Democracy?

       Democracy.  It's a word we hear all the time.  Translated straight from Latin, it means "government by the people".

Monarch

      Ok, but what exactly does that mean?  There is no real consensus here.  At one extreme, there is the narrow, strict definition of the term, which is that ALL government policy is decided directly by majority rule.  At the other extreme, you have a more broad, generic definition, meaning that the people have at least SOME input into governmental policy decisions.  (The polar opposite would be like a monarchy where political power is inherited via family succession.)  Anyway, between those two extreme definitions, you have an infinite number of grey shades.

      Is the United States a Democracy?  

      It's interesting to note that, in fact, the word "democracy" appears nowhere in either of our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  But clearly, the narrow, strict definition of the term does not apply.  If anything, we are a Representative Republic, meaning that we elect politicians, who in turn actually make all the day-to-day policy decisions (occasional ballot initiatives notwithstanding).

      So that leaves the broader, more generic definition of the term.   One could argue that that certainly beats an authoritarian dictatorship.  And obviously, attempting to have a public vote on every single governmental policy decision, even the minute, mundane issues, is not practical.

      So is a representative-republic type of democracy a good thing?  The biggest problem is that it assumes that the average man-on-the-street voter will make a wise decision.  But as I pointed out in my article "Needed: Voter literacy test", that is not always the case.  Many voters tend to vote based on feelings and emotions, rather than on deep-thinking contemplation about what government should do and be.  Too many are bamboozled by style, personality, and glitzy market saturation.  They think of politicians more as celebrities than as true statesmen and treat elections like popularity contests.  (I used to think that the "celebrity" thing would at least encourage voters to pick candidates worthy of being good role models, but Donald Trump's election blew that theory away.)

Michael Bloomberg

      Meanwhile, politicians don't help matters one bit with a "win-at-all-costs" mentality, where they will do or say anything to schmooze voters.  This is not at all surprising, considering all the power, glory, and prestige associated with political office.  And then there's all the money poured into campaigns.  Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has pledged to spend a $BILLION of his own money on his campaign.  Yes, you read that correctly:  $Billion with a "B".  This means that candidates who are otherwise intelligent, honest, and worthy but are NOT millionaires or billionaires don't have a fighting chance. 

       So the whole discussion over whether or not the USA is a democracy, and whether democracy, (HOWERVER you define it) is a good thing, really misses the point.  Regarding government, the single most important goal should be to REDUCE its size, cost, and power.  If some other form of government, such an inherited monarchy, could accomplish that goal, then we citizens should embrace it.  Clearly, our currently existing system fails miserably.