The takeover of elections by the rich offers an opening.
RE: Democracy Is Not on My Ballot
What we now have are elected oligarchies that gives political power to the technobarons running the entrepreneurial economy. They have already taken over much of the mass media. They are again bundling the housing market but with new tactics. And the neoliberak Hayekian philosophy that the "market giveth, the market taketh away, blessed be the market" operates without concern for equality of opportunity, justice, or equity.
So the massive redistribution wealth continues, taxes and regulations will be reduced, libraries defunded, books banned and schools will operate by teach to the test ignoring Einstein's warning that imagination is more important than knowledge.
There is one ray of sunshine. The continued reduction of taxes at the Federal level allows for increased local taxes. Hayekian corporations may flee the state, but a reasonable increase in local and state taxes provides an opportunity to fund our libraries, unban books, create quality early learning for our toddlers, and schools that work for our children.
Instead of treating the crime that was done to buy the drugs that were used to mask the trauma of earlier abuse we can reform the justice system from punitive to rehabilitative and end the 70 percent failure rate of both our schools and prisons.
This can be a golden age for local democracy.
ARNOLD SHERMAN, Baltimore
