Democracy is messy. It’s Charles M. Schulz equivalent is most assuredly Pig Pen, the lovable Peanuts character who kicks up his own cloud of dust when he walks. In Hollywood, democracy is played by Oscar Madison of the film and TV series “The Odd Couple.” I’m not sure whether Felix is communism or socialism, but Oscar is definitely democracy.

Democracy is what happens when you feed a young child a large breakfast and then pile him or her into the car for a hair-raising drive up a mountain full of switchbacks (readers who have never been parents will just have to trust me on this one). Exciting, but then you’ve got lots of clean-up to do.

Some might liken democracy to herding cats. Or perhaps it might be more appropriate to say that democracy sets all the cats free with the expectation that they will herd themselves following a series of haphazard cat elections, complete with chads and lawsuits.

Democracy is an ink blot. When glimpsed quickly, it’s a mess of ink on a page. After longer exposure, the patterns you see in it say more about you than about the blot.

Why do I go on about the messiness of democracy? Because, in our Stepford-tract-home, computer-controlled, sterile, text-rather-then-talk, medicate-rather-than-treat world, democracy’s nature is but a distant memory. If we ever knew about it at all.

In this country, and in many others, democracy is widely viewed as the best system of government. I suppose that’s why our representatives in Washington are so busy exporting it to other countries, both willing and decidedly unwilling. “If only we could supplant those corrupt dictatorships and socialist regimes with good, old-fashioned American democracy,” we say. Then, we understand, all wars would cease, universal understanding and compassion would prevail and we’d all sing Kumbaya together till the end of time.

Right.

I’m not interested in debating here whether our system of government, that which we are so busy exporting, is even a democracy at all (although that would be a fun topic to tackle in a future blog). No, I’m writing this to say that we have fallen woefully short of properly feeding and watering our democracy. At best, it’s now an abandoned house overgrown with weeds on the outside and cobwebs on the inside. The floors creak and the walls are cracked. The repairman hasn’t been by in awhile and I’m not sure whether he’s even scheduled. And that must change, sooner rather than later.

So, exactly WHY is democracy messy? Democracy is messy because it’s high maintenance. It relies on US to educate ourselves and elect people who will truly represent us well. WE must then continually monitor the work of our elected officials and our government closely and become agitated and unruly when things start to go awry. That takes time and energy. It’s often frustrating. It’s messy. So, we can’t be bothered. We pat our elected officials on the head and simply assume they’ll protect us.

Lately, the only ones attempting maintenance in Washington are the special interests. But special interests are like the magnificent Oz, pulling strings behind the curtain - all powerful, but not interested in publicity.

Special interest money chooses our elected representatives through campaign contributions. Once elected, these “special interest servants” maintain a symbiotic relationship with their benefactors by passing special-interest-friendly legislation. Special interests get what they want, while the special interest servants get to stay in office, election after election.

Special interest-funded studies “prove” that the products we use are safe and effective. You’ve heard about these products, I’m sure. Asbestos, DDT, lead, cigarettes – the list is almost endless. In each of these cases, special interests lobbied hard to minimize or even deny the danger posed by their babies.

Special interest public relations and marketing departments even create our culture through the manufacturing of needs and the fulfillment of our desires. That world we wake up to each morning? It’s been systematically prepped, sanitized, disinfected and then populated with wonders almost unimaginable. And the wonders are pre-set to explode into obsolescence or simply break every year or two to ensure that our experience fulfilling our needs is continual.

So what is a good democratic country to do? The answer is like playing chess – easy to describe but hard to do. We must spend the energy and the time to take back our government.

Yes, I know. Government is bloated, wasteful, inefficient and ineffective. There’s no way the white knight is a federal employee and the cavalry coming over the hill is carrying a flag with a picture of the Rayburn office building. Since Reagan, government is more the problem than the solution.

I beg to differ. That’s simply more propaganda from behind Oz’s curtain. Despite the fact that government has been beaten up and left for dead in the gutter, the fat lady has not yet sung. Not as long as We The People still outnumber the cat-herders.

It’s true that the corporations, the special interests that support them, and the special interest servants that support THEM are as powerful as they’ve ever been. Since the mid-1800s, and with dramatically-increasing momentum in recent years, they’ve been preparing methodically for the final dagger thrust. Our democracy is already seriously wounded.

The ONLY power in the universe that can stop them, aside from a natural (or perhaps man-made) disaster, is us. In a democracy, We The People ARE the government. WE must learn what’s going on. WE must become outraged. WE must unite. WE must fight back. That’s what This Is MY Government is all about. Join us!