The Yen and Yang of a Modified Democracy

First what is a Modified Democracy and how does it work. The United States of American has a governmental model called a Modified Democracy. This means that we have a capitalist system that is modified with socialist elements. We have a social safety net for the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. This safety net has allow the growth of a healthy middle class since they do not have to bear the cost of supporting those individuals. Over hundreds of years we have found that our system works like a pendulum. It will swing to the far right and then to the far left. Presently it has swung to the far right.  We know that the top 1% of individuals are making all the money and that the other 99% are finding it hard to get ahead at present. We had hoped that with a Democrat in the Oval office and control of both the house and the senate that things would begin to swing back toward the left. Over the past eight years that has not been the case because republicans have been blocking change and gaming the system to their own advantage.

Now the far left is being led by a group of Bernie Sanders supporters who express a desire to move the pendulum back to the far left all at once. They are angry and demanding change now with no regard for how the system works. Their view is violent revolution.  They have made it clear that they don’t play by the rules and if you get in their way they will harm you physically. What do they want? They want free health care, free college education, huge increases in wages, jobs, harsh rules to protect the environment that are known to  kill small businesses. How do they want to pay for it? They want to force the rich to give up all of their belongings and hand everything to the poor. The rich are fighting this and will leave the country with their money if pushed too far.

How do I break this to them? The government is controlled by the far right at present. You can scream all you want, stomp your feet, call foul and demand the changes all you want and nothing will change until the Oval office, Senate and the House are controlled by the Democrats. Even then it will be difficult to make changes because the republicans are masters at blocking any change in government. If you threaten them with violence they will use it to gain more control.

Now the far right is being led by President Trump and the republicans. They want a system that is pure capitalism in its most basic form. No government rules to control businesses when it comes to consumer protection or the environment. No minimum wage so that companies can pay slave wages and make employees work past the 40 hour work week without any benefits whatsoever as to result in huge profits for the top 1%. They want the government to protect them for other countries when it comes to trade. They want to be able to refuse healthcare coverage. If anyone gets sick it is god’s will that they be homeless and poor. They want to pay veterans slave wages and if you are too weak to care for yourself after you come home from war well that is your fault.

How do I break this to them? The democrats will block these efforts as much as they can. The democrats are well educated and understand the consequences of long term damage to our environment and veterans of this country. They also understand that if you turn your back on the rest of the world that bad things will come knocking at our front door. If you think terrorism is bad now just imagine what the world will be like if other countries and their people have nowhere to turn. War and torture will only create armies of terrorists.    The democrats also understand that if you turn you back on the poor and working class by destroying the social safety net that you may be able to fool them for a short period but they will turn on the Republican Party for the lie of a great America once more. What made America Great was a healthy middle class. These people are armed and will hurt the republicans once they find out just how much they have been played as fools. 

You cannot bully your way into either the far left or the far rights idea of the perfect world. Balance is when no one is all powerful. Lunch and resources have never been free and someone always has to pay the piper for the cost of anything. The best we can hope for is a balance that harms no one to the extent that they become angry enough to rise up and attack their own fellow Americans.