A Brighter Day for America

It is so demoralizing to sit here every day and read the news about the latest insult to our democracy being perpetrated by the Republican Party.    I am going to be 74 soon, so my time is limited, but I grieve most for my daughters, and for the youth of America and their hopes and plans for the future. 

 

In today's New York Times, Ezra Klein sums up the effort to establish a 'doom loop' for democracy by Republicans:

"The insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 failed. Donald Trump is not the president. But at the state level, the Republican war on elections is posting startling wins. They are trying to do what Trump failed to do: neuter elections as a check on Republican power.

A new report by three voting rights groups found that 24 laws have been passed in 14 states this year that will allow state legislatures to “politicize, criminalize and interfere in election administration.” And a May analysis from the Brennan Center found that Republican-controlled legislatures in 14 states have passed 22 laws that made voting harder, with dozens of others currently moving through the legislative process.

This is an example of what I’ve sometimes referred to as the “doom loop of democracy”: highly gerrymandered Republican state legislatures in key swing states passing legislation that gives them more power to discourage Democratic-leaning groups from voting, throw out legitimate votes and overturn election results — all of it backed up by Republican-dominated courts."

 

I think that in a few years if these trends are valid, there will be a turn to authoritarianism in the United

States.  Voting will matter little since it will be significantly suppressed and election outcomes will be managed by legislatures that will ignore the results by simply deciding to invalidate the results without any reason other than maintaining power and control.  If, somehow, we are able to avoid an actual civil war (I think it's pretty likely as a matter of fact), our standard of living is going to inexorably decline.  The realization that we have failed as a democracy will increase crime, social dislocation, mental illness, drug usage, etc.

 

Those in power will turn from supporting the majority of our population, leaving the powerless to descend further into poverty, searching for healthcare, food, the simple things we take for granted.  Social safety nets will slowly be shredded by the further increase of inequality between social classes.

 

With regard to social unrest, do you actually think that when the first elections are invalidated by the new legislative cabal, the democratic majority in this country will sit idly by?  I think not.  Expect an increase in violence and a resistance that will be active and forceful.  America will not be a very nice place to live.  Rule by the minority is unhealthy.  Maintenance of power is the only thing important to those who will be in charge, and they will do whatever is necessary to keep it.  Freedom of the press will begin to be stifled.  We see it already in the efforts to pass legislation to restrict the boundaries of education by 'stopping  indoctrination' in our universities and other places of higher education.  In Florida, Gov. DeSantis signed legislation to mandate 'surveys' at the state universities to ascertain students 'views and beliefs'. He threatened to withhold funding if presumably the results are 'unsatisfactory'.

 

We are seeing an effort by the Conservative 'right' to mandate only approved curricula in our schools.  That will inevitably lead to restricted thinking and the further weakening of critical thinking skills.  This will result in the disappearance of innovative entrepreneurship and the eventual 'dumbing down' of America's youth.

 

The refusal of one of our major political parties to accept the results of an election, the refusal to discuss the causes of the insurrection at the Capitol, the refusal to consider any of the legislative measures to protect the right to vote, the refusal to accept the truth that our national election was without fraud, threatens to drive a stake through the heart of our democracy.

 

Never in the history of our country has such a major part of our population disregarded the truth and accepted the misinformation and lies of a former administration to the extent seen today.  Because such a vast portion of our citizenry is ignorant, uninformed, uneducated and subject to manipulation, we are careening down a rabbit hole that will be our undoing.  Civility, empathy, integrity and compassion are now apparently out of style.  Violence and greed are the pre-eminent social drivers.  The concept of 'one nation under God where all men are created equal' is now a quaint notion that has been bastardized by people who really don't subscribe to that lofty ideal at all....and where America lands because of the rejection of our fundamental moral ideal as a nation is a very dark and pitiful place.

 

It is hard to contemplate this kind of an outcome.  The optimist in me believes that the core of American idealism and its dream of an equitable multi-cultural society will inevitably emerge from this morass to provide a guiding beacon for the renaissance of the American experiment.  I may not be around to see it, but, somehow, I am confident of its arrival.  Our youth will bring it about because they are not afraid to ask the hard questions and have the energy to make much need moral corrections.  I believe the American dream and the opposition to autocracy will not just roll over and surrender.  There will be a brighter day for America. 

Are We Still A Democracy?

Webster's Definition of democracy

a: government by the people especially : rule of the majority

b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation involving periodically held free elections

 

If you consider Webster's definition, there are several elements which seem to stand out right away:

--government by the majority

--representation involving free elections

 

On both those counts if you look at current day America, one sees glaring contradictions in meeting those definitions.

 The heated discussions going on in Congress about the filibuster as it is being used today bring this contradiction into sharp focus.  Majority equals 'half plus one'.  What we have in the United States Senate is a bastardized mechanism that enables the minority to rule.  This 'rule' was never contemplated by the founding fathers of this nation.  This 'rule' thwarts the essence of democratic decision making.  This 'rule', which has nothing to do with democracy, has brought our decision-making process to a complete halt.  As a nation we are constipated by elected representatives who have distorted the meaning of democracy to embrace an anti-democratic rule to maintain minority rule.

 

In addition, our elected representatives have engaged in a process called gerrymandering which thwarts the concept of representative government.  Over the past several decades, Republicans have been creating voting precincts and districts specifically to enhance the voting power of a particular group: their own.  This is not the essence of true representation.  We are seeing continuing efforts by Republicans to create voting districts that favor their political party, creating hundreds of 'safe' Republican seats.  This makes representative government impossible since it creates election districts where a majority of its citizen's voices cannot be heard or represented.

 

In addition, we are seeing the Republican party, which is ascendant in a majority of state

legislatures, purposely passing new laws that give the legislatures of these states the power to simply disregard the results of an election if they decide for whatever reason that there is some 'irregularity' that they perceive, without the presentation of proof or evidence. How is that a 'free and fair election'?  The filibuster, of course, has no place in state legislatures since that would thwart 'majority rule', which is what the legislators will claim gives them the right to throw out the results of an election.  How ironic!  This is what happens in 'Banana Republics'!  Just look at the attempted shenanigans that we witnessed in the 2020 election in Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.  These new laws being passed will make it easier to disregard the voice of the voters with impunity.

 

 Additionally, these Republican state legislatures are systematically passing new legislation that has the effect of suppressing and restricting the voting power of specific minorities:  actions like reducing the hours for voting, limiting the placement of centralized voting boxes to collect absentee ballots, restricting who can get an absentee ballot, requiring stringent and unreasonable voter ID regulations, abolishing mail-in voting, etc.  All these efforts are actions that suppress voter turnout.  These measures are being passed in the name of 'election security' so that minority groups, specifically black and brown people will have more difficulty in successfully voting.

 

Democracy depends on accountability.  Unless a democracy can hold lawbreakers accountable, there is no consequence for wrongdoing.  What we have witnessed is a total disregard for the rule of law by the previous administration: denial of subpoenas, withholding of information during investigations, pardons given to personal friends of the previous President who are clearly criminals, lying to the American people, and now using the Justice Department to investigate political enemies, etc.  We all want to look forward and deal with the present and future challenges that face us as a nation, but unless we have some accountability for the emerging facts concerning actions of the previous  administration that clearly broke the law, we will be destined to see another executive who will do the same or worse than Trump.

 

I return to my first question:  Are we still a democracy?  I frankly don't think we are right now.  If we continue to harbor without consequence the bad actors who have led us to this place, our democracy will be a sham.

 The American people are not sufficiently aware of the peril we are in as a democracy.  Committing these egregious measures in plain view has desensitized the majority of Americans to the impending danger.  This is a slow moving but inexorable wave of anti-democracy that is relentlessly overtaking our republic.  I am not sure how to stop it, but I am convinced that if we don't, America will be a very different place to live in a fighteningly short number of years.