What happened to our Democracy?

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” (Proverbs 29:2)

The United States is not a democracy. It is a form of corporate totalitarianism. Political theorist Sheldon Wolin explained that our democracy was poisoned by a unique fusion of economic and political power that he called “Inverted Totalitarianism.”

In a totalitarianism such as Nazi Fascism or Soviet Communism, economics is subordinate to politics. In the United States that is inverted. Our politics has become subordinate to economics. In other words, our government policies are dictated, not by voters, but by Big Money and Big Corporations.

For decades, Wolin argued, the United States has been a “managed democracy,” wherein the government is legitimized by “free elections” that never significantly change public policy. The public has been kept under control through the use of propaganda. The corporate state tries to stay under the radar, to wield its political influence anonymously and in secret. Much of what they do is done through back room deals and dark money.

And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things. (2 Nephi 26:22).

With the advent of “Fox News” in 1996, in addition to the more subtle forms of propaganda, those who were more vulnerable were treated to a more overt form of thought control. Fox created “celebrities” who became famous (and rich) by twisting the truth and “spinning” every story through posturing, fake outrage, innuendo, distortion, and outright lying.

But behold, it is to get gain, to be praised of men, yea, and that ye might get gold and silver. And ye have set your hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this world, for the which ye do murder, and plunder, and steal, and bear false witness against your neighbor, and do all manner of iniquity. (Helaman 7:21).

The inevitable result, of course, was to create an angry, fearful, and uninformed electorate that, in turn, gave us a demagogue in the form of Donald Trump. He, quite literally, gets his policy ideas from television and enacts them through Twitter. His antics serve the useful purpose of keeping the media, and us, distracted while the tentacles of big corporate money dig ever deeper into our (formerly) democratic institutions.

And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land. (Mosiah 29: 27)

Sources: “Sheldon Wolin and Inverted Totalitarianism,” Chris Hedges, TruthDig, November 2, 2015.
“Lifting the Veil of Mirage Democracy in the United States,” Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Truthout, February 13, 2013.
“Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism,” Sheldon S. Wolin, Princeton University Press, 2008, 2017.
“It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing To America,” David Cay Johnston, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2018.