American Democracy & Freedom
Karl Marx coined the phrase dictatorship of the proletariat in contrast with bourgeois democracy. But, most people don't understand what that means, but it illustrates the failure of our bourgeois democracy.
In Colorado, by local ballot initiative, the citizens overwhelmingly voted, by democratic measures to ban fracking in their jurisdiction. However, the energy companies were not happy with the will of the citizens. They appealed to the governor and state legislatures to enact a preemption law. In other words, the legislature stepped in to overrule the citizens' decision on fracking and they legalized fracking.
The localities that wanted to ban fracking, sued the state government, which went all the way to the supreme court. The supreme court affirmed the right of the state to preempt the will of the people for the will of capital.
In Cleveland, Ohio, citizens, in a direct ballot measure, overwhelmingly voted to increase minimum wage to $15 per hour. Once again, corporations appealed to the state government and the state government obliged by saying, “cities do not have the authority to set the minimum wage.” Once again, we see the will of the people being overruled on the interests of capital.
In a Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the will of the people would be the final word and the government would tell the oil companies to “go frack themselves” and the corporations would be forced to abide by the direct democratic rule. However, in our corrupt democracy, capital constantly gets to overrule the will of the people.
