by John Traveler

Created on: August 26, 2009   Last Updated: August 27, 2009

How much government can democracy permit? Well, first of all, democracy doesn't permit anything, it is simply a process, in the U.S. at least, through which government of the people, by the people, and for the people is facilitated. It's our government, we the people hold all the power to make it want ever we want it to be, and we control it by electing representatives that reflect, or at least are suppose to reflect, the common interest of their constituents, and of the country as a whole.

Granted, our representatives over the past thirty years, and in particular the eight year period of the Bush/Cheney administration have in large part disregarded the peoples interest, and instead, catered to special interest of corporations foreign and domestic. Instead of making America a safer, better place with greater opportunities for Americans, special interest lobbyists have been stuffing cash in the pockets of our elected officials and pulling their strings to deregulate just about everything, making sure that no legislation that will cut in on their profitability can get through congress. The more astute question would be, how mush manipulation by special interest can our democratic way of life tolerate, before a tyrannical autocracy gains a foothold and ultimately destroys our democratic way of life.

The problem is not the government but the special interests who are paying big bucks to subvert what the American people want and have voted for. For instance, with respect to the current debate on health insurance, Insurance companies have been spending literally billions of dollars to lobby our elected officials, Democrat and Republican alike, to maintain the status quo. These companies are skimming 40 cents right off the top of every dollar paid for health insurance premiums. Ironically, some of these insurance companies are not even American companies, but instead, foreign corporations cashing in on the goldmine of insurance premiums available only in America. Al Capone ever had a racket as good as health insurance companies do today.

Insurance companies are not in business to insure that the American public gets good affordable health care, they are in business to make a profit and nothing more. They don't care about the 46 million Americans who don't have and can't afford medical insurance, or the millions more who will join their number as they continue to loose their jobs at an average rate of half a million per month in 2009. They have scared the hell out of

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