"information is the currency of democracy" 4/23/2017 0 Comments   DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS IN THE FOOD YOU EAT ??? Ralph Nader made that statement. The question is, "why do 'we the people' have so little information?" We appear to lack even the most basic information about how our system of government works.  For example, people seem to misunderstand what goes on in congress.  It is the congress that writes the laws, levies taxes, borrows money, declares war, regulates commerce and impeaches the president. Virtually nobody knows how their representatives in congress vote on the most important issues.  Why is it difficult for a citizen to figure our how there representatives in congress have voted on the issues over the course of their political careers?   For most representatives in congress, they do not have their voting record on their websites... they do not want those they pretend to represent to know how they have consistently voted against their constituents and in favor of corporations  ​All voting in Congress is a matter of public record. However, not all floor votes are roll call votes. There are voice votes (“aye” or “no”) and standing votes (where the presiding officer counts Members), and these types of votes do not indicate by name how a member voted. Much of the 'work' that takes place in congress is done in committees.  Largely, those committee meetings and the results are not known outside of the congress. Typically, to follow the progress of legislation, one needs a bill or public law number to check the status of legislation.  Many bills are misnamed to deceive the constituency because the representatives in congress are, in truth, representing corporate interests (and their own interests) rather than the interests of the people. Even knowing a number of a bill is of little help when they change the number of the bill as it progresses through the system.  For example, it was H.R.1599 - Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 but previously it was H.R.4432 - Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014. The bill is another example (examples are nearly endless) of politicians voting against truth and transparency, against science, against the more than century-old right of states to legislate on matters relating to food safety and labeling. They voted against the 93 percent of Americans who are in favor of mandatory labeling of GMOs. They voted against the producers of non-GMO foods. They voted against their constituents by passing a bill to support Monsanto and the false labeling of the food we eat. Another example among the many is the cynically misnamed “Retail Investor Protection Act.”  The bill would actually harm investors by undermining the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Labor (DOL) to ensure that financial professionals act in the best interests of their customers when providing investment advice.  Whose best interest should financial professionals be working for??? Ralph Nader is correct, "Information is the currency of democracy."  In the United States of America, where the media promotes the lies and propaganda of the oligarchy, the people have little or no accurate information.  Here, in our country, democracy is flat broke... actually, with the Trump presidency, we can use a word he is familiar with, 'bankrupt', to describe our democracy, and that's the truth !!! An article by Todd Phillips (Founder, LocalElectors.org) in the Huffington Post discusses a big part of our problem... he asks, ​"How Was 91 Percent of Congress Re-Elected Despite a 10 Percent Approval Rating?" ​ Surveys have found that Americans are deeply dissatisfied with Congress. As recently as three months ago, the Gallup organization found that 90 percent of Americans disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 8 percent think Congress is doing a good job. A New York Times/CBS News Poll survey published in February 2010 found that 80 percent of Americans believe members of Congress were more interested in serving special interests than the people they represent. Under these circumstances, you would expect that 90+ percent of the Members of Congress would have lost their jobs in the recent election. But instead, 91 percent of those who ran for re-election won! If ever there was an indication that democracy in American is broken, this is it. As it turns out, Congressional re-election rates this high are quite normal. Only rarely are less than 90 percent of the members of the House of Representatives re-elected. And while the Senate is more competitive, it is rare for less than 80 percent of senators to be re-elected. Senator Tom Coburn described the situation well when he said, “In several election cycles in recent history, more incumbents died in office than lost reelection bids.” Members of Congress enjoy some of the best job security in America — and the least amount of accountability. Consider the following: According to The New American Democracy, “barely a third of the citizenry can recall the name of their [U.S. House of Representatives] representative, and even fewer can remember anything he or she has done for the district. Only about one in ten people can remember how their representative voted on a particular bill.” According to the American Thinker, only 27 percent of citizens can name both of their U.S. senators. Political parties exist only because of the enormous complexity of the government and the vast distance between citizens and the government, which makes it impossible for citizens to understand it to any sufficient level of depth. Parties simplify the political world into red and blue so citizens can feel comfortable with voting choices and participate in elections. Partisanship is therefore merely a symptom of the public’s inability to understand an enormously complex, vastly distant government — voter ignorance. ​ It is important to put this into the proper perspective. Citizens are expected to elect candidates at the national, state, and local level who are running for a wide variety of offices in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Once elected, each office holder will work on a wide variety of issues. In order to make informed voting decisions, voters need to understand the job responsibilities of each of these offices, as well as who the candidates are, what they represent, and what they have done in the past. This is an immense task — an impossible task — particularly for people who have busy lives full of more interesting and pressing things than following politics. the truth is that the media diverts our attention away from important issues and focuses on the trivial... when watching the 'news' notice how much time is directed to which hollywood star lost weight or is dating so and so...