Sorry, Ms. Maddow, Everything is Not Alright with Our Democracy

Rachel Maddow said Friday night that Bernie Sanders' campaign may be in trouble because it is based upon voter turnout -- that in Iowa and New Hampshire the number of Democrats voting in this year's caucus and primary was down from 2008.

That's true, it's a fact and hence, no quarrel.

What upsets me is Dr. Maddow's failure, total failure, to point out that in Iowa the percentage of registered Democrats voting in their state's caucus was a mere 15.8; that Republicans hardly did better, with 16.7.

New Hampshire did markedly better, with more than 50 percent turnout, but still 295,791 registered voters did not vote Tuesday in the Granite State.

And yet, Dr. Maddow gushed election night that this was democracy in action.

As I wrote earlier, our democracy has become a sham.

What I want from Rachel Maddow and her colleagues at MSNBC -- indeed, from all media -- is some acknowledgement of the shameful state of American democracy, but none has been forthcoming.

The why of it is this:

Political campaigns are big money makers for television; they raise ratings and money, lots of money, so why put a negative face on it?

So they don't, especially a cheerleader like Ms. Maddow.

Just so we're clear, I am not normally a critic of Ms. Maddow. I think she more than any other person focused the nation's attention on Flint, and for that she deserves great credit.

But she needs to stop gushing about the state of our democracy and start telling the truth, which is – a whole lot of folks ain’t voting.

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