Are we living in a democracy?

It sure looks like a democracy, with elections and everything.

Only we don't get what we want. Not just a Democrat-Republican thing. We don't get what vast majorities want, according to reputable polls.

It is a constitutional democracy, of course. So we can't vote to require all blue-eyed people to wear tutus and always face south. But forget stuff like that. We can't even get constitutional laws passed that most people want.

Now leaders aren't supposed to just wet a finger and see where the wind's blowing. I get that. But we the people--liberal and conservative alike--just don't have a very good success rate with "our" legislators. And what we do get seems to align closely....really, really, closely...with the interests of a small number of people with very specific financial interests. And in other cases it's obvious that public opinion has been manipulated by the adroit application of lots of money and the suppression of opposing views.

For example, most Americans are dead set against ObamaCare--except for what's in it, most of which they want if you ask them about it piece by piece and don't call it ObamaCare. Because the propaganda campaign never talked about what's in it--at least not what's actually in it. And that shows you (or should show you) that the massive opposition to ObamaCare comes from the American public having been propagandized up the wazoo about this, day after day for years now.

Apart from what the public wants that it doesn't get, there are things I want that the vast majority of Americans don't want, even without being propagandized. Like a universal biometric ID database. Like free abortion on demand for anyone, no questions asked. Like a one child policy, strictly enforced. Like immigration limited to people America actually needs plus dependents those people can support without public assistance.

But I'm not talking about those things here. Just the things most Americans do want and won't get because individuals with lots of money control government--Democrat, Republican alike--when it comes to the things they care about. Like not criminally prosecuting the financiers and bankers whose fraudulent activities--including calling high risk mortgages low risk mortgages, to name the easiest to identify as fraud pure and simple--were 90% of the cause of the 2008 depression. Most Americans want that. But we can't vote for anyone in either party who will do that, because what the criminals want trumps what we want and will continue to do so as long as anyone can spend anything on any election, except for trade unions. CEOs don't have to clear political expenditures with stockholders, but unions have to clear political expenditures with union members.

And the Republican majority of the Supreme Court just doubled down on that today. We now live in Potterville. And this is one dream we won't wake from. (Potterville is the dystopian alternative reality Jimmy Stewart visited when he wished he'd never been born in "It's a wonderful life.")