Boston Occupier Joe Ramsey interviews activists on the issue of boycotting the election:

An interview with Election Boycott Activists Mark E. Smith and Terri Lee of the Boycott Election 2012 campaign.

This interview was conducted in September and October 2012, via email, by Joe Ramsey. The responses below were co-authored by Terri Lee and Mark E. Smith.

Joe Ramsey: Do you think that it’s correct to describe the U.S. as a “democracy” in 2012? How so or how not?

The definition of a democracy is a form of government where supreme power is vested in the hands of the people. In such a government, the final say on everything, including fiscal and foreign policy issues would be up to the people to decide by a direct vote.

Obviously we don’t have that kind of government, in fact both the Bush and Obama administrations were explicitly clear that they would not allow public opinion to influence policy decisions, so rather than having the final say, as we would if we the people had supreme power over government, we have no say at all. A republic is also a democratic form of government, but in a republic the people exercise their supreme power over government through their elected representatives rather than directly. But in order to exercise power over our elected representatives, we’d have to be able to hold them accountable and we can’t.

The best we can do is ask them to hold themselves accountable, and they don’t seem to want to do that–in fact they tend to grant themselves immunity and/or pardon themselves even for flagrant Constitutional violations and war crimes.

For more see Boston Occupier: What if They Held an Election and No One Came?