Kanook – Tlingit Nation

October 5th, 2010

At the beginning of the 19th Century, the term “silent majority” referred to the members of our
society who had gone on to their greater reward, or as the preachers of organized religion would
utter – downstairs to their “just rewards”. Today we seldom hear the phrase as much as we did
shortly after “Tricky Dick Nixon” in a speech he gave on Nov 3rd, 1969 said, “And so tonight---to
you, the great ‘silent majority’ of my fellow Americans---I ask for your support.”
The Internet and the numerous blogs that wind their way through the matrix have given voice to
a few citizens, the number of rants and wordy misspelled opinions have driven a few of the silent
majority back on the benches on the sidelines…these sometimes misplaced opinions turning off
the once concerned crowd of onlookers watching their land go down the drain. Not to mention
that the silent crowd is a little miffed at the lack of progress seen in the “land of the free”, hopes
and family values having been dashed on the once proud borders of the United States.
Preceding the Presidential election in 2008 there were 169 million registered voters in the USA,
or approximately 55% of its population, of the voters 51% were democrats, 33% republican and
17% independent or undecided – I dislike the handle “undecided” it should be something like
“fed up!” Interestingly, at the time of the 2008 election there were 212,702,354 eligible to vote,
out of that group on 136,645,504 voted nationwide – about a 62.4% participation rate.
But, and this is a pretty good sized “but”, history shows us that there were a “few” instances of
where a large-scale majority rule was practice, some pointing to the democracy of Greece
whereas a simple majority cannot be claimed as the voters excluded women, non-landowners,
and slaves from the decision making process. In this Plato, being a prime example, opposed a
majority rule due to the fact that he was afraid that it would soon lean towards the uneducated
and/or uninformed population ruling the land and pulling it down from within based on their lack
of knowledge or education.
Others related to the lack of “majority” democratic governments in history whereas a “majority
government” can only exist when two factors come together, one being a feeling that people
should have an equal voice in making group decisions, and a coercive apparatus capable of
enforcing those decisions. In societies where the population enjoys a set of equal rights, it is also
considered wrong to impose systematic coercion, thereby promoting the majority rule where
when the simple majority (51%, or fraction over 50%) attempts to enforce their decision the
remaining 49% (+) would not or could not be forced to accept the 51% decision.
In today’s system of tracking and mathematical observations it is impossible to determine just
who the “silent majority” really is…albeit most tend to assume they are a mixture of all three
political entities, and each entity at the end of the day campaigning to shifting the majority over
to their campaign. During the past few decades, the silent majority in any case seems to include
more and more of the “grey crowd”, who by sheer numbers have become a serious target of most
candidates, whereas they step lightly around issues that concern the “over-the-hill” bunch when
pounding their bully-pulpits – no disrespect intended as I am know considered one more step
towards being more than half-way up that hill.
There are a few brave campaigners, mostly in the Tea Party crowd who preach cutting back
government expenses by snipping away at our Social Security system, where even the half-breed
denied the Social Security crown a “cost-of-living-increase” his first year in office so his
administration could fund the multi-billion dollar bank bailout … not good for the boy from
Hawaii or wherever.
The silent majority in most cases is considered an “inactive” majority, yet a great number of
politicians claim to have this majority’s support – a claim that they can make with ease in that the
silent crowd usually does “nothing” to dispute the assertion.
The question now becomes, “what will it take to get the silent majority off their can?” It is has
become increasingly known that most of our working/voting population has become disenchanted
with our present economic situation, and that most blame it on our sitting government. Some will
choose the ballot box to show their disappointment, while others will concentrate on making do
and shooting an ineffective arrow or two at a moving target. While we sit on the sidelines
cheering on some idiot running for public office, hoping and praying that this person or group
idiots will pull us out of deadlock, our dreams and living conditions are slipping under the door.
It is easy to sit back and point the finger at the rich and famous as they jerk the strings they have
wrapped around our representatives, what is not so simple is establishing a firm grasp or idea on
where to start when bringing down this house of cards our nation has become.
I have heard, from a few of my friends, that we need to boycott our way of life, suggestions
ranging from lowering the purchase of gasoline, to reducing our trips to the grocery store…
unfortunately for most of us poor souls necessary expenses, a general silent boycott of general
merchandise or even better yet stop dropping a few coins into the Sunday offering plate, will do
little to stop the greed and corruption we read about on a daily basis. Whatever the “silent
boycott” maybe it will have to be an organized effort, one that I can’t imagine ever coming
together – our population is to diverse and dependent on most of the things that would be
necessary to bring the powers-to-be to their knees, and they (whoever they are) know this. In the
end the only option we have remaining is the ballot box, and this action should have started years
ago – whereas a quick fix for today’s mess in all reality is not option, as dragging your butt to
vote, albeit a good idea, the results will only fix a slice here and there.
One way to partially slam the door on Wall Street in the absence of investors, here again this
will take a push from not only the individual players but the huge hedge funds, state retirement
organizations, and labor unions – without the major funds participating in any action the effect
will be ripple on Wall Street – if immediate access was granted to the public giving the concerned
citizen the planned investment by their community, state or retirement fund there might be a way
to stop the investment…normally this is not allowed and like most things done upstairs they don’t
ask for permission – just beg for forgiveness after the fact with some lame brain reason such as
looking out for the welfare of their members in “hedging” against inflation or some other reason.
Now if you could “drag” some other these decision makers into court and make them pay a
penalty for playing willy-nilly with your funds, it might be stopped. I can’t see any of this
happening even this were a massive class-action lawsuit filed – it would take years and years for
the names to surface and any funds dedicated to such an action would be eaten up by the 2nd
biggest crooks in the land – the legal eagles. Investment fund managers would fade away into the
woodwork, or some lonely island in the world – in other words, nothing will change.
Now if you could “drag” some of these money boys out onto the Avenue and string a few up,
there might be a different result, but we all know how far that would go – why, the Feds, and
whomever would lower the boom – destroying whatever was necessary to stop this illegal action,
with John Law and the National Guard telling the involved that vigilantes are not allowed, even if
the parties involved were cleaning out your pocketbooks. Our system protects the white-collar
crooks that steal and rape from the public, behind laws and excuses that would make St Peter cry.
Oh they snatch a few here and there, but mostly because these few have figured out a method to
siphon a few billion from the establishment’s tried and true method of slipping a few bucks in
their back pockets.
A good example is the “lame push” by the US government after slipping billions to the Wall
Street shysters, then telling them to stop paying those million-dollar bonuses – you know how far
that went! Some even had the cajonies to throw massive parties, colored as executive strategy
meetings in Las Vegas after they received the TARP funds - get a grip, they could care less about
the family forced from their homes because the breadwinner has no job – they could care less that
the price of food has tripled over the past ten-years – they could care less, why? Well the
taxpayer their hands tied as their representatives on the Potomac are giving their money away to
the well-to-do’s on Wall Street, with a bit here and there flowing back into special funds set up
for the congressional retirement fund, or re-election fund – why should they care?
Ever since the time when three was a crowd there have been someone who was reluctant to
speak their mind, it isn’t as if they were timid or afraid to, it was just that they were more
interested in getting on with living then sitting around jawing about it. The last Presidential
election I imagine brought some of these select few to the polls, and by voting for Obama were
expressing their feelings about War – they were getting a bit tired of it. You’d think that
someone somewhere would have figured this out, and yet even if they did, they have ignored the
signs and went about business as usual – I believe that today, this complete disregard for the
voters has turned the taxpayers further and further away from our government.

Majoritarianism (as a theory), similar to democracy, has often been used as a pretext by
sizable or aggressive minorities to politically oppress other smaller (or civically inactive)
minorities, or even sometimes a civically inactive majority (see Richard Nixon's
reference to the "Silent Majority" that he asserted supported his policies).

This agenda is most frequently encountered in the realm of religion: In essentially all
Western nations, for instance, Christmas Day—and in some countries, other important
dates in the Christian calendar as well—are recognized as legal holidays; plus a particular
denomination may be designated as the state religion and receive financial backing from
the government (examples include the Church of England in the United Kingdom and the
Lutheran Church in the Scandinavian countries). Virtually all countries also have one or
more official languages, often to the exclusion of some minority group or groups within
that country who do not speak the language or languages so designated. In most cases,
those decisions have not been made using a majoritarian referendum, and even in the rare
case when a referendum has been used, a new majority is not allowed to emerge at any
time and repeal it.

169 million registered - 86 million democrat - 55 million republican - 28 million others

registered.

what percentage of these actually voted in 2008 presidential election?

During the 2008 presidential election, there were 132,645,504 total voters out of an
eligible voting age population of 212,702,354, which gives you a 62.4% participation rat

November 3, 1969, speech in which he said, "And so tonight—to you, the great silent
majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support

The phrase had been in use for much of the 19th century to refer to the dead—the number
of living people is less than the number who have died

The silent majority is an unspecified large majority of people in a country or group who
do not express their opinions publicly.[citation needed] The term was popularized (though not
first used) by U.S. President Richard Nixon in a November 3, 1969, speech in which he
said, "And so tonight—to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask
for your support."[1] In this usage it referred to those Americans who did not join in the
large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time, who did not join in the
counterculture, and who did not participate in public discourse. Nixon along with many
others saw this group as being overshadowed in the media by the more vocal minority.