John Rozewicki, of Supreme Narcissism, brings us The United States Supreme Court is Frozen, part of a series he's writing "detailing how broken the United States government system is." In this installment, John suggests that Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation from the Court sets a bad precedent. "Requiring justices to die before appointing new ones is the only thing that keeps the political makeup of the supreme court shifting and changing," writes John. Allowing them to choose the President that will appoint their successor ensures stasis and opens the door (according to John) to dictatorship.Jon Swift, in The New American Empire, suggests "how can we spread the blessings of democracy around the world without actually letting people vote." The problem (as Jon sees it) is we've been busy bringing democracy around the globe but, "One of the problems with democracies in the Middle East is that the people seem to vote for the wrong parties." ... "Iraq was at one time a democracy. Immediately before it was a democracy, it was a colony of England. And what was the United States before it was a democracy?" You see where this is going, right? Mr. Swift very rationally explains how building a new American Empire will be bring peace and prosperity (and eventually, maybe, democracy) to all who need it. And, yes, it's satire.
This week Hell's Handmaiden gives us Godless, UnConstitutional Rulings! - a potent rant against - and rebuttal to - the "American View" and others who use fake quotes and made-up history to push "the myth – the Big Lie – that the United States was founded 'under God.'" "There is not a single mention of God in our Constitution or Bill of Rights, and while there is a mention of the Creator... in the Declaration of Independence it serves more to ground Jefferson’s natural rights justification for rebellion than it does to indicate a particular religious sentiment."
Listed above were the submittals that best fit our theme of "the decline of American democracy." A couple of honorable mentions this week go to What They Want From Us in Mexico, regarding rampant corruption in the Mexican government, and Preston - Capital City of Undemocratic Planning, regarding the continued struggle of the "Save the Ribble" campaign in England.
I also received an entry entitled Oh, By the Way, They Found WMD in Iraq. I was going to leave it out as a non-story. The "WMD" found were nothing new; just the remains of the chemical weapons used against the Kurds over a decade ago. The recent findings were not the "current threat against the U.S." that the administration swore we'd find. But, I didn't want to be accused of being part of the "liberal cover-up" so it's here. See, I gladly post links to opposing viewpoints - that's how a discussion - and democracy - works.
Thank you for joining us on our bi-weekly look at the decline of democracy (and occasionally hopeful responses to it). The next edition of the Carnival will be posted on Monday, August 14th, with entries requested by Saturday, August 12th, at midnight.
Submit your blog post for the next edition of the carnival of the decline of democracy using our carnival submission form. More information on future carnivals can be found on our carnival home page.
Tags: carnival of the decline of democracy, blog carnival, politics, American government, Supreme Court
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Thank you for including my post in the carnival. Your including an opposing viewpoint is nice to see in the partisan world of blogging.
ReplyDeleteNot that partisanship is a bad thing, however, openly discussing points of divergence is a better thing. You could even say that our Democracy was strengthened through disagreement.
I wish you success on your blog.