Over the past several years when I hear the United States described as the “world's greatest democracy”, I sometimes wonder how so? Considering the amount of voter fraud which has occurred in recent elections (and is anticipated in this upcoming election), the dirty tricks and personal attacks, the outright buying of political office with campaign donations from questionable sources, how can we make that claim ? Our political process has degenerated into such a deplorable state, rivaling many of the so-called 'Banana Republics' in our own hemisphere that we used to find laughable.
The U.S. Senate claims to be "the world's greatest deliberative body", when in fact as was shown during the ObamaCare debate, it is nothing more than a collection of 'back-room-dealing-bribe-takers'. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has lowered the bar so much a Lilliputian could reach it. One hundred people whose greatest claim to recent fame is that they have become the punch line for late night TV comedians. Johnny Carson would have had a field day.
Our president has shown himself to be less of a leader than a carnival huckster and pitch man. Travelling around the country cajoling, threatening, and scaring voters into supporting candidates he needs to win in order to continue his destructive, “fundamental Transformation” of America. His allies in ACORN, the AFL-CIO, and SEIU continue to agitate and stir up hatred for any political candidate they oppose. All with the encouragement of the president. A more appropriate title for him would seem to be 'Rabble Rouser in Chief', which captures the essence of his presidency, and goes with his history as a community organizer and radical activist.
A democracy is supposed to represent the will of the people but as happened with the health care bill, the will of the people was ignored. The president and his allies in congress were determined to shove it down America's throat because 'they know better what's good for us'. As Nancy Pelosi said, "We had to pass it so we can see what's in it". Talk about arrogance, they didn't even know what was in the bill, only that it in their pea-brains they had to pass something. And it mattered not one iota that all the polls were saying that a large majority America rejected ObamaCare.
The current concerns about ISIS and Ebola that Americans have expressed matter little to those in Washington, D.C. Whether Ebola should be a major concern to Americans or not is of little consequence to the president, since he refuses to even consider a travel ban from African countries ravaged by the disease. ISIS ? Well, it’s an Iraq problem and as the president promised, he got us out of Iraq. The mess he left behind does matter to Americans, but President Obama seems content to allow the country to become yet another terrorist haven.
So based on our history over the past several years does America really deserve the title of “World's Greatest Democracy” ? Or have we become just another Banana Republic in the Western Hemisphere ?