Sam_H

I believe that democracy, at its core, is about equality. But the concept of perfect equality is inconceivable to me. America is so far away from achieving it that all-around equal treatment for everyone seems to far fetched to be a realistic possiblity. The Declaration of Independence says that "All men are created equal." What if someone is born to a family that will abuse him? What if he is born blind? What if he is born as a minority? Whether or not I am truly equal to my peers is irrelevant, what matters is that I am treated as such. And in that sense, nobody is equal.

Inequality is everywhere you look even engrained in the english language. If I am a more successful athlete than my neighbor, I am "better." If I get better grades than him, I am "better." Anything done with success is "better." That isn't to say that I don't want to succeed, only that my success is not connected to others. I am my own man. And how is success weighed in America? Money. The almighty dollar, root of all evils. And that is exactly where the concept of democracy falls apart.

Presidential candidates fight hard for every single vote they can get their hands on. Why shouldn't they? A vote is a vote, isn't it? But nobody would be able to convince me that the next presidential hopeful would be just as happy with my vote as he would be with the vote of NBC's chief executive. The CEO has money. The CEO can slant stories on his news network to fit nearly any viewpoint desired. Other people will listen to a CEO because he has the means to make them listen. If he wants to be heard, all he needs to do is tell his secretary he wants a press conference. If I want to be heard, what can I do? Maybe write a letter to local government officials in the hope that the envelope might actually get opened. He gets a press conference, I get a couple sheets of paper and maybe one or two people to read it. Equality? Sure.