The great scam of democracy? The only great scam in democracy is the one that the people perform on themselves. Thank god the United States wasn't founded upon democracy, but rather Republicanism (otherwise the people would surely throw away all of their rights  ).
Let's have a short review of a great man:
Quote:
Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806).
As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of the republican virtue, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786).
Quote:
Republicanism is the political value system that has dominated American political thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, rejects aristocracy and inherited political power, expects citizens to be independent and calls on them to perform civic duties, and is strongly opposed to corruption. The American version of republicanism was formed by the Founding Fathers in the 18th century and was based on English models as well as Roman and European ideas. It formed the basis for the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Constitution (1787), as well as critical statements from Abraham Lincoln and others. It is not the same as democracy, for republicanism asserts that people have inalienable rights that cannot be voted away by a majority of voters; the two political philosophies have influenced but do not literally define their political party namesakes, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Unfortunately Thomas Jeffersons are few and far between, and the people become so complacent that they take their rights for granted, and place their babies in the jaws of wolves. If people assumed personal responsibility for themselves, and seized their sovereignty, we would be in a much more enlightened age.
I cannot speak for other governments, but as far as the United States is concerned, the people receive exactly what they want. Look to the Bush administration, look to Congress, look to any aspect of government that people are dissatisfied with and upset about - they are getting exactly what they deserve. Their individual choices created all of this.
The framework, after all, is all there. We choose within that framework that which we want our government to be. Apparently we want the liberty to place our responsibility in the hands of others who are more than willing to take advantage of that responsibility for their own desires and goals.
Quote:
Jefferson believed that each individual has "certain inalienable rights". That is, these rights exist with or without government; man cannot create, take, or give them away. It is the right of "liberty" on which Jefferson is most notable for expounding. He defines it by saying "rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law', because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."[14] Hence, for Jefferson, though government cannot create a right to liberty, it can indeed violate it. And the limit of an individual's rightful liberty is not what law says it is but is simply a matter of stopping short of prohibiting other individuals from having the same liberty. A proper government, for Jefferson, is one that not only prohibits individuals in society from infringing on the liberty of other individuals, but also restrains itself from diminishing individual liberty.
It is our responsibility to assume for ourselves our sovereignty and restrict our government from impeding on our liberty. If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would be all for the inherent right for us to ingest marijuana, for example, provided that, in doing so, we were responsible enough to not impose limitations on the right to liberty of others. In fact, he'd probably be cultivating cannabis himself (its a great crop for a myriad of reasons). 
When one assumes personal responsibility for oneself and one's rights, and when one devotes oneself to the manifestation of an ideal, reality itself changes as a result. Others begin to assume their own personal responsibility. Empower oneself with reason and the world becomes a more reasonable place.
There was a specific reason why Thomas Jefferson was a strong proponent of the right of individual states as well as a strictly limited federal government. Centralization of power is the biggest threat to our individual sovereignty, and this power all started to accumulate together when we, as individuals, started letting go of our own power. It is refreshing to see that, more and more, the idea of a limited federal government and a strong push for empowered state governments is surfacing in this country. I think this is inevitable if we, as human beings, begin realizing our capabilities within reality to influence the course of reality and start exercising these capabilities. I read a quote on here just recently that is a testament to why the planet will not go in the opposite direction, towards a singular, world government responsible for all aspects of every occurrence on this planet...
Quote:
"What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil and races ahead of me to ward off all danger, sparing me the need even to think about such things, if that authority, even as it removes the smallest thorns from my path, is also absolute master of my liberty and my life; if it monopolizes vitality and existence to such a degree that when it languishes, everything around it must also languish; when it sleeps, everything must also sleep; and when it dies, everything must also perish?"
- Alexis de Tocqueville (on the centralization of administration)
I see a lot of people make assertions regarding corporations and their interests and how they really control the political climate, as well as assertions regarding how the media manipulates the course of events and basically chooses who will be elected and all that.... all statements, of course, made by individuals who are evading their own personal responsibility. We are not bound by the corporate media complex into making our choices. Their existence, after all, lies dependent upon ourselves and our choices.
--------------------
 
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
  
 
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