The Processes of Democracy and Voter Malfeasance
Democracy is a system of government. Like every system, it is comprised of a set of interrelated parts, each of which must function properly or the system as a whole will fail to work. Riding a bicycle with a broken wheel, broken chain or missing handle bar will likely cause you harm and perhaps even kill you.
Democracy is very much like a computerized information system. At every level, information is the fuel that moves democracy in productive directions. There is an old Information Technology adage that holds true today: garbage in, garbage out. The quality of the end result is directly related to the quality of the information feeding the system.
One of the most critical parts of every democracy is the electorate – voters making choices by casting ballots. Voters make their choices based on the information they have about the alternatives being presented and how they understand each of those alternatives will impact their families, their communities and the world. It is each voter’s responsibility to seek out factual information and use it to make rational choices. When a voter fails to do this, they are failing to fulfill their responsibility.
Americans place great value on personal freedom, and freedom of choice. Please understand that the only true freedom of choice is a fully, factually informed choice, free from any coercive element. We rely on the Integrity of our journalists to report confirmed, vetted, factual information in a way that communicates the facts and also creates an accurate context for understanding those facts within the larger background of world events and the possibility for the world we are working to realize. The goal is to describe a whole-and-complete Truth to the extent that is humanly possible.
Unfortunately, there are loud voices in the media today whose goal is not to provide you with a fully informed freedom of choice, but rather to manipulate you into supporting the self-serving results they want to achieve. They manipulate you with half-truths, outright lies, and the ‘red meat’ intended to provoke in you angry responses that short-circuits your ability to reason.
It is your responsibility to seek out sources of accurate reporting, and to discern when sources are attempting to manipulate you intellectually and emotionally. When you fail to do this, you are failing to fulfill a fundamental responsibility, the obligation you have as a voter to make our system of Democracy work properly by choosing rationally. There is a word to describe the failure to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of a position – malfeasance.
Our democracy is failing due to widespread voter malfeasance, which in turn is rooted in a widespread lack of both critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence. When it comes to their views on public policy, these are ignorant, simple minded, functionally stupid people who are supporting the very people dedicated to keeping them in a state of economic servitude, poor, dumb and pissed-off beyond any ability to exercise rational judgement.
Watch for signs of corruption. Follow the money. Actions define the person much more than what they say. Democracy dies under broad support for authoritarian policies. When our children come to us with harmful demands based on “I want” or “I like” or “Give me”, we attempt to protect them by teaching them to see the long term damage that can result from getting what they think they want. Educate yourself to see the damage that is being done by self-serving, short-sighted policies and the manipulative media that serves their long term interests – and harms yours.
Context rules. Integrity leads. Energy – effort – is not to be wasted in opposition, but spent only in creation – an ideal not able to be realized in the face of self-centered, destructive, authoritarian actions that must be countered.