The Dark Reason The Rich Hate Democracy, Revealed - Thom Hartmann ⭐

Last edited Sun Jul 9, 2023, 06:28 PM - Edit history (2)

- (2023), See YouTube Comments.

- Russell Kirk, 'The Conservative Mind' (1953), the US middle class has too much economic power...

Russell Amos Kirk (October 19, 1918 – April 29, 1994) was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, & literary critic, known for his influence on 20th-c. American conservatism. His 1953 book The Conservative Mind gave shape to the postwar conservative movement in the U.S. It traced the development of conservative thought in the Anglo-American tradition, giving special importance to the ideas of Edmund Burke. Kirk was considered the chief proponent of traditionalist conservatism...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Kirk
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- THE 1960s, PBS. https://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/topics/politics/index.html
POLITICS: Power to the People. By 1960, there's a TV in almost every American living room, bringing newly visible images of war, poverty, racism, & nuclear threat. Harder to see (except in hindsight) are a number of domestic & global forces building up a storm of political activism. The '60s begin with a race for President, & John F. Kennedy wins by promising to keep the U.S. ahead of the Soviet Union in the Space Race & Cold War.

America's new President is young & charismatic; the First Lady is sophisticated & fashionable. The nation is on the brink of a fresh political era, with the old era of segregation on its way out.

Four years later, the campaign focus moves from Cold War to active war. Candidate Barry Goldwater supports bombing in Vietnam, & loses the Presidential race by a landslide. The mood of the electorate changes by '68, when Nixon's vague claim of "secret plans" to end the war & his law-and-order campaigning help him clinch the last national election of the decade. All through the '60s, political awareness is seen as a civic duty. - Voter turnouts are higher in the 1960s than in any other decade since WWII. Party conventions are must-see TV, because the Presidential nominee could be almost anyone.

For instance, Shirley Chisholm, a black woman, receives over 150 delegate votes in '72. But by the end of the 20th c., due in part to Democratic Party reforms, state primaries are the key to nomination; conventions are just a formality. A Vote is a Civil Right. In theory, all American men over 21 have the right to vote after 1870. In fact, it takes multiple laws in the '50s and '60s, plus a constitutional amendment in '64, to remove barriers for black voters. Young adults are next in line for the vote. In 1964, the first male Baby-Boomers turn 18-old enough to be drafted & sent to Vietnam—but 3 years too young to vote against the war.

* Each year, more Boomers add to the pressure, & in 1971, a Nixon-supported constitutional amendment drops the voting age to 18, taking some steam out of the antiwar movement. Young, Angry, and Experienced. As the '60s grind on, campuses become a breeding ground for political activism. A far cry from the docile kids of the '50s, the student body now includes the first working-class kids to attend college, & newly admitted minorities. Many worked for the civil rights movement, & now shift their attention to the political goals of the New Left, & groups like the SDS...
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* DEMOCRACY: the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves: (Cambridge dictionary). https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/democracy
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- DEMOCRACY COUNTRIES 2023, World Population Review, * US No. 25. (See Also, Freedom House).
- Democracies Rank, Top 25: (1 -10, Full Democracies), Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, Netherlands; Taiwan, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Uruguay, UK, Chile, Austria, Costa Rica, Mauritius, Japan, Spain, South Korea, France, United States...https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/democracy-countries