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Some political ideas are hard to swallow for reasons that have little to do with their truth. Our psychological need to belong imposes limits on what we can say. Who will listen? Who will agree? Our need to affirm our identities similarly restricts what we can believe. These limits often function unconsciously but powerfully on our minds.
We saw a good example of this recently in Oprah’s interview with Jimmy Carter when he made a shocking statement: "We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy.” Democracy is one of those cherished ideas we take for granted. Because we vote, we must be a democracy, right? Hard to think otherwise.
But Carter has a point. According to Wikipedia’s simple definition: oligarchy is “a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people.” Having monitored 100 elections in 38 countries since 1989, Carter is something of an expert on elections. In addition, he ran for U.S. President, once successfully, once unsuccessfully, and that was after an earlier political career in Georgia. You may not agree with his views, but he knows democracy inside out and he feels free to speak out.
In his Oprah interview, he elaborated: Our government is “just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.”
That’s strong language, but other experts have made similar points. Thomas Piketty noted our “drift towards oligarchy,” and the Princeton sociologist Martin Gilens pointed out in his classic study, "Affluence and Influence," that the majority of voters seldom get what they want, having little influence on public policy. Then there is Jeffrey Winters’ book Oligarchy that illustrates how our form of “civil oligarchy” relieves our wealthy from the need to raise armies or build fortresses to protect their wealth. In “civil oligarchy,” that job can be turned over to government. The only thing oligarchs have to do to protect their wealth is ensure their control of the political process. Otherwise, the extreme wealth that sets them apart and provides the basis of their power could be whittled away or confiscated by taxation.
So having elections doesn’t ensure “democracy,” but we ritually affirm that we are one, that we were founded as one, and that, indeed, there is no better one. We could call that an illusion, but that seems inadequate in the light of the tenacity and fervor we bring to the subject. It is an article of faith for the groups we belong to, the groups that constitute our political system.
It would make us anxious and insecure to think otherwise, and might foment civil unrest if we began to wrestle with the implications of it more seriously. Most importantly, though, it supports the control of the oligarchs, because if we can’t think about it we can’t do anything to change it. Carter’s shocking comment simply disappeared.
Our politics is full of such ideas, which is another reason being a candidate for office is so difficult. As Carter said in his interview with Oprah: "There's no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million, or more.”
But that’s just the beginning. How do you reach an electorate afraid to think certain thoughts?
Credit: Nir Levy / Shutterstock.com
