Reply #24: It depends on which Democrats you are speaking of

[lastliberalintexas]

Elected officials? They are mostly silent because many of them get the same monies from the defense contractors as the republicans, even if it isn't as much.

Citizen Democrats? Willfully or unintentionally ignorant of what is going on in the world. Many people have no idea that we've lost almost 1300 American soldiers and wounded over 10,000, much less that we've killed 100,000 Iraqis. But worse than that is that many don't care. Our society has devolved into a celebrity worshiping cult which is more concerned about Paris Hilton or Jessica Simpson spending ungodly sums of money on clothes than about feeding the poor of the world. Or more concerned about how the Bears and Cowboys are doing. Or the Peterson murder trial. Or...

Most of the things you've written about are too taxing for the average American. They understood the Clinton-Lewinsky fiasco, but they don't understand the world of finance and money laundering. If they did, there would be hell to pay for the ruling class. So does anyone really think that our dismal educational systems in this country resulted from accidental incompetence?

And then there is also the arrogance of our little e empire. We do no wrong because we are the United States, the proverbial white knight riding in to save the day. ergo, the Iraq war couldn't have been wrong or illegal, because we don't act that way- the other guys do. I don't know that all of that sentiment results from actual nationalism, though, as much as it is from our ignorance of our government's actions.

I don't remember who said it, but I once read that ignorance and apathy were the murderers of democracy. I think that's fairly self-evident if you look at the state of events today.