Edward F. Berger has published an excellent post about the hostile takeover of American democracy by a small number of people with a great deal of wealth.

Read it all. He begins:

“A majority of those who hold the power and wealth of our nation run their coercive top-down empires as personal wealth and power generators. They see themselves as decision makers who should shape the world (i.e., similar to the ‘rule of the few’ model used in China). They believe in their system of unquestioned force-based rule. They believe that that the American Constitutional system of governance, law, and elected representatives interferes with their perceived ‘right’ to rule.

“Their use of power and their control of resources, dictate government and economic policies. Their present approach is to take over any government (County, State, and Federal) that has goals other than their own. For example, turn public lands including national parks over to them and let them exploit the resources. Turn the schools over to them and let them limit education and profit from the money taxpayers pay for public education. Privatize every aspect of government, including prisons, for profit. Appoint czars to run cities, schools, and public services. Reject elected officials.

“Representative Democracy is an irritant to this loosely affiliated oligarchy. They do whatever it takes to control those elected and get them to do their bidding. They subvert the Democratic system and stop citizens from organizing, voting, or questioning them. An educated populous must be dumbed-down, and public comprehensive education must be disrupted. An example is what they have already accomplished in Red States – states that have the worst education, medical care, women’s rights, work opportunities, freedom, and obviously, representation.”

Can we save our democracy?