Polyarchy – a system in which power resides in the hands of the wealth of the nation, the rest of the population is fragmented and distracted, but allowed to participate in the selection of their elected representatives.

Who do we get to choose from? We have our choice of two Business Party candidates. That is not to say that there is no difference among Democrats and Republicans – it is just to say that they are factions within the same party. They do have differences, they have different views on how to keep the Business Party in power. Some want to do it through government handout programs, some want to do it through tax cuts… the bottom line is that they both intend to keep big business in control.

So is this a great conspiracy? Not at all – it is the way the system was set up originally. The United States was never set up as a Democracy. Scholars will be quick to say we are designed to be a ‘representative republic,” but polyarchy comes closer in definition. James Madison in the Constitutional Convention made it clear that “the primary goal of government is to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.”

So what do you do? Well, short of getting yourself into the opulent minority… I guess you decide which faction of the Business Party aligns mostly with your beliefs, vote for a third party, or don’t vote. What you do NOT do however, is to pretend we are in a free democratic society.

I will be voting independent – not because I think Ralph Nader’s platform is more closely aligned with my beliefs, but because I know that the ONLY thing that moves the Business Party toward my beliefs is public opinion. It is public opinion that gives them their reins and lets them know how far they can go in feeding off the fruits of our labor. Every vote for an independant candidate is a percentage point of public opinion telling the Business Party to rape us, our environment, our resources, our country and our future a little bit less. At the end of the day it is the ONLY thing that affects their decisions. (And while they aren’t looking, I will be sneaking into the opulent class.)