The Wrong Battle

My liberal friends are pleased that the constituency of such legislative bodies as the Congress today better reflects the actual makeup of the citizenry, that there are in the Congress more people of African and Latino and Native ancestry, more women, more gays, and so on.

Yet, at the same time, I see the Congress getting farther and farther from the actual beliefs and preferences of most of the citizenry. Notwithstanding the apparently greater congruence with the actual makeup of the citizenry of the United States, there is a clear press to tax the poor and not the rich, its determination to send the children of the poor off into foreign wars over (let's be honest) oil.

I wonder whether perhaps we liberals have chosen the wrong battle - we have sought to elect people to the Congress who superficially resemble us (different colors, faiths, and sexual orientations, etc.) - we have sought to elect people who are Black, etc., simply because they are Black, etc. - but we have failed to elect people whose views and voting records more properly reflect our belief in tolerance and respect for all people.

Why is this so?

I believe it is because

1) The powerful have bought much of the news media - the media empires of arrogant rich like Rupert Murdoch, the few newspaper chains owning a great majority of newspapers, the few companies that own an overwhelming number of radio and television stations. They then proceed to twist the news to serve their goals of gaining even more power and money.

2) The powerful have coopted the Congress and other governmental institutions. Members of both houses of the Congress vote at the beck and call of not their constituents (as provided for in the Constitution) but of their party bosses and their powerful lobbyists and campaign donors. This means, in effect, we have fallen into the monstrosity of taxation without representation. We are forced to pay taxes that support a governmental institution that fails, utterly, to do our will as a people. And this, ultimately, means democracy, if ever the United States had it - rather than its being effectively a corporation of, by, and for the rich white oligarchy - is now destroyed in that country.