Consent? We Don’t Need No Steenking Consent!

You might find it odd that the President is actively seeking to convince a majority of Americans to support health care reform even though it’s already become law, but that’s only because you’re stuck on the old “democracy” way of thinking.

That’s the status quo!

We’re in a new world now in which voters are persuaded to support sweeping changes to existing law that will touch intimately the lives of every single American only after the fact.

Call it: “Postmocracy,” a new form of governing better equipped for our changing times.

A postmocracy has many advantages over our old, antiquated democracy.

First, it allows you to get things done you couldn’t with obsolete democracy.  Seeking the consent of the governed has always been a messy and prolonged affair and has held up many important initiatives, such as attempts to drastically alter our way of life to address a problem that doesn’t exist. 

Try getting that by people using “democracy."

Second, it cuts through all the red tape and bureaucratic paperwork that facts always cause. The problem with comprehensive and far-reaching legislation such as the health care bill is that there’s a lot in it that people will find to dislike.  By using postmocracy, you can just pass a bill without having to worry beforehand how those little annoying details might be received by the electorate. Just tell them about it later! Sure, they’ll whine and moan for a bit but they’ll forget soon enough, what with having to spend all their spare time looking for a job.

Besides, all these after-the-fact revelations, whether its 17% premium increases for healthy young adults, or corporations reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in charges to recognize increased costs, the bill is full of exciting surprises.

And everyone likes surprises!

Finally, think of how much easier it will be for the United States to promote the spread of postmocracy to governments that have heretofore not attempted to seek the consent of the governed once they realize how few changes they have to make to the way they do business.

Of course, we’ll have our biannual exercise in the old democracy style of governing this coming November when you’ll have a say in the matter.

Not a choice, necessarily, but a say.

J.