A New Story For American Democracy

Now that America's society is getting hit, here's an outsider's view on what steps

Americans need to take to finally become a true democracy again. Today, we're rewriting the story for America, just to inspire you to make it better. Buckle up for a wild ride. Here goes...

A step before we walk...

Super quick word before we begin. Forgive me if and when I point out things you may already know as an American. A European like me is also learning as I go, most of all from my many American friends who live both here and abroad and have different political colorings. I'll keep this story as a concise overview, not an entire book-work, just as a sharp bringer of insight and inspiration to make things better.

It should go without saying I also do not share your 'feud' between left and right, which I consider to be meaningless, pointless and inaccurate. I will explain this to the best of my ability with as little judgement to both 'sides' as possible. And last but not least... by no means do I wish to imply Europe is without it's own problems. I will however address that story in a different post for both your and my convenience, so I can keep focus on both subjects without blurring to many 'Western' lines.

Okay, without further ado, let's get started with re-writing the American story, with the most important step first.

Step 1 - End Campaign Donations

We'll start with the elephant in the room, and probably the one thing left that every American from all political colors can agree on: campaign donations. When you've finally decided to put your quarrels to the side for a moment and fix your system, before starting the quarrels again... we all know really where to start. Yet, humor me while I explain it again.

In ancient Roman civilization they called it 'tributes': donations to senators for favors. The tributes became the norm just before that civilization started to turn corrupt at a 'point of no return' level. Something similar has happened in recent US history as well. Not to say that there weren't earlier examples of corruption in America. Yet the particular kind of corruption we face right now, stems from the Neo-liberal and Neo-conservative movements from the '80's, which have blurred lines between left and right wings. In this period the bribery became institutionalized and given softer euphemisms such as 'SuperPacs' and whatnot.

This practice undermines democratic principles because you no longer have a 'one vote, one count of influence' situation anymore. You now have citizens who vote for something... but then big money lobby groups give way more money, and can push their interests through with 'their' politician, even if that goes against the people's wishes.This is also the reason why no single political representative in the past decades - with the exception of Berney Sanders and I believe also Alexandria Orcasio-Cortez who both rose to power on one-dollar donations - has been a representative of the people.

Again, I take no color in the political discourse here. I Just wanted to point out that even if you wholeheartedly disagree with these two politicians on issues, they are - factually - the only ones not accepting tributes.

And to quickly even things out in the left-right balance, let me attack a leftwinger here as an example, although there are plenty of right-wingers who have done the same. The tribute system also led to 'no-questions-asked' practices and legislation that protected the earnings of politicians with fore-knowledge of laws affecting stock market companies... with the prime example of Nancy Pelosi, who has magically outperformed every investor thinkable on the stock market.

Now, bribery is commonplace everywhere around the world of course. However, the situation in the US is different than in other democracies. Where I'm from in Europe, almost no country has campaign donations. And if they do they are infinitesimal as compared to the US. We have lobby groups, and there is corruption around those for sure, especially in the murkier depths of the European Union. Yet, it is officially illegal everywhere to have tributes and as a result, much less commonplace.

Corruption is bad enough, but not having this campaign donation system therefore also doesn't carry the same insulting feeling that this tribute system throws in the face of normal everyday Americans who cannot 'pay' their way to power.

The situation in the US is in essence this: tributes/campaign donations have become legal. There's tons of rules for it, as if to say: 'See? We have rules! This is a very normal thing to have all this lobby money flow into politics'. In other words, campaign donations are 'legalized bribery' and as such are a shield for politicians - from all sides - to hide behind. One could also call it 'normalized bribery'.

While in fact, it is obviously ridiculous.

It is also the main reason you've lost your democracy in favor of a plutocracy or oligarchy, however you wish to name it. The circle can keep repeating itself, having the very rich buy more influence with every 'donation round' and so on and so forth. Consequently, it is the cause I feel of why so many Americans are disheartened, however we'll get into that a little later.

For now the conclusion is the first thing you'll have to scrap if you wish to regain your democracy will be all forms of campaign donations. Across the board. Into oblivion. Yet again, I trust this is not new to you.

Step 2 - End Politicians Choosing the Judiciary

The second, also blatantly obvious thing to scrap is the fact that politicians nominate and confirm judges. This of course goes against the Trias Politica or the 'separation of powers' as it is known in the US. Where I'm from judges nominate and confirm judges. It's that simple. Prosecutors are also not 'voted in'. They are put forth by the judiciary branch itself, same as judges.

Again, this doesn't rule out corruption. But it does prevent a specific kind of corruption: politicians having their will and their interests met by the judiciary branch. In other words, it rules out unequal justice, at least to a very, very large degree as compared to the USA. In essence, and with an occasional exception, we don't have politically colored judges and prosecutors here.

I am aware that many an American who reads this will not believe it. But I swear to you, on my sweet grandmother's grave, that politically colored judges and prosecutors are something we don't really encounter. We encounter corruption such as bribery of a judiciary official, although this is quite rare. We encounter corruption in prosecutors bending or breaking the 'lines' of the law too, which is slightly more common. However, these law-breaking judiciary officials are almost never politically motivated. Just motivated by sins like pride or greed and such.

It also means we don't have the perpetual 'corruption cycle' as I'd like to call it: big business buys influence in politicians... politicians then vote in the judges... and the judges can then protect big business... and the cycle starts again from the beginning. This I feel is one of the things that makes Americans feel so disheartened: they can never get justice in such a cycle. They feel the system is so rigged, it can't be fixed.

As a result, combined with the campaign donation thing, there are also other bonus effects if you manage to scrap these political nominations of both judges and prosecutors from your system when the revolution finally comes. Bonus effects such as not having to worry much about politically motivated judgements... or money motivated judges.

Case in point; your Supreme Court declaring the presidency as a kingdom by saying that no president could be criminally prosecuted, effectively placing the presidency above the law.

Step 3 - No More 'For-Life' Appointments on the Supreme Court

Now, before you start jumping through hoops to convince me of some right-wing justification for that ruling, consider that at the time of the ruling, the presidency could have also fallen to the left. This would have mattered nothing. The kingdom would still be in effect, just with another king or in this case, queen. The vassals - the oligarchy - would also have stayed the same.

The corruption here is of course what we've already discussed; the fact that politicians vote in judges, making them their allies politically. Yet this corruption is exasperated to great effect by the 'for life' appointments of the judges. Lord Acton put it brilliantly: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." A 'for life' appointment for a judge in the highest court of the land is the equivalent of absolute power. And as a result, they granted a similar absolute power to the presidency. Which again, could have fallen to the left, and even might next time around...

Step 4 - No More Political Ads

For me, as a citizen of the Netherlands, possibly the strangest thing about your system is that you allow political ads on your media channels. Over here, if a politician wishes to get attention for their cause and their ideas, they need to reach the media on their own merit. The stronger, better and more contemporary their ideas - whatever left, right or up and down they may be - the more media attention they will get.

In other words, they cannot 'buy' air time. They need to earn it.

There are a few ads and a few infomercials possible. They are assigned to a particular time slot on public broadcasting channels only. And they are all evenly divided timewise. To re-iterate: no privately owned media may run political ads and earn from them. Of course, politicians can try to raise their profile with social media. Yet again, based on merit, and within strict rules on what they can and cannot spend.

And then... there's the attack ads. Here, you're not allowed to attack your opponents within the allowed ads and infomercials. You are legally required to convince people based on your own ideas, not by attacking others. It's the law. Attacking others is allowed of course in debates (why else have them?) and in media. And yes, the political discourse has soured over the years here too. Yet, we are not bombarded all the time with political ideology through advertising, especially not the constant name-calling and yelling that I know Americans are exhausted from.

And it goes without saying... but scrapping this in your (hopefully) coming revolution will also make your media less biased on either side of the divide. It will stop the money flow from politicians to media, which will stop the 'purchase of support' by these channels in interviews, biased news coverage and in the pundits.

In other words, people are still divided politically here. But we don't encourage politicians to add extra divisions. They'll do that anyway. So why give them the platform? Plus, media are still divided politically too... but much less so than in the US. Here too, we don't encourage them through money flows. They'll do it anyway, so again, why give them the extra platform or incentive?

Step 5 - Revolt. All of you. Together.

You're divided. On most, if not all issues. Except one, the most important one; you are all victims of the plutocracy. This fifth step is the hardest one to take, because you'll have to set aside your pride. I have no idea if you'll be able too. But here's a reminder how you got here in the first place...

Since the '80's, when Neo-liberalism first started to show its more ugly sides intermixing economy, campaign donations and big business money streams with politics, outsourcing became a thing in the US, on the advice of business leaders who stood to gain from this (and had paid tributes to get all politicians left and right to agree).

This damaged the once thriving 'Heartland' of America, mostly Midwest cities, towns and communities centered around American manufacturing. In many areas this damage was beyond repair leaving a lot of Heartlanders feeling very bitter and left behind. Which, I must point out, is perfectly understandable. In their bitterness, they did go too far though, with the coup attempt. So, here's what I'll do:

I'll first criticize your right-wing, and then I'll switch my criticism to your left-wing. Afterward, I'll unite them again.

Right wing first. Even after their attempt to have conservative Washington politicians change their corrupted ways with the Tea Party Movement (aiming to transform the right-wing from the inside-out) these conservatives in Washington - in their campaign-donation-driven-corruption - failed to change their ways. The anger on the conservative voter side was so great it boiled over. These normal, conservative Americans were left behind since the '80's by the left-wing... but even more painfully, their very own right-wingers. So, in desperation they switched tactics to a 'scorched earth' approach. This paved the way for a snake-oil salesman with an orange hue to promise the kind of snake-oil that these often desperate communities gobbled up whole. This of course, ultimately let to a coup attempt...

...which brings me to the criticism on the left. In the more coastal areas, which are more 'blue' leaning, the effects of the Neo-liberal damage from the '80's were not felt. These areas thrived with a lot of extra money from outsourcing coming in. This allowed for more money to be spend on cultural things, and more openness towards others who were different - ultimately, and I say this without judgement, sparking 'woke-ness' - as always happens when affluence enters a culture. Many of the current oligarchy actually stem from this place. This of course explains why they are called the 'corrupt-Hollywood-elite' by our conservative brethren, and are considered untrustworthy. The fact that even a left-wing politician - who should have stood up for Heartlanders in dire straits - called them 'deplorables' was of course, the final straw that broke the camel's back...

Now, in short, that's how you got here. I know, it ain't pretty. And there's plenty of blame to go around. And you are all disheartened, however way you express this feeling left or right.

However, you are both now victims of the plutocracy.

The Heartlander brethren were hit first, losing everything with outsourcing and whatnot. And now the left-winger brethren are hit equally hard, with the dissolvement of all things science, climate change and culture. And its the same oligarchy who got you there in both cases.

In other words, you're now in the same boat. Now may I suggest that as peacefully as possible of course...

...you deal with it.

A word of encouragement for your new story

America is the first modern democracy. But it did not start in isolation. Its principles were based on a long and deep history, where democratic ideas and practices from ancient Greek, Roman, Persian and European times where re-introduced into the Western cultures during the Renaissance and strengthened during the Age of Englightment by many European thinkers of the time, including from the original city of liberty, and my hometown, Amsterdam.

And even briefly, and ironically, before America's democracy, were first installed in the Carribean by pirates.

These democractic ideas led to Americans rejecting a corrupt - and tribute-heavy - king, forming a new country, and spark similar revolutions everywhere, not in the least the French. The Declaration of Independence itself was based on Montesquieu's idea of the Trias Politica, which was strengthened by dozens of thinkers from Voltaire to Erasmus to Grotius all the way back to figures like Marcus Aurelius and the Greek philosophers and even Egyptians and even ancient Asian cultures mixing in, and so many more.

As such, all the groundwork has already been laid out for you. So, yes, you currently don't have a democracy. Yet, you did have one, not that long ago. And you do have voting systems in place, which can be used wisely. This should give you some comfort, since you are not building an entirely new democracy, you are merely reclaiming the old one, and then refreshing it. And you are doing it on the same grounds as the first time: against a corrupt oligarchy who have installed a kingdom.

A kingdom in which it matters not if king or queen leans a little left or a little right.

The New Story of American Democracy

And one last thought... if you'd manage to revolutionize your democracy peacefully this time around? By maybe swallowing some pride towards the other side? Understand their hardships?

Now that would be some heroic story wouldn't it... one would almost call it 'typically American'.

Love, as always,

Rogier van Kralingen

And check out my book The Whole Story - The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling!

The Whole Story - Rogier van Kralingen - The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling

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