster, are controlled or eliminated. To that add a democratic economic system where workers decide how their profits are distributed. Where oligarchs can’t exist to use their wealth to destroy our democratic systems.

This combination would provide an optimized political/economic combination that focuses on equally protecting and empowering all citizens and workers.  It eliminates the threat of authoritarianism in both our political and economic systems.  It would prevent predatory capitalism and the protection and empowerment of the excessively wealthy. The combined democratic systems would empower citizens and workers to fairly distribute political equality and economic wealth.

We can create “a more perfect union.” A hybrid version of democratic political and economic systems that is the inverse of China’s hybrid, all-authoritarian, experiment.  We’d have a more democratic  political system, where voting is protected and empowered for all breathing citizens. We’d have a more democratic economic system than 21st century Germany.   Both democratic political and economic systems would protect and empower each other.  

Stop fighting what doesn’t work.  Build something new.

The subtitle of Nancy MacLean’s 2018 book, Democracy In Chains, was: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.

Decades Long Stealth Plan

The article November 8, 2022: Authoritarian Consolidation in America elaborates on this stealth plan. “The groundwork for an authoritarian takeover will be finalized on November 8, 2022, crippling the Democratic administration’s efforts to hold it back. Its movement has been by gradations, over four decades, its tide gathering strength. We fail to realize it because we are so easily distracted inside our media amusement and outrage chambers or confronted by the multiple vexations that constitute an ordinary day.”

Slow Transition Normalizes The Abnormal

This slow transition normalizes this infection.  “The transition toward authoritarianism in this modern age doesn’t move forward in an explosive, abrupt manner. Instead, it transitions incrementally and in an occult fashion—those seeking to replace democracy with authoritarian rule attack by stealth. Within the institutional frameworks of the democratic body, laws get tweaked, loyalists get inserted into judicial and legislative positions. Each little deviant maneuver accumulates into a big pile until our human brains begin to normalize the abnormal.”

We just witnessed the legalization of murder by any armed white man who can claim they feel threatened.

“After the 2020 presidential election and following the failed coup attempt, the inherent desire for normalcy compelled Biden supporters and the Democratic Party into a fragile complacency.”

Preventing An Authoritarian Future

“Timothy Snyder, Yale Professor, and historian of authoritarianism, recently provided a salient insight about the possibility of an overthrow of the 2024 Presidential election if the Republican candidate loses. Snyder stated that we should not think that coordination necessary to overthrow an election could happen. It is happening now. In other words, the pattern reflecting the road to authoritarianism is, in full measure, unfolding. Snyder added: ‘..the question is, can we accept this reality in time to take the measures we need to prevent it?’ “

Fighting back is still possible, but the need for normalcy is blinding most to our likely authoritarian future:

“The most challenging action?  Waking up before it’s too late as the pattern of authoritarianism enfolds us. We should be alarmed, but the stealth plan of the authoritarian movement, the odd normalization of its aberrations, has not triggered those limbic regions of our brain that signal us to action. Disbelief and denial handicap the kindling of resistance.”

“Three previous plagues could yield some clues about the way Covid-19 might bend the arc of history. As I teach in my course ‘Plagues, Pandemics and Politics,’ pandemics tend to shape human affairs in three ways.

“First, they can profoundly alter a society’s fundamental worldview. Second, they can upend core economic structures. And, finally, they can sway power struggles among nations.” by AP and Israel Hayom Staff

– The Antonine plague, and its twin, the Cyprian plague (A.D. 165 to 262):  Within a century of the end of these plagues Christianity replaced Roman paganism.

– Plague of Justinian & The Fall of Rome (A.D. 542 to 755):  Medieval Europe and the reduced slave supply and agrarianism forced the replacement of Roman Empire slavery with Feudalism.   

– Black Death of the Middle Ages (A.D. 1347 to 1351):  Massive Labor shortages,  urbanization, international trade, and the first small businesses replaced feudalism with capitalism over the next few hundred years and birthed the Renaissance.

Now we are in a forth plague that could “bend the arch of history” and “upend core economy structures.” We can do better than capitalism.

– COVID19  (A.D. 2020 to ???): A new Renaissance led by Millennials and Zoomers could repair our failed systems.

Learning from 20th Century History

The final form of Socialism in the USSR failed in the 20th Century.   The Soviet State owned the means of production for making products and controlled the markets for buying and selling those products.  The State was the employer in the USSR.   The State was all powerful and the authoritarian rulers saw change as limitations on their powers.  Therefore, they ignored the problems and doubled down on their methods.  China learned from the Soviet’s mistakes, realized change was necessary and created their own version of Socialism. They recently eliminated extreme poverty across China while also beating us at our own game of capitalism.  But the State of China still controls all levels of the economic system – a new form of the ‘old’ Socialism.  

Socialism is relatively young and evolving as different countries try out other versions.  The US not only has the lowest level of Socialism of the world’s democratic nations, it has used regime change around the world to stifle new versions of Socialism which guarded national resources from our capitalists.   Scandinavia and Europe have their versions of Socialism/capitalism. They kept certain national resources from corporate/capitalist control and required higher taxes.  Just watch Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next.  

In contrast, we have Casino Capitalism where the “house always wins.”   Capitalism is hundreds of years old and has changed little over its life as it has spread around the world.   Capitalism crashes often, three times so far in the 21st century, and like the failed version of Socialism in the USSR, it’s flaws are never acknowledged or questioned.

Capitalism’s Cycle – Growing vs Cancelling the Middle Class

For some of us, we have lived through beneficial phases of a heavily regulated version of capitalism with greater, but still lacking, equality.  More recently, we have witnessed the removal of regulation, growing massive inequality, and the purchase of our political leaders to do the bidding of the capitalists. The capitalists have gained more and more tax breaks and their monopolies have grown without any anti-trust law enforcement.  Some of those who witnessed this expansion of inequality are luckily still part of a prosperous Middle Class.   Unfortunately, we are all now witnessing both a growing billionaire class, in terms of both wealth and numbers, and a growing Poor Class in terms of millions of citizens who can’t afford a $400.00 emergency or the loss of any of their jobs.  The GQP Cult is working hard to cancel the Middle Class

The cycle some of us have lived through personally, has happened before in these United States.  The first cycle began with unregulated slavery driven by the billionaires of the day. They started a civil war to keep slavery (inequality) from regulation that would destroy it. The response was three new constitutional amendments to protect and empower the newly freed slaves (more equality).  Next, America experienced the unregulated industrial revolution, another spurt of massive economic inequality and the Great Depression. Then came a push back by many new Federal laws grouped as the New Deal. They regulated corporations, kept taxes high, promoted unions, controlled banks, and again, selectively, protected and empowered citizens/workers and the elderly (more equality).

Capitalism’s Groundhog Day

These slow cycles between massive inequality and modest increases in equality over centuries and the more frequent economic crashes of capitalism are a long-term version of Capitalism’s Groundhog Day (CGD).   We just haven’t yet figured out how to get out of this ruinous cycle.  Plus, those who benefit most from this cycle, the capitalists, have the power and control over government to keep saving capitalism from itself.  These powerful capitalists eventually eliminate the regulations that restrain their greed and push the pendulum back to more inequality.

The differences between the failed Soviet Socialism and America’s Cyclic Casino Capitalism are:

• An inflexible single-party State controlled the Soviet economy. Bureaucratic inertia restrained it and couldn’t change the downward spiral of cyclic failures. On the other hand, nimble, extremely wealthy, capitalists controlled the American economy. These capitalists manipulate the democratic State and keep re-setting our economic bedside alarm to re-start our generations-long CGD.
• Both are based on a hierarchical system of non-contributing employers (Bureaucrats/Capitalists) and productive employees.
• Both resist self-evaluation to end their damaging and resource-depleting cycles, and prohibit the consideration/teaching of alternative systems.

Ending Capitalists Control of the Economic Cycle

In America’s short history, wealthy capitalists have stopped regulated capitalism and creeping socialism. The result is popular unrest, revolt and a return to regulation – a cycle that needs to end.   So far, other socialististic nations have managed to keep capitalists from privatizing their social programs and maximizing inequality. However, the capitalists are working hard to acquire that great social wealth for their bank accounts.  These other nations, however, have an advantage over America – they have more than two political parties to limit corporate/capitalist’s vetos.

In conclusion, bureaucrats and capitalists will endeavor to keep and grow their power over both employees/citizens and their democratic governments as long as they control the economic systems.

We need to disempower the single-party bureaucrats and the excessively wealthy and extremely powerful capitalists who own the wealthy bureaucrats.  Within democratic political systems around the world, they do that through majority rule, multiple political parties, and elections – a democratic process.  What we need now are an improved democratic political system (no limitations on voting) and a more democratic economic system.  Both will promote and grow social systems to equally protect and empower all citizens/workers while also disempowering the capitalists and the bureaucrats they buy.

Adding/Enhancing Democracy To Grow The Middle Class

So, this democratic economy is now the latest incarnation of a socialist economy.  One where employees democratically control the means of production and the markets for buying and selling their products.    One that distributes profit democratically instead of concentrating it at the top.  One where employees never pollute their communities.   One that keeps employees’ jobs at home.  One where employee-funded welfare programs managed by a supportive democratic government provide a minimum survival foundation for all citizens. One that will avoid undeserved handouts for those at the top of some imaginary social hierarchy.

Democratic Socialism is about social responsibility for all citizens through expansion of democracy in both our political and economic systems.  

… But many have contrived since the 1700s to limit human rights as if they were a commodity subject to market distribution based on a contrived social hierarchy of privilege.

Forced to Share Water?

Imagine a white person with a friend of color stopping for refreshment at a local establishment.  Their server brings them two glasses.   One is filled with ice water and given to the white person.   The other is empty and given to the friend of color.   How strange?  They look around at the tables near them.  They notice others, all white, all have full glasses.  As the server walks away, both customers ask for an explanation.  The server explains that this is company policy.  They have put limits on water for people of color and leave it up to the customers to figure out what to do.

Obviously, the company policy violates fair distribution of an unlimited resource.  Authoritarian leadership should never contrive situations that put customers/citizens into such a divisive situation.  Likewise with human rights.

Zero-sum Distribution

This water example demonstrates the concept of a zero-sum game.  One side loses and the other side gains.  The sum of shared water remains the same but one customer is left feeling loss while the other is left feeling embarassed.

Contrived limits on water or human rights is divisive and immoral.  However, authoritarians insist that human rights are a zero-sum game.  If someone gains rights, someone else loses rights.  This contrivance is used to divide and distract people from those trying to control them.   The zero-sum idea, as applied to human rights, is even a concept imbedded in our legal system:

Judicial Appointee Bork Promotes Inequality

During Judge Robert Bork’s confirmation hearings in 1987, he sat for five days and answered questions about his constitutional philosophy. One of the questions was whether he agreed that “when ‘a court adds to one person’s constitutional rights, it subtracts from the rights of others,” Bork said yes, describing it as “a matter of plain arithmetic.” Linda Greenhouse, covering the hearings for the New York Times, focused on this “zero-sum” view, describing it as “sharply at variance with the vision put forth by [the judge’s] opponents,” who “spoke of the Constitution in organic rather than arithmetical terms, as a system elastic enough so that adding to the rights of some did not necessarily diminish the rights of others.”   

Human Rights Are NOT a Commodity

How could Bork be so wrong?  How can exercising one’s rights limit those of another?   If I speak, as in this post, does that take away another’s right to speak or post to their blog?  No!  If someone establishes and publishes a new newspaper, does that require the closing of another to keep the number of newspapers constant?  No!!  If one group wants to assemble does another group have to cancel their assembly?  No!   If Congress guaranteed the right to vote, does my casting a vote require the nullification of an other vote to keep the total number of votes constant?   No!!!   Human rights are not a commodity!

A human right either exists or it doesn’t.  A right is available to all without limit. A human right cannot be taken away without due process.   It is immoral for any of us to decide what rights are available for another.    Rights are, like water or air; equally available to all.  If I need to take a breath, does someone need to stop breathing?  Of course not!  Any limitations on human rights contrived by authoritarians seeking to protect and empower a privileged few is immoral.

SCOTUS nominee Bork WAS as wrong as the domestic terrorists who abused their right to assemble by ransacking our Capital building.  Guilty also are all right-wing authoritarians who promoted the contrived division that lead to this attempted coup.

Democracy Requires Human Rights Equity

Human rights are basically limited by the number of citizens who chose to exercise them.  Exercising a human right does not diminish the availability of that right to anyone else.   Human rights without contrived limits are critical to maintaining a democratic republic like the United States of America.

Right-wing authoritarians, like Bork, who believe human rights are a zero-sum game, where if one gains rights another loses rights, have arbitrarily limited human rights.  This fear is real but unreasonable.  Right-wing authoritarians promote this zero-sum contrivance because they believe in an imaginary social hierarchy where everything is a commodity subject to limits and hierarchical privilege.  They enforce limitations on rights for those lower in their imaginary, self-protecting and self-empowering hierarchy.

Expand Human Rights to Save Our Democracy

Contriving to limit rights is about control and power over others.  It’s about arrogance and imaginary supremacy over others and it’s about maximizing inequality!   Most importantly, it’s about destroying our democracy!

A Grand New Deal is now needed to reverse decades of authoritarian driven inequality.