<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515686751970_25254"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515686751970_25279">I believe there are more fundamental rights than "living in democracy" or whatever ideology you believe in.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515686751970_25254">More "humanistic" rights are having the right to running potable water, electricity and sewer management systems. There are millions of people "living in democracy" but lacking those fundamental human rights. </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515686751970_25254">So, please avoid falling into ideological crap when talking about human rights. </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515686751970_25254">Regards, </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1515686751970_25254">Elio </div> <div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"> <div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Arial"> On Thursday, January 11, 2018 9:03 AM, Jimmy Dunne via Discuss <discuss@paa-tx.org> wrote:<br></font></div> <br><br> <div class="y_msg_container"><div id="yiv6386106401"><div dir="ltr"><font size="6">The US is a democracy, N. Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia & Russia are not. Do you know the difference?</font><div><font size="6">Jimmy</font></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401gmail_extra"><br><div class="yiv6386106401gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 10:42 PM, chuck woolery <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:chuck@igc.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:chuck@igc.org">chuck@igc.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="yiv6386106401gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div lang="EN-US"><div class="yiv6386106401m_8900838453580924875WordSection1"><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">We all say it. Just like we pledge…”Liberty and justice for all”. <u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">Saying it don’t make it so.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">cw<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"> Jimmy Dunne [mailto:<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:jimmydunne80@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:jimmydunne80@gmail.com">jimmydunne80@gmail.com</a> ] <br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, January 10, 2018 11:27 PM<br><b>To:</b> chuck woolery</span></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401h5"><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ufpj-activist] The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was<u></u><u></u></div></div><div></div></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401h5"><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">USA is a democracy as we all know.<u></u><u></u></div></div><div id="yiv6386106401m_8900838453580924875AppleMailSignature"><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">Jimmy<br><br>Sent from my iPod<u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><br>On Jan 10, 2018, at 10:16 PM, chuck woolery <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:chuck@igc.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:chuck@igc.org">chuck@igc.org</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></div></div><blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt;"><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">FYI: Some more quotes that may be of interest/inspiration/annoying ;-)</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">"I wouldn't call it fascism exactly, but a political system nominally controlled by an irresponsible, dumbed down electorate who are manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled mass media that dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political establishment can hardly be described as democracy either." --<strong> Edward Zehr</strong> - (1936-2001) Columnist </span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." -- <strong>Justice Joseph Story</strong> : (1779-1845) US Supreme Court Justice 1833 </span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">"Our modern society is engaged in polishing and decorating the cage in which man is kept imprisoned." - --<strong> Swami Nirmalananda</strong> - Source: Enlightened Anarchism </span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">"A free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought." -- <strong>Leon Blum</strong> - (1872-1950)</span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"> Jimmy Dunne [<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:jimmydunne80@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:jimmydunne80@gmail.com">mailto:jimmydunne80@gmail.com</a> ] <br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, January 10, 2018 10:55 AM<br><b>To:</b> chuck woolery; Barry Klein; UFPJ Activist List; Don Bustin; Ryan Parkinson<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ufpj-activist] The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Chuck,</span><u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">The Supreme Court decides what laws are constitutional or not. They would rule that homosexual behaviour is constitutional as they voted that gay marriage is constitutional even though several states had banned gay marriage.</span><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Jimmy</span><u></u><u></u></div></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 8:24 AM, chuck woolery <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:chuck@igc.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:chuck@igc.org">chuck@igc.org</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">Jimmy,<br>What if the majority in that democratic world votes decisively by 90% to outlaw homosexuality?</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">cw </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"> Jimmy Dunne [mailto:<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:jimmydunne80@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:jimmydunne80@gmail.com">jimmydunne80@gmail.com</a> ] <br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, January 09, 2018 11:19 PM<br><b>To:</b> chuck woolery<br><b>Cc:</b> anthony gronowicz; carolinacoz; United 4 Peace & Justice; Al-Awda Group</span><u></u><u></u></div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ufpj-activist] The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was<u></u><u></u></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">Living in a democracy should be the right and goal of every person on Mother Earth. <u></u><u></u></div></div><div id="yiv6386106401m_8900838453580924875m_-7969887091518057906AppleMailSignature"><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">Jimmy Dunne, humanist 2018<br><br>Sent from my iPod<u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><br>On Jan 9, 2018, at 7:44 PM, chuck woolery <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:chuck@igc.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:chuck@igc.org">chuck@igc.org</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></div></div><blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt;"><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">Anthony,<br>Interesting perspective on history. But this thread was about the value of democracy…and the use of the word to describe the political animal we now have…not the integrity of the founding fathers and the origins of political party names (which is interesting) that our unique nation started with. </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">While I question the value of calling our nation an “Empire” when 99% of those we hope to interest in ending war would be turned off by such claim, I do believe there is good (and legitimate value) in educating the 99% about the use of the word ‘democracy’ in describing our political system. If people believe US laws should be a product of majority vote they are gravely mistaken. Not only about the government system they live under, but the value of that very concept as a means of creating a legitimate government. </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">Thomas Jefferson nailed it with his definition (that some ‘peace’ activists might not like). He said “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">He wasn’t alone in his evaluation.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."<br>-- <b>George Bernard Shaw </b>(1856-1950) Irish comic dramatist</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." -- <b>H. L. Mencken</b> (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer, and Critic</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” <b>Marcus Aurelius</b></span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style=""> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;background:white;">“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”<b> –Isaac Asimov</b></span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style=""> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." <b>-- Sir Winston Churchill </b>(1874-1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.65pt;"><i><span style="color:black;">"Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood." - <b>Mahatma Gandhi</b></span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.65pt;"><i><span style="color:black;">"Truth is not determined by majority vote" - <b>Doug Gwyn</b></span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">Democracies are prone to war, and war consumes them. <i>–</i> <b>W.H. Seward</b>, <i>Eulogy on John Quincy Adams</i> [1848] </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black;"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame." --<b> Laurence J. Peter</b> (1919-1990) American educator, "hierarchiologist", best known for the formulation of the 'Peter Principle'<br><br>"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."<br>-- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism, 1891<br><br><br>"People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people.<br>Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those<br>who make themselves heard and who vote -- a very different thing."<br>-- <b>Walter H. Judd</b> (1898-1994) Minnesota legislator, physician, missionary, and orator</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society." <b>-- Thomas Jefferson </b>(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Source: Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">may take away the rights of the other 49%." -<b>Thomas Jefferson</b></span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"A pure democracy ... can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party... Hence it is that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." -- <b>James Madison</b>, Father of the US Constitution, 4th US President. Source: Federalist No. 10</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few." -- <b>John Adams</b> (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President. Source: An Essay on Man’s Lust for Power, August 29, 1763</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""><br>"Institutions purely democratic must, sooner, or later, destroy liberty or civilization or both." --<b> Thomas Babington Macaulay</b> (1800-1859) [Lord Macaulay] 1st Baron Macaulay, British historian Source: Letter to H.S. Randall, May 23, 1857</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Democracy in itself does not define or guarantee a free society. History has told many stories of democratic societies that have degenerated into corruption, plunder, and tyranny." <b>-- Richard M. Ebeling</b> (1950- ) Author, Professor of Economics, Hillsdale College</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">When democracy delivers justice and accountability, creating a space where people can express their views in a non-violent way, peace has a good chance of persevering. </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">When democracy merely provides legitimacy for dominant interests, nations experience conflict.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="">Sundeep Waslekar,</span></b><span style=""> The Future of Peace: Sept. 2014. Alliance for Peace Building</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness."<br>-- <b>Walter Bagehot</b> (1826-1877)</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"I can’t think of anything that would do more toward putting us back on the road to liberty and personal responsibility than for the average American, and for the news media, to come to the understanding that we are not a democracy, nor were we supposed to be."<br>-- <b>Neal Boortz</b> (1945- ) Radio talk show host, columnist</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;">"That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the whole world" - <b>John Adams</b></span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;">"The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies - socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor - and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food."</span></i><span style="color:black;"> - <b>John Pilger</b></span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black;"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society. </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black;">– </span></i><span style="color:black;">Thomas Jefferson,<i> Letter to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours</i> [1816]</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black;"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"[N]o one’s ever been able to show me any difference between democracy and brute force.<br>It’s just a majority ganging up on a minority with the minority giving in to avoid getting massacred."<br>--<b> L. Neil Smith</b>, American writer. Source: Pallas, 425 (Ton Doherty Associates, Inc. 1993)</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority." -- <b>William Howard Taft </b>(1857-1930) 27th US President<br>Source: Veto Message, Arizona Enabling Act, 1911</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Don't forget that pure democracy is a form of collectivism -- it readily sacrifices individual rights to majority wishes. Since it involves no constitutional bill of rights, or at least, no working and effective one, the majority-of-the-moment can and does vote away the rights of the minority-of-the-moment, even of a single individual. This has been called 'mob rule,' the 'tyranny of the majority' and many other pejorative names. It is one of the greatest threats to liberty, the reason why America's founding fathers wrote so much so disparagingly of pure democracy." -- <b>Bert Rand</b></span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style=""> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""><br>"When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will inevitably destroy itself."<br>-- <b>Friedrich August von Hayek</b> (1899-1992), Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974<br>Source: The Road to Serfdom, pg 73 (1944)</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">The average age of the world's great civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage. <i>– </i>Alex Fraser Tytler</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Does it not seem a vast waste of valuable human material that the pioneers of thought, those who by their genius dare to clear unknown paths in the arts and sciences and in government, should have to conform to the dictates of that non-creative, slow-moving mass, the majority? An appeal to the majority is a resort to force and not an appeal to intelligence; the majority is always ignorant, and by increasing the majority we multiply ignorance. The majority is incapable of initiative, its attitude being one of opposition toward everything that is new. If it had been left to the majority, the world would never have had the steamboat, the railroad, the telegraph, or any of the conveniences of modern life." <b>-- Charles T. Sprading </b>(1871-1959) Libertarian activist, writer<br>Source: Charles T. Sprading's Introduction to Liberty and the Great Libertarians; An Anthology On</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Democracy, which began by liberating man politically, has developed a dangerous tendency to enslave him through the tyranny of majorities and the deadly power of their opinion."<br>--<b> Ludwig Lewisohn</b> (1883-1955) Source: The Modern Drama, 1915 Liberty; A Hand-book Of Freedom (Los Angeles: The Libertarian Publishing Company, 1913)</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? <b>There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. </b>I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen." -- <b>Henry David Thoreau </b>(1817-1862) American author, poet, philosopher, polymath, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and transcendentalist,. Source: Civil Disobedience (1849)</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"The Greeks... labored under the delusion that their democracy was a guarantee of peace and plenty, not realizing that unrestrained majority rule always destroys freedom, puts the minority at the mercy of the mob, and works at cross-purposes to the effective use of human energy and individual initiative."<br>-- Henry Grady Weaver (1889-1949) Source: "The Mainspring of Human Progress," 1947<br></span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Henry.Weaver.Quote.BD57"><span style="">http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/ quote_blog/Henry.Weaver.Quote. BD57</span></a><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:blue;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.65pt;"><i><span style="color:black;">"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear." - <b>Alan Corenk</b></span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.</span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://quotesgram.com/h-l-mencken-quotes/"><b><span style="">H. L. Mencken</span></b></a><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:blue;"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="">"By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal;<br>and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable."<br>--<b> Friedrich August von Hayek </b>(1899-1992), Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974<br>Source: The Road to Serfdom</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"> anthony gronowicz [<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:abgronowicz@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:abgronowicz@gmail.com">mailto:abgronowicz@gmail.com</a>] <br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, January 09, 2018 6:23 AM<br><b>To:</b> chuck woolery<br><b>Cc:</b> carolinacoz; David McReynolds; Ali Mallah; United 4 Peace & Justice; Al-Awda Group<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ufpj-activist] The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was</span><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">It was the Democratic-Republican party of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson (all slaveowners, the first 4 of which were drug dealers i.e. tobacco and whisky) that became the Democratic Party of race supremacy, North and South. Only because this party led by enslavers split in 1860 over how imperialist in favor of slavery it wanted the nation to be, was Lincoln able to slip in as President. <u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 11:19 PM, chuck woolery <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:chuck@igc.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:chuck@igc.org">chuck@igc.org</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">David,<br><br>Would it be more accurate to say “</span><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">The struggle is to perfect our republic”? Not “our democracy”.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">At this point I’m not seeing either one prioritizing ‘justice for all’ and the protection of human rights… in my view the only legitimate roles of any form of legitimate government. </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">cw</span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"> ufpj-activist [mailto:<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ufpj-activist-bounces%2Bchuck" target="_blank" href="mailto:ufpj-activist-bounces%2Bchuck">ufpj-activist-bounces+ chuck</a>=<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:igc.org@lists.mayfirst.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:igc.org@lists.mayfirst.org">igc.org@lists.mayfirst. org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>carolinacoz<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, January 07, 2018 11:32 PM<br><b>To:</b> David McReynolds; Ali Mallah<br><b>Cc:</b> United 4 Peace & Justice; Al-Awda Group</span><u></u><u></u></div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ufpj-activist] The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was<u></u><u></u></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">What you say is correct, David, and worth remembering our break from monarchy.<u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">But for me, it was a revelation that countries throwing off colonial yokes turned not to our Constitution, but to the French that had so many fewer sad limits, not so many years farther on.<u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div></div><div id="yiv6386106401m_8900838453580924875m_-7969887091518057906m_-8581316257826522691composer_signature"><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#575757;">Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.</span><u></u><u></u></div></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">-------- Original message --------</span><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">From: David McReynolds <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:davidmcreynolds7@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:davidmcreynolds7@gmail.com">davidmcreynolds7@gmail.com</a>> </span><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">Date: 1/7/18 10:36 PM (GMT-05:00) </span><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">To: Ali Mallah <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:alimallah@hotmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:alimallah@hotmail.com">alimallah@hotmail.com</a>> </span><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">Cc: United 4 Peace & Justice <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst.org">ufpj-activist@lists.mayfirst. org</a>>, Al-Awda Group <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:al-awda-news@yahoogroups.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:al-awda-news@yahoogroups.com">al-awda-news@yahoogroups.com</a>> </span><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">Subject: Re: [ufpj-activist] The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was </span><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">The Rockhill piece below is an example of the one-sided view of America which characterizes some of the left, and which requires a response.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">First, almost all the points Rockhill makes are true, sadly. But that is only part of a complex picture.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">For all the limits of the founders of the Republic, Rockhill seems to be unaware that it was, in 1776, a truly radical act for a nation to be founded on the basis that government was not based on rule by a monarch, but had to be based on the will of the people. As we look - from here - at the limits of that "will", and who was involved (no slaves, no women, no men without property, etc.) it is easy to completely missed the fact that power was no longer vested in royal families, that, limited as the steps taken by the founding fathers, those step were very radical in contrast to the monarchies of Europe. It was no accident that Ho Chi Minh, in his appeal to the US as he sought to free Vietnam from French rule, turned to our Declaration of Independence.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">And missing from Rockhill's piece is any sense of the continuing dialectic between America's ruling class and the people as a whole. From the beginning our right to a free press was established by civil disobedience and resistance. There was a continuing struggle to correct the terrible limits of the American experiment - the underground railroad in fighting slavery, the whole abolitionist movement, the long struggle for women's rights, the courageous efforts to organize trade unions, the incredible courage of the Civil Rights movement.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">Yes, the America Rockhill sees did all the dreadful interventions in the world which he notes. But there was also a powerful opposition to those</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">interventions, most dramatically in the Vietnam protest movement.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">The struggle is to perfect our democracy, to extend it, to deepen it, and that means the kind of endless struggle which we have seen all through our history. The pain of that struggle, the lives destroyed in it, or driven mad by it, is true. But this country has always been one of two Americas, of those in power and those who sought to extend power to the powerless.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">That this is so totally lacking in Rockhill's piece is sad, it is part of the truth, but the full truth is quite different, and if left to stand as it is, it demoralizes us, diminishes what has been accomplished, and discourages us from the struggle to seize the future.</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">David McReynolds</span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;">(</span></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">Let me note that I worked for most of my life for the War Resisters League, many of whose members were imprisoned for refusing military service, and whose offices were raided by a government agency during the Vietnam War - the only national peace organized so "honored". One of our staff was Bayard Rustin, who had been imprisoned during WW II, who took part in the "Journey of Reconciliation in the 1940s to try to integrate intrracial bus travel and who served time on a chain gang for that action).</span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></div><div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal">On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 8:47 PM, Ali Mallah <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:alimallah@hotmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:alimallah@hotmail.com">alimallah@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></div><div><div id="yiv6386106401m_8900838453580924875m_-7969887091518057906m_-8581316257826522691m_7431231908738854207divtagdefaultwrapper"><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;color:black;">The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was</span></b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;color:black;"><br><br></span><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;color:black;">By Gabriel Rockhill </span></b><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">December 13, 2017 "<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="color:black;">Information Clearing House</span></a>" -One of the most steadfast beliefs regarding the United States is that it is a democracy. Whenever this conviction waivers slightly, it is almost always to point out detrimental exceptions to core American values or foundational principles. For instance, aspiring critics frequently bemoan a “loss of democracy” due to the election of clownish autocrats, draconian measures on the part of the state, the revelation of extraordinary malfeasance or corruption, deadly foreign interventions, or other such activities that are considered <i>undemocratic exceptions</i>. The same is true for those whose critical framework consists in always juxtaposing the actions of the U.S. government to its founding principles, highlighting the contradiction between the two and clearly placing hope in its potential resolution.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The problem, however, is that there is no contradiction or supposed loss of democracy because the United States simply never was one. This is a difficult reality for many people to confront, and they are likely more inclined to immediately dismiss such a claim as preposterous rather than take the time to scrutinize the material historical record in order to see for themselves. Such a dismissive reaction is due in large part to what is perhaps the most successful public relations campaign in modern history. What will be seen, however, if this record is soberly and methodically inspected, is that a country founded on elite, colonial rule based on the power of wealth—a plutocratic colonial oligarchy, in short—has succeeded not only in buying the label of “democracy” to market itself to the masses, but in having its citizenry, and many others, so socially and psychologically invested in its nationalist origin myth that they refuse to hear lucid and well-documented arguments to the contrary.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">To begin to peel the scales from our eyes, let us outline in the restricted space of this article, five patent reasons why the United States has never been a democracy (a more sustained and developed argument is available in my book, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/counter-history-of-the-present"><i><span style="color:#333333;">Counter-History of the Present</span></i></a>). To begin with, British colonial expansion into the Americas did not occur in the name of the freedom and equality of the general population, or the conferral of power to the people. Those who settled on the shores of the “new world,” with few exceptions, did not respect the fact that it was a very old world indeed, and that a vast indigenous population had been living there for centuries. As soon as Columbus set foot, Europeans began robbing, enslaving and killing the native inhabitants. The trans-Atlantic slave trade commenced almost immediately thereafter, adding a countless number of Africans to the ongoing genocidal assault against the indigenous population. Moreover, it is estimated that over half of the colonists who came to North America from Europe during the colonial period were poor indentured servants, and women were generally trapped in roles of domestic servitude. Rather than the land of the free and equal, then, European colonial expansion to the Americas imposed a land of the colonizer and the colonized, the master and the slave, the rich and the poor, the free and the un-free. The former constituted, moreover, an infinitesimally small minority of the population, whereas the overwhelming majority, meaning “the people,” was subjected to death, slavery, servitude, and unremitting socio-economic oppression.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Second, when the elite colonial ruling class decided to sever ties from their homeland and establish an independent state for themselves, they did not found it as a democracy. On the contrary, they were fervently and explicitly opposed to democracy, like the vast majority of European Enlightenment thinkers. They understood it to be a dangerous and chaotic form of uneducated mob rule. For the so-called “founding fathers,” the masses were not only incapable of ruling, but they were considered a threat to the hierarchical social structures purportedly necessary for good governance. In the words of John Adams, to take but one telling example, if the majority were given real power, they would redistribute wealth and dissolve the “subordination” so necessary for politics. When the eminent members of the landowning class met in 1787 to draw up a constitution, they regularly insisted in their debates on the need to establish a republic that kept at bay vile democracy, which was judged worse than “the filth of the common sewers” by the pro-Federalist editor William Cobbett. The new constitution provided for popular elections only in the House of Representatives, but in most states the right to vote was based on being a property owner, and women, the indigenous and slaves—meaning the overwhelming majority of the population—were simply excluded from the franchise. Senators were elected by state legislators, the President by electors chosen by the state legislators, and the Supreme Court was appointed by the President. It is in this context that Patrick Henry flatly proclaimed the most lucid of judgments: “it is not a democracy.” George Mason further clarified the situation by describing the newly independent country as “a despotic aristocracy.”</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">When the American republic slowly came to be relabeled as a “democracy,” there were no significant institutional modifications to justify the change in name. In other words, and this is the third point, the use of the term “democracy” to refer to an oligarchic republic simply meant that a different word was being used to describe the same basic phenomenon. This began around the time of “Indian killer” Andrew Jackson’s presidential campaign in the 1830s. Presenting himself as a ‘democrat,’ he put forth an image of himself as an average man of the people who was going to put a halt to the long reign of patricians from Virginia and Massachusetts. Slowly but surely, the term “democracy” came to be used as a public relations term to re-brand a plutocratic oligarchy as an electoral regime that serves the interest of the people or <i>demos</i>. Meanwhile, the American holocaust continued unabated, along with chattel slavery, colonial expansion and top-down class warfare.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">In spite of certain minor changes over time, the U.S. republic has doggedly preserved its oligarchic structure, and this is readily apparent in the two major selling points of its contemporary “democratic” publicity campaign. The Establishment and its propagandists regularly insist that a structural aristocracy is a “democracy” because the latter is defined by the guarantee of certain fundamental rights (legal definition) and the holding of regular elections (procedural definition). This is, of course, a purely formal, abstract and largely negative understanding of democracy, which says nothing whatsoever about people having real, sustained power over the governing of their lives. However, even this hollow definition dissimulates the extent to which, to begin with, the supposed <i>equality before the law</i> in the United States presupposes an <i>inequality before the law</i> by excluding major sectors of the population: those judged not to have the right to rights, and those considered to have lost their right to rights (Native Americans, African-Americans and women for most of the country’s history, and still today in certain aspects, as well as immigrants, “criminals,” minors, the “clinically insane,” political dissidents, and so forth). Regarding elections, they are run in the United States as long, multi-million dollar advertising campaigns in which the candidates and issues are pre-selected by the corporate and party elite. The general population, the majority of whom do not have the right to vote or decide not to exercise it, are given the “choice”—overseen by an undemocratic electoral college and embedded in a non-proportional representation scheme—regarding which member of the aristocratic elite they would like to have rule over and oppress them for the next four years. “Multivariate analysis indicates,” according to <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B"><span style="color:#333333;">an important recent study</span></a> by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, “that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination […], but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy.”</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">To take but a final example of the myriad ways in which the U.S. is not, and has never been, a democracy, it is worth highlighting its consistent assault on movements of people power. Since WWII, it has endeavored to overthrow some 50 foreign governments, most of which were democratically elected. It has also, according the meticulous calculations by William Blum in <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://williamblum.org/books/americas-deadliest-export"><i><span style="color:#333333;">America’s Deadliest Export: Democracy</span></i></a>, grossly interfered in the elections of at least 30 countries, attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders, dropped bombs on more than 30 countries, and attempted to suppress populist movements in 20 countries. The record on the home front is just as brutal. To take but one significant parallel example, there is ample evidence that the FBI has been invested in a covert war against democracy. Beginning at least in the 1960s, and likely continuing up to the present, the Bureau “extended its earlier clandestine operations against the Communist party, committing its resources to undermining the Puerto Rico independence movement, the Socialist Workers party, the civil rights movement, Black nationalist movements, the Ku Klux Klan, segments of the peace movement, the student movement, and the ‘New Left’ in general” (<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.pathfinderpress.com/s.nl/it.A/id.701/.f"><i><span style="color:#333333;">Cointelpro: The FBI’s Secret War on Political Freedom</span></i></a>, p. 22-23). Consider, for instance, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.judibari.org/America's_Secret_Police.html"><span style="color:#333333;">Judi Bari’s summary</span></a> of its assault on the Socialist Workers Party: “From 1943-63, the federal civil rights case <i>Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General</i> documents decades of illegal FBI break-ins and 10 million pages of surveillance records. The FBI paid an estimated 1,600 informants $1,680,592 and used 20,000 days of wiretaps to undermine legitimate political organizing.” In the case of the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (AIM)—which were both important attempts to mobilize people power to dismantle the structural oppression of white supremacy and top-down class warfare—the FBI not only infiltrated them and launched hideous smear and destabilization campaigns against them, but they assassinated 27 Black Panthers and 69 members of AIM (and subjected countless others to the slow death of incarceration). If it be abroad or on the home front, the American secret police has been extremely proactive in beating down the movements of people rising up, thereby protecting and preserving the main pillars of white supremacist, capitalist aristocracy.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Rather than blindly believing in a golden age of democracy in order to remain at all costs within the gilded cage of an ideology produced specifically for us by the well-paid spin-doctors of a plutocratic oligarchy, we should unlock the gates of history and meticulously scrutinize the founding and evolution of the American imperial republic. This will not only allow us to take leave of its jingoist and self-congratulatory origin myths, but it will also provide us with the opportunity to resuscitate and reactivate so much of what they have sought to obliterate. In particular, there is a radical America just below the surface of these nationalist narratives, an America in which the population autonomously organizes itself in indigenous and ecological activism, black radical resistance, anti-capitalist mobilization, anti-patriarchal struggles, and so forth. It is this America that the corporate republic has sought to eradicate, while simultaneously investing in an expansive public relations campaign to cover over its crimes with the fig leaf of “democracy” (which has sometimes required integrating a few token individuals, who appear to be from below, into the elite ruling class in order to perpetuate the all-powerful myth of meritocracy). If we are astute and perspicacious enough to recognize that the U.S. is undemocratic today, let us not be so indolent or ill-informed that we let ourselves be lulled to sleep by lullabies praising its halcyon past. Indeed, if the United States is not a democracy today, it is in large part due to the fact that it never was one. Far from being a pessimistic conclusion, however, it is precisely by cracking open the hard shell of ideological encasement that we can tap into the radical forces that have been suppressed by it. These forces—not those that have been deployed to destroy them—should be the ultimate source of our pride in the power of the people.</span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://gabrielrockhill.com/"><span style="color:#333333;">Gabriel Rockhill</span></a> is a Franco-American philosopher and cultural critic. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and founding Director of the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://criticaltheoryworkshop.com/"><span style="color:#333333;">Atelier de Théorie Critique</span></a> at the Sorbonne. His books include <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/counter-history-of-the-present"><span style="color:#333333;">Counter-History of the Present: Untimely Interrogations into Globalization, Technology, Democracy</span></a> (2017), <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/interventions-in-contemporary-thought-9781474425858?q=gabriel%20rockhill&lang=en&cc=us"><span style="color:#333333;">Intervention s in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics</span></a> (2016), <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/radical-history-and-the-politics-of-art/9780231152006"><span style="color:#333333;">Radical History & the Politics of Art</span></a> (2014) and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.editions-hermann.fr/4181-logique-de-l-histoire.html"><span style="color:#333333;">Logique de l’histoire</span></a> (2010). In addition to his scholarly work, he has been actively engaged in extra-academic activities in the art and activist worlds, as well as a regular contributor to public intellectual debate. Follow on twitter: @GabrielRockhill</span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;"><b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">This article was originally published by </span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/"><i><span style="color:#333333;">Counterpunch</span></i></a><i> </i> <i> </i></span></b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">-</span></i><u></u><u></u></div><div><span style="color:black;"> </span><u></u><u></u></div><div style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;"><b><span style="color:#003366;"><br> </span></b><u></u><u></u></div></div></div><div class="yiv6386106401MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;"><br>______________________________ _________________<br>ufpj-activist mailing list<br><br>Guidelines: %(<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.unitedforpeace.org/listserv-community-guidelines">http://www.unitedforpeace. org/listserv-community- 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