Confounded?

My American Heritage dictionary has two definitions of confound - 1. To confuse or cause to become confused. 2. To fail to distinguish. The Latin root confundere, to pour together, mix-up.

Political speech in America confounds elements of government, capitalism, and religion. This confounding prevents clarity and deliberately confuses citizens. If politics were played with rules like baseball, this would be called an illegal pitch! We're thrown a spitball with a little democracy covered by lots of capitalism and religious zealotry.

As citizens we need to confront the confounders.

Democracy is about equality. Capitalism is not. Religion is not.

In a real democracy:

• You and Bill Gates are equals.
• You and Bill Gates have equal access to government services.
• Your opinions count as much as Mr. Gates's.
• Your elected representatives return your phone calls as quickly as they respond to Mr. Gate's calls.

Hmmm...so what do you think? Do you live in a democracy or some other confounded thing?