Page 6 - Discover SPRING 2022
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Editor’s Note
By Tim Ernandes
Government seems to have a language that is are existential threats to democracy.
all its own. I can see the need to provide a handy
Existential threat to democracy: Anyone or
translation guide so that people know what their
anything that is contrary to the speaker’s agenda.
elected officials are really saying when they speak:
Insurrection: a specific type of existential threat
Public service: Making a career out of a
to democracy.
lucrative job whose main purpose is to remain
in that job, and/or using it as a stepping stone in Public opinion: A general widespread
order to get an even better one. sentiment that is provided to the people by the
government.
Program: A means of buying votes with other
people’s money Credible media: Media that are in league with
the government, who promote and often provide
Infrastructure: Items both real and imagined
its agenda.
that are presented as “crumbling” or “failing”, in
order to justify spending money on them. These Election: The illusion that the general public
items cannot actually be repaired, because the freely chooses its leaders.
money is never enough.
Primary election: The illusion that adherents to
Government: an entity that cannot exist a political party freely choose their candidates for
without the people, and which convinces the office.
people that they cannot exist without it.
Hate speech: rhetoric that is an existential
Refundable tax credit: Taxes that are returned threat to democracy.
to the people who didn’t pay them.
Free speech: The illusion that in this country,
Constitution: a document that lays the people are free to express any and all opinions,
foundation for government, in order to ensure the regardless of whether or not anyone may disagree.
rule of law. This document may be changed on the
whims of elected officials with whose agendas it Law: a set of principles that may interfere with
clashes, and in some cases, wholly disregarded. the agenda of government, and which is therefore
ignored when necessary.
Democracy: a form of government that does
not describe the Constitutional government of the Wealthy: a condition that describes anybody
United States of America, but which its citizens who has more than you do, and who therefore
are trained to believe that it does. It is sometimes does not deserve it. See: Millionaires and
described as “three wolves and a lamb deciding Billionaires.
what to have for lunch”, but only by people who
4 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SPRING 2022
