#thisendsnow

This Ends Now

The American People’s Claims Against Our Institutions and a Reaffirmation of Our Right to Institute New Government

(a. k. a. The Declaration)

Preamble

Whereas our democratic institutions have been intentionally co-opted, giving an extremely wealthy super-minority – a donor class, to whom our elected officials are almost exclusively beholden – a vastly outsized influence in our government;

whereas members of this class have exerted their influence to erode the institutions our nation relies on, leaving the American people both economically vulnerable and politically impotent;

whereas they have exerted their influence to shape public opinion via the mass media, framing our nation’s problems in such a way that leads us to distrust one another, and to vote against our own interests; and

whereas they have exerted their influence to shelter themselves from the legal and economic consequences of their own apathy, ignorance, and occasional malice;

we, the undersigned, conclude that the government of the United States – corrupted from within, and lacking support from the institutional pillars upon which a healthy democracy rests – has failed to meet its obligations to the American people as established in our Constitution’s preamble.

We, therefore, publish this Declaration, not to cultivate an outraged audience whose reactions can be monetized, but to present a series of claims against those who have eroded our institutions, and to present a plan to reorganize our government into institutions designed to secure, for all Americans, the “blessings of liberty” as promised in our Constitution.

We, the authors and signatories, share this Declaration in a spirit of honesty. We reject the use of exaggeration, emotionally charged language, and so-called “alternate facts,” so often used to hide an argument’s weaknesses in a fog of intense emotional reactions. Whether you choose to join us, to stand aside, or to work against us, you will arrive at that decision by assessing each claim on its merits, rather than by allowing a pundit who earns an eight-figure salary to model which emotions you should feel about the people, groups, and events in the news.

Part I – General Claims

We, the undersigned, make the following claims about our democratic government, whose elected and appointed officials have taken an oath to defend the Constitution and, by extension, to prevent those who would usurp the power of our government from doing so.

Representative democracies rely on a number of independent institutions which enable the elected government to serve its constituents, and which give citizens collective control over the government.

The forms taken by those supporting institutions has changed over time, and differ from country to country.

Some such institutions may be directly controlled by the government, others reside entirely in the private sector, and others are complex entities: partially owned by the public, and partially under private ownership.

To varying degrees, the institutions we rely on have the power to shape the laws we are required to live by, and the ability to shape our cultural norms and expectations.

In the course of performing its expected function in society, any institution we rely on may advocate for policies which, intentionally or not, directly or indirectly, cause material harm to our democracy.

In the course of performing its expected function in society, any institution we rely on may attempt to shape public opinion in a way which, intentionally or not, directly or indirectly, causes material harm to our democracy.

Under ideal conditions, the institutions we rely on either have a clear mandate to defend our democracy, or our elected officials limit their ability to cause our democracy material harm.

Under less-than-ideal conditions, the institutions we rely on give opportunists the means to weaken our democracy for their own personal gain.

Opportunists – those who would willingly damage our democracy for their own personal gain – are present in any society.

The institutions we rely on today exhibit seemingly permanent flaws which prevent them from thwarting the actions of such opportunists.

The flaws in our institutions are not a natural consequence of the democratic process nor do they reflect some imagined natural “survival of the fittest” hierarchy; even the most basic understanding of history and economics refutes either of those assertions.

Rather, these “flaws” have been intentionally introduced into our institutions over decades, ultimately transforming millionaires into billionaires into oligarchs: an extremely wealthy super-minority with the power to write their own legislation for a subservient Congress to pass.

The flaws in our institutions serve to keep elected officials beholden to wealthy donors, whose financial support is essential in election cycles which consume nearly ten billion dollars every two years.

The flaws in our institutions serve to maintain an economically vulnerable population, whose members experience a chronic risk of economic calamity, and are, almost uniformly, unable to give their children a better life than they themselves had.

The flaws in our institutions serve to maintain a politically impotent population, whose members are ill-equipped to advocate for their own interests, and are actively discouraged from taking any sort of collective civic engagement beyond voting for a Democrat or for a Republican.

For decades, our institutions have collectively led the public to see the wealthy as hard-working, innovative, and virtuous, and that they require a broad range of exceptions and exemptions to maintain the health of the economy we all rely on.

Our institutions have collectively instilled the public with the sense that regulation of big business threatens the nation’s prosperity ... that it is an attack on “job creators” instigated by a vaguely defined “radical left.”

Our institutions have collectively instilled the public with the sense that taxes represent a threat to the nation’s prosperity ... that taxes enable “government waste” and give the earnings of hard-working American families to people looking for “government handouts.”

Our institutions have collectively led the public to distrust the poor, propagating the easily debunked myths that poverty is the result of character defects, that programs to eliminate poverty encourage poor people to take advantage of the working class, and that only through tougher law enforcement can working-class Americans be protected.

Our institutions have collectively led the public to distrust immigrants, propagating the easily debunked myths that outward displays of their native culture represents a threat to our national identity, that their presence in this country constitutes an invasion, and that only with a militarized national police force can white, native English-speaking citizens be protected.

Our institutions have collectively led members of historically dominant social groups to keep members of minority groups at arm’s length, maintaining a segregated society through economic barriers and social norms, thereby sabotaging the national cohesion essential to a functioning multiracial democracy.

Our institutions are able to mount only the weakest resistance to an executive branch deploying ICE and the National Guard in America’s cities under the guise of liberating them from crime. Those organizations who were most vocal about government overreach during Democratic presidencies have been notably silent.

Those who have worked so long to maintain this national sense of suspicion and scarcity are not nameless, faceless entities. They are people with names and reputations, with the influence to constantly shift the public’s attention away from that reality.

Those who have invested so much of their wealth to weaken America’s democratic institutions are deeply vulnerable to social, legal, and economic consequences ... but only by a public willing to name them.

The donor class does not constitute a monolithic group with a coordinated master plan. Rather, each individual acts in what they believe to be their own interests by financing politicians who are willing to lie to their base, scapegoat everybody else, and ensure the passage of their donors’ desired legislation.

However, the result of decades of loosely-coordinated erosion of democratic norms and institutions has normalized “pay-to-play politics.”

Pay-to-play politics gives the greatest advantage to candidates most-readily willing to dupe their constituents into voting against their own interests.

Pay-to-play politics has created an environment that largely disqualifies those who feel the greatest call to public service from holding public office.

The dynamic between elected officials and the donor class exerts the same pressure on members of both political parties. However, the tactics promoted by Newt Gingrich during his tenure at GOPAC, which were then validated by the so-called Republican Revolution of 1994, have made the Republican Party an ideal home for those suited to deceive their constituents to satisfy their donors.

On the whole, politicians and political consultants in the Democratic Party have massively misunderstood the reason they lost in 1994. To this day they opine that a mythical “rightward shift” in policy will attract enough “swing voters” to keep their party viable in an environment where media outlets owned by magnates eager to give conspiracy-spouting politicians a platform.

It will not.

After decades of weakening, our democratic institutions have failed to prevent a tyrant and his opportunistic entourage from using our nation’s resources to enrich themselves, to make themselves exempt from the nation’s laws, and to neutralize the checks and balances designed to prevent the corruption of our government.

After decades of weakening, our democratic institutions are not “almost working.” No upcoming elections will “strengthen” our institutions such that beggars and billionaires receive equal justice under law. No alternative political party hoping to replace the Democrats or the Republicans is remotely equipped to fix the scope of our nation’s problems.

After decades of weakening, our democratic institutions will not reconfigure themselves into a functioning system, thoroughly immunized against grift, opportunism, and well-funded disinformation campaigns.

After decades of weakening, the government of the United States has unequivocally failed to defend democracy against a tyrant and the opportunists with whom tyrants invariably surround themselves.

Our government – whose leadership has been elected by the entirety of the American people, whose seven trillion dollar budget has been funded by the entirety of the American people, and who represent a government to whom the majority of Americans have pledged allegiance – has robbed living and future generations of Americans of the blessings of liberty promised in the Constitution, and of the democracy and the economy that our parents and grandparents worked so hard to bequeath to us and to our descendants.