Bear Kosik

Remaking Democracy in America Bear Kosik

Many Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the political sphere and the state of their country, baffled that Donald Trump was elected and that he continues to voice opinions and ideas that reflect ignoble principles. This book posits that democracy is defined by how well a government operationalizes the will of the people without impinging on any minority. What that will is can be expressed at the ballot box and can result in the people supporting an undemocratic outcome. However, politics in the USA are overshadowed by the Supreme Court's equation of spending money with speech and recognition of corporations possessing the right to exercise the civil liberties previously reserved solely for human citizens. What is missing in American democracy is participation by citizens in the public sphere. If political change leading to greater equality of opportunity is going to occur depends on whether Americans recognize that as a needed, worthy goal and begin to act in ways to see it realized.