TOTALISTARIANISM

Sheldon Wolin states that "Representative institutions no longer represent voters. Instead, they have been short-circuited, steadily corrupted by an institutionalized system of bribery that renders them responsive to powerful interest groups whose constituencies are the major corporations and wealthiest Americans. The courts, in turn, when they are not increasingly handmaidens of corporate power, are consistently deferential to the claims of national security. Elections have become heavily subsidized non-events that typically attract at best merely half of an electorate whose information about foreign and domestic politics is filtered through corporate-dominated media. Citizens are manipulated into a nervous state by the media’s reports of rampant crime and terrorist networks, by thinly veiled threats of the Attorney General and by their own fears about unemployment. What is crucially important here is not only the expansion of governmental power but the inevitable discrediting of constitutional limitations and institutional processes that discourages the citizenry and leaves them politically apathetic".

The author makes valid statement of our current times.the branches of government such as the congress and senate are lobbyist for mega rich companies that seek only their self interest and growth.the passage seeks to explain how dysfunctional the institutions that was created to help in democracy are in lieu a force of suppressing for the voters.although elections are held but media, technology and foreign influence dictate the the results as far as rigging elections through technology hacks and other means.the voters social problems are ignored always for the co-operations that donated to get them elected.hence the people feel voiceless and powerless because their means of getting their problems solved has been corrupted.the media which plays a major role in peoples lives are also interest groups that seek their own agenda.

I chose this reading because this passage portrays the current political environment in the country. people of power does almost everything to retain power and votes almost on political lines.the current issues of this country including waves of anti-abortion laws  in states although federally its allowed speaks for itself.the lack of respect for institutions that must enforce the constitution is virtually  powerless as leaders pit one law enforcing agency  against the other.political leaders join with media to sow discord among voters on race,color and sex.i believe this government first efforts must to bring its people together to foster unity for growth .Currently most of the issues in this country has all the attributes of an inverted totalistarism,with fox news on the far right and cnn on the left.the leader of the free world must not align itself with a media house and castigate institutional leaders for either having a brown skin or been a woman.it must not pass laws based on religion but rather the listen to the voice of its people