The courtroom is one instance of the fact that while our society may be liberal and democratic in some large and vague sense, its moving parts, its smaller chambers--its classrooms, its workplaces, its corporate boardrooms, its jails, its military barracks--are flagrantly undemocratic, dominated by one commanding person or a tiny elite of power. Howard Zinn
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The courtroom is one instance of the fact that while our society may be liberal and democratic in some large and vague sense, its moving parts, its smaller chambers--its classrooms, its workplaces, its corporate boardrooms, its jails, its military barracks--are flagrantly undemocratic, dominated by one commanding person or a tiny elite of power. For the most part, when one thinks of democracy in the United States, the image that comes to mind is an election fought on a national level. It's generally assumed that elections are fair because people vote for the candidate they believe will make the best president. But this isn't always true. In fact, there are numerous instances where elections have been stolen. And though it's somewhat unfair to compare the two systems directly, it's useful to understand them in light of each other.

For starters, consider that all democracies are operating under a system in which power is distributed according to degrees of influence. In other words, there are different amounts of power available to each level of government and society. In America's case, the highest amount of power is held at the federal level (i.e., Congress and the presidency). The next level down would be state governments; then come county governments; then municipalities; and finally local governments (such as townships and school districts). So what happens when one group wants more power than their peers? Well, if their peers won't grant it (e.g., if they aren't willing to grant more influence), they'll simply try to gain influence on their own by stealing power from their peers.

This is known as "seizing" or "consolidating." It's called seizing because it's an illegal act: Nowhere in our Constitution does it say that any particular person has a right to manipulate another person's vote or control another person's vote or vote another person out of office or steal another person's power! But this sort of thing goes on all the time: We can see it occurring today in corporations around the country where CEOs get very big salaries and bonuses despite having no authority over anything but themselves. Indeed, such behavior has become so prevalent within American corporations that we now call such "corporate takeovers" "M&A" -- mergers and acquisitions -- transactions between corporations that give them more power over others by buying up other companies. Corporations do a lot more than buy up companies: They also steal votes in elections by hiring lobbyists

Source: You Cant Be Neutral On A Moving Train: A Personal History Of Our Times

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