I’m making up a new word. The old one just doesn’t describe our situation anymore. This is not a democracy, where the majority rules. This is a minoritocracy, where a minority rules by any means necessary, chiefly obstruction and outright lying.

 

One person, Mitch McConnell, from the tiny and sparsely populated state of Kentucky, has managed to block legislation and kill judicial appointments that effect the entire country for years.

 

One person, Joe Manchin, from a state that leans hard on government handouts, is keeping all the rest of us, in all the other states, from benefitting from the Build Back Better plan.

 

We need to stop bleating about how democratic the USA is and make our democracy actually work. How can we ever hope to address serious problems like worldwide climate change when we can’t even agree on how to fix our own road and bridges?

 

And a large part of any cure? Establish some serious consequences for lying.

 

Sure… gerrymandering, legislative obstruction, and voting rights restrictions form part of our problem, but lying is the glue that holds it all together and makes minoritocracy work.

 

Anyone can say anything now, about anything or anyone, the more outrageous and untrue the better, without legal consequence. We just lived through the most corrupt President in history, and not only has he NOT suffered any legal consequences whatsoever, he’s planning on running again.

 

51 little Senators (all beholden to their big donors) should not be able to control the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans.

 

And no one — and no news media outlet — should get away with lying.

 

In a democracy, that is.