01 - The problem

I have a lot of time for the founding fathers of the US constitution.

This is coming from someone on the losing side of the War of Independence (but the winning side of the War of 1812, so that's one-all by my reckoning). I don't claim to be a constitutional scholar or even that they were good people. By today's standards, they were pretty shitty. Racist, misogynist slave owners.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights

Emphasis mine.

That section appears to only apply to men, who are white.

What I think they did right though was - in the context of their time - stand up to tyranny and try to create a better system of government, hopefully one that can stand the test of time. The intricate way they split power then set it to fight itself politically is impressive, especially compared to the mores of the day which were pretty much a test of who has the bigger army.

They felt that political fighting was better than fighting on the field of battle and on that point I applaud them. This was extreme forward-thinking for the time. And actually quite some time after that. As I sit and write this in 2023 there are still some world leaders who subscribe to the 'army size' political theory. Too many in fact.

The institution of democracy has broadly achieved its aims. There has been no war between US states since the civil war, the British civil wars are long in the past and there has been no war between any EU states since the coal and steel union was formed after the second world war. I would even go as far to say that we have not seen any absolute dictatorship in countries mentioned (in the time-frames and political blocs mentioned - Franco died before Spain joined the EU).

Obviously, if I thought that the current system was perfect then I would not need to write this essay at all. I hope to show in the remainder of this chapter how modern democracies are failing large segments of their own citizens, before moving on to how to fix this in the next chapter.

And as I go through this; yes I do know the differences in the types of federalisation (or not) between structures like the US, the EU and Switzerland. I'm going to look at them all as broadly similar, so please don't write in with 'well actshually ...' type letters.

Back when the US constitution was created and the UK was wrestling power from the monarchy and installing it in a parliament mobility was low. People lived and worked within walking distance of everything. A once-a-month trip to the local market town was a big occasion. Even for the ultra-wealthy, the trip between their financial centre in the city and their estate was a big thing only undertaken a couple of times a year. In these circumstances the idea of the nation state made sense - a group of people tied by a common language and a common legal system was the logical way to do things. Even as the US grew and the railroad made mobility on a large scale more possible, people tended to move to a place and stay there.

States then federalise further and this provides economic and social ties across blocs and helps to prevent internal wars. So far, so good. People aren't killing each other any more, but this system still leaves a lot of room for internal harms. Insert the quote here about democracy, the wolves and the lamb.

Sadly, that quote has an edge of truth to it. The pendulum of who is in power at any one time swings backwards and forwards - and I'll leave it to your mind dear reader to fill in which political movements you think are 'forwards' and 'backwards' - but at any one time in most democracies, one side or the other holds power and tries to drag society with it. There are even problems in direct democracies, like that one time that the Swiss were so democratic that their racism started to show a bit.

In the US right now the pendulum has swung to the right and with the current SCOTUS makeup Roe vs. Wade fell. In combination with 'trigger laws' in right-leaning states, this has made the health provision for women extremely perilous in some states in the US. There has also been a relentless grind against trans rights in the US and in the UK.

This is along with dog-whistles from politicians giving the nod to the right which leads to events like shootings at a gay club or people destroying critical infrastructure just to stop a drag performance. We are seeing anti-LGBT+ zones in Poland and since 2008 the UK has waged a war on poor and disabled people that has led to hundreds of thousands of early deaths. The waste of flesh that is Boris Johnson always wanted his legacy to be like that of Churchill. Well, he has his wish, it's just not how he imagined it.

The US now has sanctuary cities again. Again. America - you are persecuting an inoffensive minority so much that you need sanctuary cities. Again. You should be ashamed.

Politics has ceased to be a 'do you prefer ketchup or mayo on your fries' situation and has become deadly for certain sections of the population. This is all the worse because these dangers are being caused not because of any actual harm from the people targeted, but as an ideological desire to grasp and hold power by selling lies to the population. This truly is the 'two wolves' thin end of the wedge of democracy.

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