By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Despite the impressive facade of grassroots democracy conveyed to the world at large by the system of caucuses and primaries in the United States, I see the operational dynamics of American representative democracy as a vitiation of how President Abraham Lincoln defined the term in the famous Gettysburg address in 1863ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The stark truth is that the contemporary form of democracy in the United States is a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy and for the wealthy. Of course, the wealthy are also people. But for Lincoln, a relentless civil rights champion, people meant the hoi polloi, not just the wealthy and their cronies. If we define democracy in the Lincolnian sense, we have to call the U.S. a hypocrisy, not a democracy. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ For how else can you define a country where the top 10 percent owns 90 percent of the wealth, and yet profess to be the worldƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s exemplar of democracy?

Brainwashed by an educationalsystem that sings hosannas of the U. S. Constitution as the perfect instrument designed by an exceptional team of founding fathers to create ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-a more perfect union,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ Americans began to think of themselves as progenitors of antimonarchical representational democracy. However, they turned a blind eye to the pitfalls of the self-same constitution (as interpreted by the federal judiciary) that made it possible for the super-rich to arrogate the lionƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s share of the nationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s wealth until the Wall Street Protest movement of 2011. WSP arose as a reaction to the right-wing Tea Party movement, an arm unleashed by the super-rich topreserve their privileges. Pretending to be a group of patriotic conservatives, the Tea Party movement succeeded in electing Republican extremists to the House of Representatives to form a majority at the 2010 elections and disrupt President ObamaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s ability to implement his promised changes.

Millionaire solons

Moreover, the ordinary YankeeDoodle has resigned to the fact that predominantly the wealthy can succeed in getting elected to high political office. Mitt Romney, the most likely 2012Republican nominee for president, conceded last week that a person had to be a multimillionaire to run a successful national political campaign. Newspapers reported that the Iowa Caucasus held last week set a new record for political expenditureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚a sum exceeding $12 million, two-thirds of which came from “super PACs”ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚political action committees run by independent interest groups with no direct connection to candidates but which can spend unlimited oodles of money attacking or supporting the candidates of their choice.

Unlike PACs, which must reveal the identity of all donors each of whose donation is limited to $2,500, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-super PACsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ do not have to disclose the names of their contributors or the amounts they contributed. For example, the pro-Romney Restore Our Future ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-super PACƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ was reported to have spent $4 million in attack ads against rival presidential candidate Newt Gingrich beginning Dec. 9.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It seems to me that the hoi polloi is playing the role of the audience of a national comedy watching the antiques of a handful of WASPs, a couple of Mormons, and a Catholic who are set to devour one other under the insidious law of the fish (matsya nyaya in Sanskrit) to be the head honcho of the nation and preserve the privileges of the wealthy ruling class.

The dramatis personae in the Republican version have already cut down the only woman and the black that could not withstand the withering attacks of the rest. Each time an actor has to leave the stage, the forces of money and power, the hallmarks of free-enterprise capitalism will humble him.

Matsya nyaya ensures the survival of the fittestƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the principle of unadulterated capitalism. The audience has been brainwashed to believe this to be democracy because they have the right to vote. They are tricked to think they are electing a government of the people for the people by the people. They are wallowing in a national debt burden of $14 trillion while being entertained by a national comedy of actors driven by money and power to maintain the supremacy of the hypocrisy.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A study by the Center for Responsive Politics released in November 2011 reveals the extent of this hypocrisy:

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-About 47 percentƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ of Congress, or 249 current members are millionaires. In 2010, the estimated median net worth of a current U.S. senator stood at an average of$2.56ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ million.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ Interestingly, fully 36 Senate Democrats, and 30 Senate Republicans reported an average net worth in excess of $1ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ million in 2010.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The same was true for 110 House Republicans and 73 House Democrats.

If almost one-half of the U.S. Congress members are millionaires, it is prettyclear that their motive for seeking office is not the attraction of a Congressional salary but the more invidious attraction of power that enables them to preserve their lopsided share of the nationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s wealth. They serve themselves by extoling the virtues of the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-invisible handƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ a la Adam Smith and hoodwinking the public to believe that proportionate taxation of the rich will negatively affect the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-tickle downƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ effect of capital accumulation on the economy.

The number of millionaires in the United States is pretty low. They constitute about 1 percent of the population of 313 million whereas they constitute almost 50 percent of the U.S. Congress. Like it or not, we have to concede that the U.S. Congress is more interested in preserving the status quo than in ushering in changes for the welfare of the ordinary American. Can we rationally expect a group of millionaires to extinguish themselves by handing power over to the common man?

Meanwhile, Obama is preparing to jumpstart his re-election campaign with a proposalƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  (called the Buffet rule, after millionaire Warren Buffet) for taxing the millionaires, who currently are taxed at a much lower rate than the average middle-class American. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Campaigns are expensive. In 2010, reliable sources say, the average winner of a Houserace spent $1.5 million. The average Senate winner spent close to $10 million. Closely contested races are much more expensive. And about half of that money, on average, comes from an elite group of very wealthy donors.

I wish I could end this essay on an optimistic note. Americans must understand that capitalism has determined the socio-economic class structure of America. Capitalism is not coterminous with democracy.