Bernard Rapoport is a member of the Board of Contributors, Cen­tral Texans who write columns regularly for the Tribune-Herald. He is chairman emeritus and founder of American Income Life Insurance Co Also he is past president of the Board of Trustees for the University of Texas, creator and director of the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation (which give funds to improve education, health, culture and citizenship for America and the world), and a dear friend of peace. His ideas have been sought by American presidents, foreign ambassadors and statesmen, and leaders of industry and finance. He is a man of great wisdom and a lover of peace.

Democracy, where art thou?

Unequivocally, when too few have too much and too many have too little,

 what you have is a non‑sustainable society. It is certainly not a democracy

Without informed public, money rules our nation

     I've had a definite opinion about democracy for most of my 87 years. I've found out that I was wrong in my conclusions. I discovered this in reading Paul Woodruff s First Democra­cy. While observing the beauty of the idea, government for and by the people, he points out a stark truth: "Like many beautiful ideas, however, democracy travels through our minds shadowed by its doubles — bad ideas that are close enough to be easily mistaken for the real thing. Democracy has many dou­bles, but the most seductive is majority rule, and this is not democracy. It is not a govern­ment by and for the majority."

The truth of democracy is not necessarily what the textbooks and dreamers deem it.

The rich have no fear of mod­ern democracy. Neither does com­mercial interests, particularly a democracy that Woodruff describes as "woven into the fabric of global economy."

Consider the legislation up for consideration in Washing­ton with the extension of exces­sive tax breaks for very rich people. Any meaningful consid­eration ignores the indisputable lesson that history teaches us: Unequivo­cally, when too few have too much and too many have too little, what you have is a non-sustain­able society. It is certainly not a democracy.

Millions of Americans do not have health care. In a true democracy, where all are truly empowered, that wouldn't be.

     The Congress passed and the president signed a Medicare prescription drug bill. Included was a provision that the govern­ment could not negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical com­panies. Protection for a popu­lace was forfeited. How many Americans know or understand this matter?

    We have less and less free­dom of information. And with the monopolization of news sources, vested interests have more control over that informa­tion.

     The war in Iraq has cost bil­lions of dollars. I don't know if anyone has yet computed the

total cost, much less projected what it will be.

     Query: Would an informed public be in favor of going to war in Iraq now, when the rea­sons then were that Iraq pos­sessed weapons of mass destruction and perhaps nuclear bombs? Now we know that this was not so. Thousands of our young people have been killed or

wounded in a war. without a war res­olution.

     The first requi­site for a demo­cratic society is that the populace be informed. Sec­ond, the majority of voters, and it must be the vast majority, know what they are vot­ing for or against.

     We vote and often we don't know what we're voting for. The legislative pro­cess is, evidently, so volumi­nous that often members of Congress themselves don't know what they are voting for. I've had members of Congress tell me, "I voted for it but I know it's not a good piece of leg­islation."

     Who knows the ingredients of these bills? The moneyed inter­ests do. The lobbying interests do. Politics in America today is totally related to money. Most of the people in Wash­ington, the House and the Sen­ate, are really good people, but they spend half their time cam­paigning.

     Robert Putnam, a Harvard professor, poignantly points out that we've lost our sense, of com­munity. We really care less about one another than we ought. Over a hundred years ago, the great philosopher/ economist Max Weber warned: "How can democ­racy and freedom be maintained in the long run under the dominance of advanced capitalism? They can be maintained only if a nation is always-determined not to be ruled like a herd of sheep."

     There is only one remedy: Achieving a more informed and: involved society. Then we will know that democracy has not gone away.

www.rghfpeacejourney.org -  Of coal-powered plants and monopolies  Democracy, where art thou?  Patriotism  Sheep led to voting booth

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