What
I now write is not new. Nor am I anywhere near the only one saying it,
thanks be to God. Indeed, more and more voices are saying basically the
same thing as I am (for which I’m also thankful). However, I haven’t
seen anyone say it in this particular way, and here it is.
If
we want our governments and our societies around the globe to gain
and/or retain more of democracy than is currently the case, private
stores of wealth (which are always privately held political and economic
power) can be tolerated only up to a point. There has to be a ceiling
for private wealth as well as a floor below which we allow no one to
sink. Private wealth can never be allowed to the point that one fortune,
or a few fortunes, can effectively ‘buy out’ the voices of those of
middling and/or little or no means from the government by blatant or
‘legal’ bribery — that is to say, such ‘bribes’ as campaign
contributions and/or a ‘revolving door’ whereby the paymasters keep the
money flowing to their present or former political slaves!
This
is what has happened in the USA over the last forty years or so and it
must be reversed if we are to save not only our democracy but, indeed,
the very planet itself! It is a ‘given’ that there will be rich, middle
and lower in any human society but the rich should not be so wealthy as
to be able to both ‘opt out’ of the common wealth and/or privatize it
for their own benefit. Nor is there any need for the ‘poor’ to be
abjectly so. The market is not doing the job for either; we, through our
elected representatives and/or directly as citizens, must do this.
As
I said before, many have said much the same thing at greater length and
with more particularity than before. I believe my gift to be more like
taking in the big picture and paring it down to its essentials. I hope I
do that effectively in this post and in others as well.
I
hope and pray we can start to put more than one Green New Deal in place
even as we renew democracy to include more different voices than ever
before, as democracy will always be a work in progress. And we badly
need some serious progress on that work right now!
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