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Lee Camp: The U.S. has the best fake democracy in the world!

First Voice

06:24

Editor's note: From March 18 to 20, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken leads the U.S. delegation to the third Summit for Democracy in Seoul, South Korea. How do the American people view the U.S. democracy? Are there any flaws in American democracy that need to be fixed? American journalist and comedian Lee Camp shared his insights on the topic in this monologue. The views expressed in the video are his own and not necessarily those of CGTN.

A lot of people around the world believe the United States has democracy, right? That magical word. But this is a myth or a fairy tale, like Jack and the Beanstalk or Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny. And if you haven't heard of any of those things, then you're probably living a far more rational life than most Americans. We have a giant bunny rabbit that brings us candy eggs. You know what – forget I mentioned it.

American democracy is a fun little propaganda trick by the ruling elite – the richest jack-wads in the world. And get this: It's been that way since Day One of our country. In 1787 when the U.S. Constitution was signed, only white landowning adult men had the right to vote. That amounted to less than 10 percent of the population in most areas, so if 90 percent of the humans in a country can't partake in the so-called democracy, that's not a democracy at all!

That would be like saying you manage a professional basketball team when actually it consists of three guys and five dogs, and only one of the guysand zero of the dogs knows how to play basketball! You don't have a basketball team. You've got a mental hospital. And the U.S. doesn't have democracy. We also are a mental hospital.

But even now, in present day, when most adult Americans have the right to vote, the U.S. still does not have a democracy. Here are some of the ways you know we don't.

Number one: It's actually been scientifically proven. A large Princeton University study in 2014 went through just about every political issue you could even think of, and they found that if the American people want something to happen in the U.S. that does NOT align with corporate interests, then it has a ZERO PERCENT chance of ever happening. Zero. 

NOTHING happens in the United States that isn't first approved by the richest, most greedy, most unhinged maniacs at the top of corporate America, with ice cream dripping down their chins. This means the U.S. has an oligarchy, not a democracy, not a republic. A straight-up oligarchy run by thugs and criminals. A mafia state!

And sure, that study was 10 years ago, but guess what? Much like Donald Trump or Joe Biden, it's only GOTTEN WORSE since then!

Number two: In the last U.S. election in 2020, $14.4 BILLION was spent to buy EVERY level of the election from the president all the way down. Because of that, our system only allows two parties to EVER win – Republicans or Democrats. No other party has anywhere near the amount of money needed to ever win.

It's a rigged game. It's like a homeless orphan going up against Jeff Bezos in a poker game.

Voters cast their ballots at Robious Elementary School during the U.S. midterm election in Midlothian, Virginia, November 8, 2022. /CFP
Voters cast their ballots at Robious Elementary School during the U.S. midterm election in Midlothian, Virginia, November 8, 2022. /CFP

Voters cast their ballots at Robious Elementary School during the U.S. midterm election in Midlothian, Virginia, November 8, 2022. /CFP

Number three: The candidate who spends the most money wins the election between 80 and 90 percent of the time, but more importantly, the two parties that spend the most on the election win ONE HUNDRED percent of the time! I don't know if you know this, but that's ALL of the percentages.

Number four: I've kinda been lying to you through this segment. There aren't two parties that rule the U.S. system because it's actually one party. Unfortunately, most Americans don't know they're being tricked, but it's easy to trick us because we're busy playing video games about stealing cars! 

The two parties agree on 90 percent of the structural issues of the country. They agree on capitalism, consumerism, environmental destruction, endless wars, wage slavery, unfettered aggression, destroying the social safety net, and not actually doing a damn thing for average Americans, so if all of those things are agreed upon by the two parties, then Americans don't really get to choose anything. We get to vote on whether the candidate was wearing a red tie or a blue one. Wow! Really feel like I got my voice heard!

Number five: Most of the United States votes on completely unaccountable computer voting machines in which the source code is hidden. And look, I have no problem with technology. I think computer voting is great – if we can know our votes are being counted accurately with open source code, but we here in the United States have the OPPOSITE! Okay?

We just see a screen when we go to vote, and the computer screen just says, "You voted, totally. I'm gonna report this to the counter right now. You should just wander off now. Little fella, just keep moving along."

Votes are supposed to be IMPORTANT in democracy. These machines would be like handing $100 to a stranger and just going, "Will you make sure to give that to my mother?" And the stranger goes,"Sure. I'll absolutely do that." Then you never check to see whether it works. That's our democracy.

People watch televised coverage of the U.S. presidential election at the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, November 8, 2016. /CFP
People watch televised coverage of the U.S. presidential election at the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, November 8, 2016. /CFP

People watch televised coverage of the U.S. presidential election at the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, November 8, 2016. /CFP

Now these are just five of the examples of how we don't have a democracy in the United States. There are many more that I don't have time to go into: Gerrymandering, ballot access, provisional ballots, rigged primaries, bought-off media and much more, but if I went through them all, we'd be here for 14 years.

The ruling elite – the richest people in the world who rule the U.S. system – they have no interest in giving us a real democracy. They have no interest in stopping the flood of billions of dollars into our elections, or proving that our mystery computer voting machines actually work at all, or creating a system that allows for more than two parties, which are actually one party, so all they can do is keep repeatingthe mantra," The U.S. is the best democracy in the world!" I think they're getting ready to make us allhave it tattooed across our chests.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

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