Our flawed model of the Republic

The Three rings of government​

We learned about our federal government and its three branches using a diagram similar to this one. It describes the interaction of checks and balances between the individual branches. Education tended to focus on the branch powers rather than their role in serving The People. It's good to know how the sausage is made as a student, but adults need to look at it from a different perspective. Adults care less about the process and more about the Republic's productive output.

We can talk about how government serves the people by adding We The People to the diagram below:

Service to The People​

flowchart BT
  subgraph branches
  direction LR
  J(Judiciary)-->L
  J-->E
  L(Legislature)-->J
  L-->E
  E-->L
  E(Executive)-->J
  end
  branches ==>|serve| P[We The People]
  P ==> |elect|branches

Some important notes on The Constitution:

• It is the symbolic representation of We The People in federal government, just like in the Preamble.
• It represents ALL of the people, not specific individuals. We evaluate quality by how well the country as a whole is served.
• The Constitution represents The People and only us. Non-citizen legal entities like companies are not represented, but people working for them are.
• This is best represented as We The People on our diagram. The Constitution is a symbolic reference to the people, but as a symbol it lacks human agency as as such inadequately represents our position as We The People.

All elected and appointed members of the three branches swear an oath to serve The Constitution. The branches are subordinate to The People, never the other way around and never to private companies. You as an individual are subject to the laws of government. Government itself is subject to We The People as a whole.

Services that branches provide for us

• The Legislature produces laws for The People.
• The Executive executes actions for The People.
• The Judiciary resolves disputes of law for The People.

With all of this nonsense out of the way, we can properly see where problems begin.

Elections as taught by our education system​

Elections should be a straightforward process in theory. Voters get their news from a variety of news sources. They learn how to select reliable sources and avoid the junk. They keep up to date and select the best qualified candidate that aligns with their goals. The elected official then enacts the changes they want to see.

The main flaw here is that our "News and Information" is mostly propaganda, if it is reported at all. The reality of our news sources is more similar to this graph:

NOTE: This graph is meant to illustrate the media source problem. The numbers are not real-world data, but would normally represent newsworthy information items to a voter.

---
title: News and Information
config:
  sankey:
    showValues: false
---
sankey
News,Corporate,1200
News,Independent,600
Propaganda,Corporate,4000
Propaganda,Independent,2500
Unreported,Self-Interest,2000
Unreported,Professional Journalists,2000
Unreported,Corporate,1600
Corporate, Paid mouthpiece, 100
Corporate, Advertising, 3000
Corporate, Dark Money 501c, 2000
Corporate, Self-Interest, 1000
Corporate, Misinformation, 200
Corporate, Legitimate, 400
Independent, Paid mouthpiece, 1000
Independent, Dark Money 501c, 1000
Independent, Self-Interest, 300
Independent, Misinformation, 700
Independent, Legitimate, 200
Paid mouthpiece,Corporations,100
Paid mouthpiece,Rich sociopaths,1000
Advertising,Corporations,1400
Advertising,Rich sociopaths,1200
Advertising,Party stooges,400
Dark Money 501c,Rich sociopaths,2300
Dark Money 501c,Corporations,400
Dark Money 501c,Party stooges,300
Legitimate,Professional Journalists,400
Legitimate,Independent Creators,200
Misinformation,Independent Creators,700
Misinformation,Professional Journalists,200
Self-Interest,Corporations,2800
Self-Interest,Independent Creators,500

Entities controlling the media we see push their own agendas to distort and suppress the truth, and it has a devastating effect on our representation in The Republic.

US Elections in the real world​

Corruption quickly ramps up when media distortions are accounted for. An ecosystem with very little actual news produces poor quality results:

• It keeps the American public ignorant of current events.
• Elected officials do not represent their electorate.
• Uneducated and incompetent representatives.
• A cult of personality instead of skilled administrators.
• Elected officials that care about serving those who bribe them instead of their electorate.
  • NOTE to representatives: There is a legal definition for bribe. I don't care. In the Court of Public Opinion if your decisions are influenced by things of value that you directly or indirectly receive, it is a fucking bribe. You just have to look in the mirror to know it's true. Think about that next time you stab us in the back.

This is a scary problem. It appears to be insurmountable. Fear not: We can attack the underlying problems now that it and the root causes of it are known. I will add it to the main section but for now, we need to look at the service part of our original diagram.

What our election system produces for The People​

They say the proof is in the pudding, and we need look no further than A Declaration of War to see several of them. I can keep going:

• A complete lack of accountability for elected officials.
• Energy policy that reversed decades of energy production improvements to serve a handful of turd burglars with a lot of money.
• The wealthiest Americans pay the fewest taxes. Those who just raised a finger in protest prove my point about propaganda.
• The Public elected several individuals to Congress who couldn't count their balls and get the same answer twice in a row.
• A corrupt Judiciary, including The Supreme Court.
• A corrupt Executive who LITERALLY IS A CROOK AND A FELON with his incompetent cabinet of sycophants that know more of Botox than governance.
• A corrupt Congress held hostage by one party.
• Yet another war we didn't want.
• [...]

These are the kinds of things that The People must measure. We took the media at their word that they would be good stewards of information, but they were found wanting. Mainstream Media has never been trustworthy. You can look back at the history of the United Fruit Company and see the same parallels today. The main difference today is that it is an attack on our own country instead of a banana republic. Never heard of the United Fruit Company? That's because Mainstream Media suppressed information about it just as they are doing today.

We need to make mainstream media irrelevant, and I think there is a way out of this mess.