Flawed And Downgraded.

       In 1958, 73% of Americans said they "trusted government to do the right thing always or most of the time." In 2015, when the same question was asked, 19% agreed with that statement. According to an article in the BBC this morning America has slipped from a "Full Democracy" to a "Flawed Democracy." The Economist Intelligence Unit which follows 167 governments in the world now lists over 49% of the world's people live in a Flawed Democracy and only 4.5% in a Full Democracy.
       So America offers less democracy and freedom today than it did half a century ago. Andrew Reynolds, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina states that North Carolina should no longer be considered a democracy at all. Freedoms have begun to slip from our grasp and we don't know why.
       So what's causing this loss of democracy? A major cause is the fear of loss of control. Whites have been in the driver's seat since our country's inception but now minorities are beginning to challenge that leadership role. In just a few years its believed that whites will be a minority. At that point they won't be able to control the process. For some, the only answer is to change the rules, the laws, so that many citizens won't be allowed to vote.
       When a country bars some citizens from voting, that country begins to lose its full Democracy status. When rights of any citizens continue to be curtailed, that country falls into a flawed state status. Between our downgraded financial rating and now this downgrade as a democracy, we need to begin to get our act together to get Congress to understand that each member owes a debt to all the citizens of America and has no right to owe that debt to any political party.
       The main reason for our lack of trust in Congress is political partisanship. The parties control government and act in their best interests, not our citizens. And we need to eliminate gerrymandering of congressional seats which confuses the rights of all citizens from being properly and fairly represented and insures the status quo for the parties. To do this, political parties need to be eliminated.