Our current government is operating by tenets of organized crime. Extortion, bribery, threats, loyalty oaths, and blackmail are being used to turn our democracy into executive control by coercion and illegal acts. American society has lost its underpinning of civility.

Where are the concepts of conflict of interest, morality, separation of church and state, equal rights under the law, right to due process? We watch daily as our society loses its guiding principles of fairness, respect, and equal rights under the law. 

What happened to the time when elected political leaders represented the concerns of their constituents rather than bowing to the will of authoritarianism?

Congressional representatives' jobs are to negotiate, debate and compromise to design best policy for the American people, not for big business, themselves, or oligarchs. We would fare far better with a collective moral conscience directing governance rather than being directed by greed. In a democracy, wealth should not equal power.

Let's get money out of politics so we can clear the air, and peoples' minds, to hear the clarion bell of reasoned and considered thinking.

How is it that our institutions of higher learning cower to an ignorant television personality? Since when do we stoop to governing by social media? What happened to ethics that guided decisions, speech and behavior? How did the highest court in the land become unbalanced? We have lost the guardrails of government to guide civil society. We'd best build them back as the consequence is not what any of us desire.

Susan MacNeil-Densmore lives in Camden