“So,” you asked, “if you know that all these wonderful accomplishments are taken place in this country, why would you ask if democracy in this country is dying?”
The difficulty in trying to answer this question is the fact that there isn’t one clear-cut factor that created my concern. Instead, it is the total sum of many factors. Here are the top ten important signs that is making me wonder “Is democracy in the United States is dying?”
1. We are no longer a nation with a collective sense of shared responsibilities.
2. The republican party/tea party and the democratic party seem to be driven by two opposite sets of moral principles ― particularly as it relates to protecting and supporting the elderly and children. Their differences appear to be in-reconcilable, so-much-so, that it almost appears that we are becoming two separate nations that are coexisting.
3. Who, in the right mind, will volunteer to fight the next war, or encourage a relative or a friend to do so?
4. For many reasons more Americans today do not believe that their children’s lives will be better than theirs. The democratic ideals of fairness, equality, unity, opportunities for all, and upward mobility are becoming relics from our distant past.
5. Technology innovations in this country are not keeping pace with the technological needs of this country. And sooner or later, our nation will experience its adverse affect on our defense, our security, and our economy.
6. Like third-world nations, we have become a nation with two classes of citizen ― a rich class and a poor class. The middle class is dying.
7. There are a growing number of democracies in the world whose democratic governments have become more democratic than ours.
8. Our national debt is out of control, and because of partisan politics, it appears that our nation will never implement all the necessary measures for creating meaningful reductions.
9. The challenges from other countries to our democracy, concerning corporate taxes, wages, knowledge and skilled work forces, etc., will ultimately change our global interests and relationships, and this will ultimately determine the types and quality of our voting decisions, which might not be in the best interest of this country.
10. Many countries are passing us in the creation of innovations for the 21st century. China, to whom we owe a great deal of money, will be the most formidable of these nations.
Although there are other reasons why I think that our democracy is dying, I don’t think it death is eminent ― unless we fail to act by honestly addressing all of these issues ― soon!
