Aristotle argued that oligarchies and democracies become the prevailing forms of government over 2 millennium ago. Today, the so-called American democracy, if it may soon still be called that, is at its tipping point under the contemporaneous political climate. Since the threat of government shutdown this month, billionaire Elon Musk openly derailed a critical government spending measure, primarily on healthcare relief and assistance. Musk, who recently funded Trump’s campaign for $277 million dollars, continues to display his power over the parties by suggesting the outright removal of his opposition against the healthcare legislation that would help millions of struggling Americans. “My friends, that is not democracy,” Senator Bernie Sanders issues in a brief public statement on his YouTube here yesterday:

Process the distinction between correct and deviant constitutions by considering the major differences in which groups hold power: in Aristotle’s six-fold classification on the forms of government, oligarchy falls under the rule of the wealthy few. The modern day (white, male) oligarchs that have amassed more wealth than the bottom half living in poverty are conspicuously colluding with politicians to make sure their wealth continues to grow, while effectively stagnating economic mobility. Federal Reserve data in 2024 indicates that a third of America’s wealth comes from the top 1%, who are the most capable of influencing political matters to narrowly serve this minority’s interests by constituting up to 18% of campaign funding.

In his baloney detection guide, Carl Sagan attributes our all-too human errors of delusion and forbearance to speak against injustice as inadequate preparedness in a confusing time. In the advent of manhunts, fake news, misuse of social media, unprecedented cost-of-living inflation, modern slavery, higher rates of mental illness, foreign war entanglement, resource disparity (access to healthcare, clean water and air, education) seems like a drop in an ocean of problems. The nebulous difficulty of bureaucracy when attempts are made to ameliorate these issues is the oversaturation of utter “baloney” when financial projections are unaccounted for or purely nonsensical.

“A deception arises, sometimes innocently but collaboratively, sometimes with cynical premeditation. Usually the victim is caught up in a powerful emotion - wonder, fear, greed, grief. Credulous acceptance of baloney can cost you money; that’s what P.T. Barnum meant when he said, ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’. But it can be much more dangerous than that, and when governments and societies lose the capacity for critical thinking, the results can be catastrophic, however sympathetic we may be to those who have bought the baloney.” - Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Equipped with the tools of judicious critical thinking, demand equal rights for all levels of status by challenging the ostentatious billionaires expanding their wealth to politics like another business enterprise. We are far from regulating the wealth among the population, but we can prevent ceding our freedom to corporations and self-serving entities through constant pragmatic re-evaluation of the so-called democratic systems. The repudiation of passive observation by the American people is necessary to counteract further regression of its general success and happiness as a nation against the wealthy few that wish to control everything, from the real cost of goods to space travel.

As a permanent U.S. resident (non-voter), I immigrated to this country over 20 years ago and witnessed the onslaught of negligence in the government and protection of its people comparable to the effects of some of the materialistic dictators where I’m from. I’m afraid America has addled tragic shifts to its national identity as We The People struggle with who we chose to represent our needs and natural rights as members of its society.