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“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of
government except all the others that have been tried.” –
Winston Churchill
“Elections belong to the people. It is their decision.
If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their
behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” –
Abraham Lincoln
If at this moment you are screaming that the
United
States is republic and not a democracy, do everyone around you a
favor and flip to “Dear Abby.” Heck, write her a letter if you
want; maybe she can help with your nitpicking problem. Whatever one
calls it, power in this country comes from ballots and ballots come
from us. As the political season gets serious, it’s time for voters
to do the same.
Churchill also said, “The best argument against
democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” It
has long been fashionable to blame the woes of the system on other
villains: corrupt corporative executives, lying news weasels,
dimwitted entertainers, megalomaniac billionaires, or whoever else
you like (or don’t). Yet none of these have more votes than the guy
that mows your lawn. They might have more money and a louder voice,
but votes still come one to a customer.
Our job as voters is to give enough of a hoot to do a
little homework. The mainstream press is arguably more biased than
it has been in most people’s lifetimes, but it also has less of a
monopoly. In colonial days the printing press broke the hold of the
powers-that-were on news and information. Anyone with a handful of
schillings or a few chickens to trade could print enough handbills
to blanket their town, though not without risk. One such pamphlet,
Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” helped spark the movement that led to
the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Pamphleteers lost influence as cities and the nation
grew too large to cover with leaflets. Today we have the Internet,
a tool Paine would have killed for. Freedom of expression still
isn’t free, but it’s cheap enough that a fairly large website can
cost less than $100 a year.
Now past its infancy, the Internet is no longer the
cyber equivalent of a soapbox and megaphone. Entire media
organizations, complete with reporters, columnists, and cartoonists,
have made their home on the web. They have been joined by the big
media conglomerates, which all have their own websites. There is
now little – if any – news or points of view that cannot be found on
the Internet.
While still less diverse, newspapers, television, and
other media have opened up a crack, if only to compete with the
web. It’s free enterprise at its best, but it also puts a
responsibility on voters to seek complete information and varying
viewpoints.
Advertising slogans aside, there is no one place to go
for balance in reporting or opinion. I’m not sure there ever has
been, but today most major media organizations have chosen sides,
making little effort to deny it beyond a few indignant harrumphs.
Did some talking head say the president is a lying
boob? Check it out yourself. Discovering what he has really said
and done, versus what people claim, is a matter of a few mouse
clicks. Have you read that his opponent flips more than the House
of Pancakes? Then let there be Google. See what he has said and
done and make your own decision.
The Internet and the free flow of information it spawned
have become democracy’s great equalizer, ending the stranglehold of
those who would prefer to continue controlling the fires of
democracy themselves. If we end up sitting on blisters, as
Lincoln warned, there will be no one to blame but ourselves.
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