Democracy is ... Broken -Sign this Petition to Fix America!

You are here, in part, because you understand that our system of representative democracy has been overwhelmed and corrupted by an extreme concentration of wealth—and therefore power. Most of us are working harder and longer just to “make ends meet.” With the scraps of free time left after two jobs, a side hustle, family obligations, and the constant grind of returning to work on Monday, we turn to weekend rituals: for many it is church, synagogue, or temple—and then yelling at the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears, or the New York Jets. These rituals aren’t trivial; they’re a coping mechanism for an economic system that demands everything and returns very little.

We know things are wrong and worsening—just as surely as Stephen Miller is trying to “Make America 1930s Germany Again,” Vladimir Putin is attempting to “MAGA: Make America Go Away,”, the criminal elect is trying to stay awake, and Kash Patel and Pam “Bribe Me” Bondi are using gallons of liquid paper, scissors, shredders, and permanent markers to sanitize the Epstein/Trump/Maxwell child abuse and trafficking files. Representative democracy has been acquired by billionaires in a hostile takeover, and our system of government has been replaced with a representative plutocracy. (It can be argued that with few exceptions -that has been our form of government from the founding of the United States).

Sign Our Petition!

Every day our inboxes flood with petitions:
War crimes. Climate collapse. Gun violence. Voting rights. Gerrymandering. Corruption. Wealthy pedophiles and those shielding them.
The list is endless. The outrage is endless. The clicks feel endless.

And in a busy life with little to no time, clicking a petition feels like being “all in” for justice:

“Don’t let the White House gut tax laws for the ultra-rich…”
“Prosecute Hegseth for Murder and War Crimes…”
“Demand all the Epstein files—now…”
“Protect the Voting Rights Act…”
“DEFUND ICE and end this brutality…”
"Tell Congress to remove Thomas and Alito from the bench…”

My inbox is overrun with these requests—and the ever-present “chip in $5 now because my opponent just raised a million dollars.” The political fundraising platforms have streamlined the cycle: click, outrage, donate, repeat.

Sometimes petitions do help—exposing an important issue that is not covered by corporate media, or when the signatures come from actual constituents, properly geo-validated. They can put an elected official who is actively considering re-election on notice. But if you believe Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, Clarence “Clearance” Thomas, Samuel Alito, or Marsha Blackburn care what the voters of Mill Valley think about climate, gun violence prevention, ethics, or public health…I have a pair of gold Trump sneakers to sell you.

Sorry, Bad News—Petitions Don’t Stop Fascists

Nazi Germany wasn’t stopped with a petition.
Slavery wasn’t stopped with a petition.
Putin won’t be stopped with a petition.
The corruption of the Roberts Court won’t be stopped with a petition.
The Trump Administration’s criminality will never be stopped with a petition.

Federal Campaign spending, by cycle

2000: $3.0 billion
2008 $5.3 billion
2012: $6.3 billion
2016: $6.6 billion
2020: $14.4 billion
2024: $15.9 billion

(Thanks for the above figures to Open Secrets.)

After the catastrophically anti-democratic Citizens United decision, money became speech—and billionaires became the loudest voices in the room. Our democracy has been auctioned to the 1%.

With the relentless flow of petitions there is now "My opponent just raised a million dollars -please chip in $5 now and keep me in the race!" It has become convenient and easy through political fundraising platforms to save your information so you can just click on $5, $10, $20, as a time-saver for you to try to make a difference in a system that is completely "out of whack".

Ask the Important Questions

Why don't I have enough money for a savings account?
Why don't I have healthcare?
Why isn't there decent and affordable housing?
As hard as I work, why do I have barely enough money for necessities?
Why do I get so little time for myself -to think about these questions?

Convicted felons might get time off their sentence for "good behavior". Our current system might get you two weeks of vacation, per year.

Over the last 45 years, non-executive pay flattened while productivity soared—and the entire difference was extracted by the wealthy one-percent through executive pay, stock buybacks, and investor dividends.

Healthcare costs shifted to workers. Higher education costs shifted to families and students. Private equity devoured housing, doubled and tripled rents, and extracted profit to enrich executives and investors. None of this "created value" or made America great. It was simply a transfer of wealth from workers to the wealthy one-percent. And you won't hear about this on Fox "News".

News and Social Media controlled by Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Larry & David Ellison are never going to raise their hand and say "we're the problem". Instead, billionaire-consolidated media works to keep us all divided and directs our collective anger at immigrants, environmentalists, scientists, feminists, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, DEI programs, books, liberals, academics, and "Big Solar and Wind".

They know if we ask these questions (and research them as opposed to accepting a default answer from one of Rupert's minions or one of Musk's algorithms) the collective anger of a unified and indivisible 99% would not bode well for any billionaire.

We Dissent

We dissent because democracy is not a spectator sport.
We dissent because Project 2025 and its architects seek total control—not accountability.

We dissent because the billionaire class has taken our public treasury hostage, redirecting trillions into tax breaks, subsidies, and contracts for donors and cronies—while telling the rest of us to “tighten our belts” and skip the latte.

This isn’t governance. It’s organized looting.

We Must Rise Beyond the Click

Clicks are not democracy.
They are the illusion of participation in a system engineered to keep us exhausted, isolated, divided, and powerless.

A petition is not a movement and “chip in $5” is not a strategy.

Rising beyond the click means rebuilding the immune system of democracy:
Meeting. Debating. Organizing. Educating. Holding officials accountable—not biannually, but constantly. Reclaiming community. Challenging disinformation. Creating civic rituals stronger than the outrage-fed attention economy.

Kitchen Table Democracy

For generations, democracy happened at the kitchen table—where people debated issues, confronted truths, and made decisions that shaped their communities.

Today, we can create Virtual Kitchen Table Democracy: secure digital civic spaces where every person has a seat, regardless of wealth or geography. Spaces protected from disinformation, harassment, and billionaire control. Spaces built on transparency, truth, and participation—not engagement farming.

These civic spaces are not symbolic—they are the true countervailing infrastructure of the next democratic era.

Participatory Democracy & Budgeting

Representative democracy has been subverted. Money has silenced millions of voters. But technology—ethical, transparent, secure technology—can dismantle corruption and distribute power back to the people.

Participatory budgeting already works in cities across the world
(see https://www.participatorybudgeting.org/).
It lets residents determine how public funds are spent based on real needs, not billionaire lobbying. Imagine scaling that nationally. Imagine citizens directly shaping infrastructure budgets, educational investment, climate responses, and community policing alternatives. In this model, elected officials become public workers—not self-proclaimed monarchs, not shills for the wealthy.

If we want to reimagine democracy, fight concentrated wealth, and solve the defining challenges of our time—climate, education, healthcare, public safety, justice—we must accept this:

Democracy will not be saved by clicking, scrolling, or donating into the abyss. It will be saved when we reimagine the tools of participation and rebuild power at the community level—face to face, table to table, space to space. It will be saved when technology serves democracy instead of exploiting it, when public budgets reflect public health, safety, and needs, and when elected officials fear violating their respective oath of office more than disappointing their wealthy donors.

If we want justice, if we want security, if we want a real and sustainable American Dream, we must stop mistaking convenience for action.
Petitions do not redistribute power. People do. A nation committed to collective participation is a nation billionaires cannot buy.

Democracy doesn’t return because we hope that it does—it returns because we reimagine it, build it, demand it, and fight for it together.

PS -My Articles and Subscriptions are always free.

If you find this article of value, please do share with friends, associates, & others who have an interest in the content.

Please note that my articles and subscriptions are not paywalled. This stems from a guiding principle -that any meaningful democracy requires an informed, educated, and engaged society. It is also to honor the life of Aaron Swartz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M0GQww1GoY), who held firmly to the belief that research and knowledge intended for the betterment of humanity should be freely shared.

Aside from writing, mentoring others, and projects related to democracy, economics, and social innovation, I’m dedicated to Civic Works, a 501c3 non-profit organization building and managing technology that blends social networking and civic engagement. Our core effort is around civ.works. When complete, it will be a subscriber-supported, ad-free social network that does not betray subscriber trust by selling or sharing data with marketers or sinister political operatives.

I’m incredibly grateful for all who contribute to the civ.works effort through our secure payment processor, Stripe, and all who help us gain visibility by sharing the project with journalists and others to move the effort forward.

Learn more about our core projects:
Ethical Marketplace: https://civ.works/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/cw_eci.pdf
Media: https://civ.works/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/CivicSky-Media.pdf

Support civ.works

Special appreciation for all who continue to recommend my rants and musings, restack articles that are found to be worthy, and share with friends and family. And the following are some special recommendations for stacks I value -