It seems like every time elections roll around, the very fate of our democracy lies within our hands. If we don’t act, we might lose it.
But what happens, when our democracy is acting exactly how it’s designed to? How it is intended to be?
Republicans and Democrats are using the loopholes and disadvantages of the U.S. government to both of their advantages.
Democrats are begging voters to cast their ballots in support for their party or else we will continue our descent into fascism.
Republicans are using their power very easily to cling onto said-descent into fascism.
Republicans and Democrats need each other, to keep the income and power they both desire and crave.
Democrats will assure you they care and pin a pride button on your forehead before pushing you off a cliff.
Republicans aren’t any better because they will simply push you off the cliff.
Many people will tell you our problems started when former President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, but that is just an indictment of the larger problem this country faces.
Endorsements and voting are not enough, to place the onus of the system upon voters who don’t truly have a voice.
Thinking back to the last two years, especially after the coronavirus pandemic and the time we were all in shelter-in-place mandates, the cracks in our system started to surface and people began to realize that we are being crushed under the weight of the debris.
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation, besides South Africa, that does not have universal healthcare, according to the National Library of Medicine.
More than one million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in 2020, according to an Oct. 25 NBC News article.
In August, as many as 3.8 million people were likely to be evicted within the next two months according to an August U.S. Census Bureau report.
The same report said a total of 8.5 million people were behind on their rents in August.
For the first time, the median rent in the U.S. topped $2,000 a month in June and it’s unlikely to stop there, according to the same report.
Meanwhile, $54 billion has been given in aid to Ukraine, in addition to the $400 million added on Friday, according to the U.S. Department of defense webpage.
This also includes the U.S. having the largest defense budget in the world, with 10% of all federal spending going toward defense, according to the Peter G. Peterson foundation, a nonprofit fiscal research group.
Nearly one-in-three Americans experienced a weather disaster in 2021, according to a Sept. 4, 2021 article by The Washington Post.
Joe Biden is America’s oldest president, having been elected at 78 years old, according to a March 5, 2020 article by The Atlantic.
U.S. police have killed 970 people in 2022, according to a database by Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit research group.
Even after the Summer 2020 protests, sparked by George Floyd’s murder, many politicians in the U.S. pushed for more policing and higher budgets for local law enforcement with few reforms implemented across the nation.
The problems the U.S. faces as a nation are reflections of what California has to face in the future.
The Bay Area is one of the most expensive areas to live in the nation, with the problem showing no signs of stopping.
While we watch mayoral candidates battle it out and attack each other on who spends the most money and who doesn’t do what, people are still struggling to live in several cities including San Jose.
The issues we face here will continue so long as we continue to have the government we do.
It is high time for change and it will not just take a midterm election cycle for change to begin.
It is very obvious where the government’s interests lie and it’s not with the people they are meant to serve.
The system is supposed to work for us, not against us.
Voting is an integral part of society, but what happens when voting doesn’t work and doesn’t change?
Younger voters have been disillusioned with our institutions for so long and it is not their fault for not wanting to participate in a system that does not reflect their needs or desires.
The system is not only designed to disillusion, but it has been redesigned multiple times to keep disadvantaged voters out from their rights to choose.
So long as we cling to a 235-year-old piece of paper that has not been amended since 1992, the question begs, “What are we waiting for?”
When politicians find scapegoats to blame the country’s problems on, the problems continue. People find themselves caught in the web of complexities that the government weaves as we continue to regress further away from progress.
The role of a newspaper is to inform and stay critical of our institutions when necessary and that includes when it comes to issues that affect writers and editors.
We think that means moving beyond the endorsements of politicians and staying critical of the institutions that deserve far more criticism than they receive.
It is time we look beyond the Democrats dangling fascism over our heads begging for our votes while they allow Republicans to do as they please.
They work hand-in-hand to keep the cycle of power focused on making sure they have their seats and income undisturbed.
The more newspapers objectively take a look at the problem as a whole, instead of endorsing the politicians that will continue the cycle to turn, the better.
