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.