DEMOCRACY IN THE BALANCE
Yesterday I watched on TV the D.C. remembrance of last year’s January 6 insurrection. I found the recollections, speeches, and prayers often moving and overall consistently sobering. True, and to be regretted, it was a Democrats’ show; Liz Cheney and her father were the only Republicans to take part.
Throughout the somber proceedings, I sensed an undercurrent of fear in the speakers. Fear? Fear of what? Fear that our democracy was at serious risk, and might be lost in the fast-closing future.
Winston Churchill famously said that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” Few of us would disagree. Democracy is a rara avis, as fragile as it is rare, subject to constant threats from within as well as without. It is from within, from Trump and the Trumpers and the GOP elephant run amok, that come the threats to replace our weakened democracy with a nihilistic mix of autocracy and chaos.
Democracy makes demands on its citizens. They must stay informed, participate in their governance and, above all, think critically. To survive, a modern democracy—or a democratic republic as we have evolved to be—also requires that all participating parties and factions agree to abide by certain shared beliefs based upon a common set of facts preserved in a written document, a binding constitution. Of course, in actual governance, unwritten norms and protocols evolve over time and are accepted as an integral part of the governing process. And in the course of governing a nation in a world of ever-changing circumstances, its legislators will have to draft new laws—laws that adhere to the original agreed-upon principles.
Disagreements are certain to come up in any democracy. Ideally, they are discussed, debated, a compromise is reached, votes are taken by fairly elected representatives, and the majority decides the rules we live by. The introduction of “alternate facts” are not a part of the deliberations; true facts override magical thinking in the real world. And violence is never a solution to a disagreement.
How do we as a nation measure up to these demands? Not very well. That fear I heard yesterday in the spoken memories of January 6, 2021 was more than justified. Our democracy is indeed in peril.
Benjamin Franklin was asked at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 what kind of government the framers had come up with. Franklin replied, “A republic…if you can keep it.” Do we keep it? There’s still a slim hope that we might. But that means standing up and calling out the Trumpers for their unconstitutional power grab. And, of course, voting this November as though it were your last chance to do so.