OUR IMPERFECT DEMOCRACY 08/15/2022

The iron triangle in the United States is the heart of the administration of the country. In principle, it
describes the policy making process for domestic and international relations. The Public elect political
candidates with the one man one vote principle. Our Democratic process works well, but, only when
there is no polarization or cleavages in the society. Communication technology has made necessary to
decentralize power from the Federal government to the States in many spheres of society control that
only the Federal government had until recently. The outcome of this decision is that depending on what
political party is in control in the States, we have either a more authoritarian governance if it is a
Republican controlled State because of their position on voting rights, women’s rights and bias
representation towards the merchant class. If the State is in the majority control of the Democratic
Party, there is a tendency for better environmental programs, support for the discarded by the Capitalist
System and more inclusive representation for people of color.

What unravels the system is corruption and greed coming from Interest groups, our politicians and
members of the bureaucracy that makes our government policy making process work for us
domestically and for foreign policies. The Quincy Institute published a story recently describing the large
sums of money that Ukraine invested in lobbying members of Congress to persuade Germany to stop
the flow of Russia’s gas and oil through their new pipelines into the West in Europe prior to the
declaration of War with Ukraine by Russia. It is easy to see today looking back to the beginning of the
Russia-Ukraine conflict that Ukraine’s decision to invest money lobbying the United States government
against Russia’s interest may have taken place under the direction of our State Department. Our
government wanted the American People to think that the reason we decided to support Ukraine in the
conflict with Russia was because Ukraine’s westernists faction had requested it without prior collusion
with us. We already had sent Billions in aid to Ukraine after the coup d’tat in Ukraine by Westernists.
We had advisers training the Ukranian armed forces, provided loans directly from us, the IMF, other

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Western European banks and allies prior to the start of hostilities. Blue Ribbon Committees that advise
Congress have notoriously done so in a bias matter. Usually favoring wealthy corporations and rich
individuals. Not all of them American citizens. Number of well known incidents have involved Rich
foreigners from places like the Middle East. Qatar for example.

Political equality is one of the basic tenants of democracy. However, although it may never be possible
to achieve complete political equality, rising economic inequality in the U.S. threatens to create a
political system in which the voices of the wealthy drown out those of the poor and middle class. Martin
Gilens explored this phenomenon in his 2012 RSF/Princeton book Affluence and Influence: Economic
Inequality and Political Power in America. Gilens found that policy outcomes are more strongly related
to the preferences of the wealthy than the poor or middle class. In fact, this relationship is so strong that
when the preferences of the middle and lower classes diverge from those of the wealthy, there is almost
no correlation between policy outcomes and the desires of these less advantaged groups. While higher
income Americans are more likely to vote, participate in political organizations, and contact their
representatives, the only political action that strongly differentiates them from both the poor and
middle class is political donations.

We are a nation of hypocrisy and contradiction. Our Democracy today is under social pressures that
threatens the glue of our society that binds us as a People. The Environment, organizations in the many
layers of influence in our society oppresses the citizen and create inequalities that lead to violence. We
have a fertile ground in the country for conflict. Even Civil War is not out of the question. It is on the
table metaphorically speaking. The White Supremacist movement that started in a small town with
white protesters and progressive Americans counterprotesting has gain traction and has followers in the
main stream of the American Public. A few political posts have been won by members in the Republican
Party that are sympathetic to the demands of white supremacists. For a Civil War to start, all that need
to happen is for the Republican Party to loose a series of State elections and the Presidency in 2024 for
Whites to feel disenfranchised and threaten. The fear of losing power can ignite acts of violence
because inequalities will be created in the spheres of influence of the society. A cascading effect of
social forces moving in all directions of the society will be the trigger for organized violence.

Racial inequality has been institutionalized in our society since the country developed a Constitution
that guaranteed White Supremacy by creating laws that gave Rights to the invading European Whites to
the Continent to steal land from native Americans and treat them as non-humans like the African
Negroes that were transported by force to America. Even after black slaves were freed, they were not
equal in the eyes of the White population. Whites organized hate groups like the famous Ku Klux Klan.
Blacks lived in fear every day for centuries. Their property has been confiscated, they have been
lynched, beaten, forced to live in segregation and still today they cannot trust 100% the country’s
security forces to defend their rights and economically do not have the equivalent purchasing power of
Whites or political representation in some parts of the country. Also, their voting rights have been
degraded by State policies crafted with the Iron Triangle that is meant to be a solid structure that
protects the Democratic System with representation for all citizens irregardless of religion, race or
national origin. An example of racial inequality today is the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for
the Western District of Tennessee. The complaint alleges that Trustmark National Bank violated the Fair
Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibit financial institutions from
discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin in their mortgage lending services. The
complaint also alleges that Trustmark National Bank violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act,

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which prohibits offering or providing to a consumer any financial product or service not in conformity
with federal consumer financial law.  

Specifically, the complaint alleges that, from 2014 to 2018, Trustmark engaged in unlawful redlining in
Memphis by avoiding predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods because of the race, color, and
national origin of the people living in, or seeking credit for properties in, those neighborhoods. The
complaint also alleges that Trustmark’s branches were concentrated in majority-white neighborhoods,
that the bank’s loan officers did not serve the credit needs of majority-Black and Hispanic
neighborhoods, that Trustmark’s outreach and marketing avoided those neighborhoods, and that
Trustmark’s internal fair-lending policies and procedures were inadequate to ensure that the bank
provided equal access to credit to communities of color. This type of discriminatory complaint has been
litigated in the courts nationally in all sectors of our society. Only the tip of the iceberg of racist
discrimination complaints gets to the Justice Department. The majority of complaints do not get
resolved to make the defendant hold.

We are a violent society. This is a clear indicator that our Iron Triangle is not working to provide justice
and to allow our society to meet the needs of our People. This is an institutional problem and to wrap
our hands around the problem we need to think of an institution as a person. From my perspective I see
the spheres of influence of institutions in our society as layers that apply oppression and in many cases
exploitation of the person. How we control oppression and exploitation is what creates the conditions
for justice. We are not being successful in keeping oppression and exploitation to levels that are in
balance with the needs and expectations of our People. This balance is essential for People to feel they
have a good quality of life. To get to the equilibrium point, our government has to maintain a high level
of transparency so it can create trust in government by the population. Interest groups sources of
funding and reasons and person/s that initiate projects or programs they create have to be transparent
to the Public. There are many theories about how interest groups work and what is the outcome of their
actions. But, the bottom line is that decisions in these organizations are driven by money, ambition and
greed of its members. Not that these drivers are bad, but, the competition between interest groups for
audience and an ear in government drown many others that should also have an equal access to an ear
in government. Self-policing obviously does not work because we have too many complaints and
demands of corruption occurring in these interest groups organizations. We need to better use our
technology for data collection. We need more organizations created to provide transparency of our
interest groups to the Public. Our government has to make sure they listen to all the demands,
opposition and support of every American including Americans that do not participate in interest
groups. Another strategy that can be useful to make sure that interest groups competition does not
drown the voices of the majority of Americans that are not members of interest groups is to use The
Cure Violence Theory of Change model. In other words by the Public creating organization under the
same type of Charter as interest groups to intervene against other interest groups that are corrupted.
We have government watchdogs organizations in abundance, but, not too many that are watchdogs of
interest groups representing the general Public.

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REVISED CURE VIOLENCE THEORY OF CHANGE TO PREVENT BIASED PLURALISM

Interrupt Transmission Government ear meet
with lobbyist, listen and no
action taken. Not enough
data supporting policy
creation. Lobbyist must
reveal key person or
groups or institution
making request.
Transparency to General
Public of meeting
Stop violent events before Government ear discusses
they happen request with leaders of the
House or the Senate and
stop process on policy
creation if it does not
serve the Common Good

Identify and change the Lobby directly to funding Reduce number of violent Corrupted interest groups
thinking of highest source individuals lose government ear.
potential transmitters

Change Community norms No decision made by Create social pressure to Transparency of bad actors
government ear on policy stop violence to the general public
creation until a statistically
significant number of
interest groups, general
public surveys from the
impacted communities by
new policy is heard first.

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The creation of interest groups that function as interrupters of bias outcomes will help create the
equilibrium between Capital and Labor in our society that may not only improve the effectiveness of our
Representative government, but, it will help deal with inequalities that generate social forces which can
translate to violence. A less violent United States means a better quality of life for All.

ENABLERS in the ECOSYSTEMS AND SOCIETAL ENTITIES

Climate United Government Merchants Community Family Person
Nations
Cold or Int’l Law Democracy Products & Police Patriarchal Male
Hot or Services Fire Nurturing Female
authoritarian Schools Single Social
Community parent Anti-social
Centers Wealth Intelligent
Demographics Loving Handicapped
Hospitals Discipline Ambition
Businesses style Health
Religion Race/Mix
Parks
Housing
Scarcity Human Education Employmen
of organic Rights Economy t
resources Charter Social
Political
Water Enforcement Institutional
organization
& culture

Many Americans see the clashes and conflict of interest between Capital and Labor, but, we don’t seem
to be able to do something about it regardless of the many scientists that study and provide us with
tools to solve the problem of too much oppression and exploitation by the organizations and institutions
in our society. This has to change. The Social forces which are the invisible hand enabling our decisions
and activities that we engage in and influence our responses to others are artificial and created by
ourselves. Therefore, we can change them. The procrastination to deal with Climate Change has turned
Capitalism on its head. The traditional clashes between Capital and Labor now has to include more
serious than ever our Natural World. The Iron Triangle and bias democracy is not the way to deal with
the Climate Crisis. It is a Global problem. Our foreign policy of Democratization because in theory,
Democratic governments are less likely to engage in War with each other is not true when the scarcity
issue is magnified by higher temperatures on Earth that threaten all life forms on the planet. We need a
paradigm change in our society that stop the aggression and intervention internationally and find the
equilibrium between the degree and levels of oppression and exploitation of our people and comply
with the social contract for all Americans to have a quality of life for everyone that can be accepted by
all.

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The solution to rising temperatures will required a reduction in the human population on the planet and
conservation. There is no debate here. It is a guarantee that it will work and save the planet for life to
continue. There is no need for Democratic debate to do this. The barrier to get this done are the people
that own Capital dependent on fossil fuels and we know they are the ones driving the policy process in
our Bias Democracy. We need change and fast.