Photo via the New York Times

In 2014, a study by a Princeton University professor and a Northwestern University professor determined that the U.S. is not a democracy, but an oligarchy where a select few control the government and proceedings therein. The 2016 election is proof of that if anything. This year’s election trail has seen some of the most blatant voter suppression and fraud since Al Gore wrongly lost the White House in 2000. Unlike the population of this country at its founding, in the modern age the vast majority of people are educated and we have the technological means by which to count all of their votes.

Does that mean we’re counting every vote? In the words of Jordan Belfort: absolutely fucking not. This past week was the primary for the state of New York, and what a flagrant display of voter suppression it was. Three million people from New York City alone were denied the right to vote, and records for 126,000 registered voters in Brooklyn were mysteriously wiped out. Hillary Clinton won the state despite not holding the popular vote.

In a just and proper democracy the popular vote would be the determiner of who became president. The people are supposed to control their own government in a democracy, majority rules, and if you take the time to vote your vote is counted. That’s not how it works though.

The powers that be can decide that every polling place in upstate New York will close many hours earlier than expected and shut out millions of people wanting to vote. They can decide to make POC jump through hoops to cast ballots. They can defraud the system, wipe records and throw away votes. It’s becoming increasingly clear that they can get away with it too. “Why do they get away with it?” you might ask. They’re rich. Their friends are rich. There are companies paying them a lot of money to do their bidding. We are living in a broken system controlled by big business and their lobbyists.

We need to take back our democracy. Our “democracy” is a façade and a horrid stain on the history of a perfectly good ideology that we couldn’t implement properly. It is not democratic for super delegates to vote against the desires of their constituency. It is not democratic to not let people vote for a candidate if they’re registered with a different party. It is not democratic to deny the right to vote to any citizen of this country who wants to cast their ballot. It is not democratic to make it harder to vote. If the people who control the government really wanted better voter turnout they wouldn’t put up a million roadblocks. We need to stop soiling the good name of democracy by couching our oligarchy in democratic terminology and instead fix our voting infrastructure to truly be democratic lest our government corruption give rise to despotism.