The Greatest Threat to Democracy
What is it? The uninformed electorate? As we’ve mentioned in our article on California voters, this certainly bears a negative impact. An uneducated citizenry? This is what Thomas Jefferson thought, and education certainly is a silver bullet for much, if not most, of what ails us. The biggest threat, specifically to democracy, however, is neither of those.
It is hysterical parents.
At this moment more than 1% of all American adults are in Jail. This is a rate more than twice as high as the South Africans, more than three times as high as the Iranians, more than six times as many as the Chinese. In fact, no society ever in history has imprisonedmore of its citizens. I’ll repeat that just for blogging effect: No society EVER in HISTORY has imprisoned more of its citizens than the United States is doing right now.
So why is America doing this? Are Americans inherently more violent than any other society ever in history? Or might the laws be a tad draconian? We have laws such as the three strike rule, wherein, if you are convicted of two crimes, the third, no matter how trivial, will result in life imprisonment. As an example Leandro Andrade is serving two consecutive life terms for shoplifting nine videotapes. Kevin Weber is serving 26 years forstealing 4 chocolate chip cookies. So: while 5% of the world is American, 25% of the world’s prisoners are American.
How does this tie into hysterical parents? Well, let us first mention some other overly-aggressive laws like the three strike rule, as well as mandatory minimums: there are the current laws against drugs and gambling, sex offense laws, the death penalty, etc.
The US spends close to $40 Billion each year for the war on drugs, while these drugs can still be bought more cheaply than ever in every city of the country. We’d be hard-pressed to find any metric calling that a success.
Gambling is another non-sensical part of the law. As it stands now (and this may change since writing), online gambling is illegal. Online betting is legal, as long as the bets are not on sports. Any bets on sports can of course be made in Las Vegas, Atlantic city, OTB venues and the Kentucky Derby. However, it is legal to have an online gambling company based in the United States, just as long as no money passes through US banks. No, there is no coherence there*.
Sex offender laws are a bit more controversial. However, there still is a difference between real sex offenders and college kids who urinated, flashed or streaked in public (which will get you sex offender registration for life in 32 states).
As for the death penalty, by comparing this map and this map, it is practically impossible to show that the death penalty has been any sort of deterrent to violent crimes.
Ok, great, so we have a laundry list of laws which make no sense. What do any of these have to do with parents, let alone hysterical ones? Well, let’s say these parents make up a huge part of the active electorate, and they want to keep their children safe from anything that may be called a threat, by any dubious standards, and to hell with all other consequences.
You may have heard the term “Helicopter parents”. Well, this is what we mean. Although, quite frankly, Ed Byrne puts this better than we can:
Ed Byrne on Parents
Ed Byrne on Parents
And in case you think we should not be allowed to comment because we do not have kids of our own, here is an example of someone who does:
Lenore Skenazy and Free Range Kids
Lenore Skenazy and Free Range Kids
* The UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was slipped into the 2006 SAFE port bill after it had been voted on by Congress and before it was signed by the president. The UIGEA was found to be unfair at the WTO but the US gave undisclosed concessions to the EU and Antigua to drop their demands. Freedom of information act filings to determine what those disclosures are, however, were denied due to national security.
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