Chris Jepson: On purchasing America

Democracy has a number of definitions. Here is one: “[The] control of an organization or group by the majority of its members.” This is a description we all want to believe is applicable to the United States. Yet, is America a “true” democracy today? Is America’s idea of democracy subject to redefinition?

When the American Constitution was ratified in 1789, only white, land-owning males could vote in most states. Consider that for a moment. In the first election of America’s new Congress, only 3 percent of the population of New York cast ballots. In Georgia it was approximately 5 percent and in Rhode Island 0.7 percent of the state population voted.

Such low percentages reflected the sentiments and values of our Founding Fathers, that only those with “a horse in the race” could vote. The “horse” in this instance was one’s sex, skin color and whether you owned property (wealth). The implication being that such “qualifications” were requisites of a just democracy.

Earlier I asked, “Is America’s idea of democracy subject to redefinition?” Of course it is. Obviously. By the 1820s, most states had embraced voting eligibility for all white of-age males, whether or not they owned property. In theory black males achieved voting rights in 1868 (but we all know that really wasn’t true).

I get the biggest kick out of the fact that America (our male ancestors) “awarded” the right to vote to emancipated male slaves 50 years before such rights were achieved by America’s “free” mothers, daughters and wives. Men of that era thought so little of women—their capabilities—that females did not “win” the right to vote until 1920. There was a time in my grandmother’s life when she could not vote. That is a mere “chip shot” ago, historically speaking.

Ever since the election of President George W. Bush in 2000, I’ve more seriously questioned whether or not America is a democracy in name only. In that contest, Al Gore received 547,398 more votes than did George Bush, yet Bush took office. You can argue why that occurred (constitutionally speaking), but the net result is a vote for George Bush ultimately counted for more than a vote for Al Gore. Please, now recall the definition of democracy, “[The] control of an organization or group by the majority of its members.” That clearly and undeniably did not occur in 2000.

That America’s black community was “Jim Crowed” out of voting for over 100 years and that, today, impediments to minority voting continue to be a Republican “strategy” cannot be denied. Such GOP efforts are so antithetical to our democracy as to be viscerally and intellectually repugnant.

In last Sunday’s New York Times, Oct. 11, the page one headline read, “From Only 158 Families, Half the Cash for ’16 Race.” The secondary header went, “Clusters of Wealth Contribute $176 Million, Mostly to Republican Candidates.” The article was about the incredible sums of money funding Republican presidential candidates.

Here’s what sticks out in my mind, 158 families — $176 million. The article starts with, “They [the donors] are overwhelming white, wealthy, older and male.”

One might legitimately ask just how far has America progressed since 1789 when voting was essentially for the “white, wealthy, older and male?”

If America is to be sold to the richest white male bidders, let’s rephrase H.L. Mencken’s classic observation to, “Democracy is the theory that the wealthy white know what they want, and will purchase it as they can.” Indeed.