Has Democracy changed??

We, the people of this country, seem to have strayed far from what our founding fathers conceived when they first set out to devise a Constitution to define the democratic process in America. They devised this form of government to ensure that the freedoms of citizens in this environment were protected. Individual freedoms had not, historically, been made available under European monarchies, so those freedoms that were deemed to be so essential were protected under the Bill of Rights. They were concerned that this government not be a government of fear. People who are motivated by fear are too often willing to give up those hared-earned freedoms to some agency who will give them a promise of protection. The authors of our democratic process depended on the fact that a well-informed citizenry would be able to step beyond the hysteria of fear to elect a government that would safeguard those freedoms that were so hard-won. They trusted that allowing everyone to express an informed choice would protect against rash decisions made in the heat of the moment. It was thought that opening the decision-making process to all citizens would ensure that no one group could use the government to achieve its own aims at the expense of the general populace. The intent was that decisions would be made solely for their benefit and not for any type of special interest group.
Al Gore, in his book "An Assault of Reason" discusses the fact that during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was forced to make certain concessions to businesses, in his case, munitions manufacturers and the transportation industry, to ensure the victory of the North in the Civil War. At the end of the war, Lincoln indicated his concern when he stated "We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end . . . But I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
In our own time, the corporations that have been enthroned as a part of our government by their monetary power are focusing their efforts not only on prejudices, but on fear. The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 gave them a golden opportunity to advance the interests of certain large corporations by fanning the fears of the citizens of this country. The threat of terrorism became the justification for permitting the government to tap phones and to monitor e-mail of any person suspected of supporting terrorists, and this government has interpreted the definition of "suspected terrorism" to include anyone who voices their objection to any activity that the administration undertakes in their "war of terrorism". The weapons of mass destruction and the development of a nuclear weapons program were disproved very early on, and no proof of a link between Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden or the Taliban was ever presented. Let we



We see today in our very own country the effect of fear mongering. The bombing of the World Trade Center created a wide-open window of opportunity for one small group within our society to seize far more power than had been granted to them by the provisions of our Constitution.