From Merriam Webster:

Main Entry: de·moc·ra·cy
Pronunciation: di-’mä-kr&’sE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -cies
Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dEmokratia, from dEmos + -kratia -cracy
1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2 : a political unit that has a democratic government
3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States
4 : the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5 : the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges

I am sitting here tonight thinking about the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, which passed in the senate tonight. What bullshit. Poll numbers show democracy in America is not working. Talk to any person on the street ( unless of course you run into one of those 20 some percenters) and you realize democracy isn’t working. This government is not By the People anymore. Government doesn’t serve “the people.” It serves corporations. Big Business. Military contractors. Big oil. Big. Big. Big. Fuck the little guy. It is not a rule of the majority. It is not a government where supreme power is vested in the people. There are most definitely hereditary and class distinctions. Joe Blow from Podunk, who would most likely represent the people better than most in congress now, can’t run for election of even a state office and expect to win, let alone a national election. And I’m wondering, what do we do to restore democracy? What? I’ve written more letters and made more phone calls than I care to count. Did they listen? No. They don’t friggin care what I want. ( or you) So what else can be done? I’m at a loss. I’m disgusted and saddened and angry…… and I’m wondering where we go from here. It’s not easy watching Democracy go down the drain…… and I so want to stop it, but I don’t know where to go from here. Where do we go from here? And I’m thinking of our young men and women in uniform who are going to die in Iraq, and all the Iraqi citizens and soldiers who will die, because of the legislation passed tonight. I think about the kids who join the service to try and get out of the situation they are in, and to get an education out of it. Who in congress, other than Senator Webb, who by the way, voted for this bill, has a child in Iraq? But there’s no class distinction in a democracy? And I wonder how anyone can think we are bringing democracy to Iraq when we don’t even have it at home anymore.