DEMOCRACY ‘UNDER SIEGE FROM MULTIPLE DIRECTIONS’
Many people believe the government ‘doesn’t work for them,’ the mayor says, while also giving some of the blame to the president
Democracy is “under siege from multiple directions” in America during a summer of violence, civil unrest and pandemic-fueled hardship that has left people disengaged from their government and intolerant of each other, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday.
Lightfoot unexpectedly turned the latest in a series of news conferences aimed at encouraging Chicagoans to participate in the 2020 U.S. Census into a rousing political address that, aides said, was triggered by the extraordinary moment facing Chicago and the nation.
The death of George Floyd and the civil unrest and racial reckoning it triggered. The coronavirus pandemic that has fallen hardest on Black and Hispanic communities and exacerbated racial inequities that existed long before COVID-19. The death of civil rights icon John Lewis. The spike in murders and shootings in Chicago and other major cities. The hyper-partisan political atmosphere created by, but not limited to, President Donald Trump and his re-election bid.
All those and more prompted the mayor’s political warning.
“To those who think I’m referring to President Trump and his brazen corruption and attack on our institutions, I’ll save the suspense. I am. But the siege I’m speaking about is about more than just one man — even though he is very much a symptom of the cause. Our democracy is under siege because we are losing the engagement democracy demands in alarming ways,” Lightfoot said.
Too many people feel their government “doesn’t work for them” and has failed to “respond to their daily struggle,” so they “find other outlets for engagement,” the mayor said. She argued that the same “sense of disaffection and disconnection of people from their government” spurred the American Revolution and the “litany of grievances against King George III.”
But democracy is also under siege in America because of the disengagement people feel from each other and the political intolerance that has left them unable or unwilling to engage “each other in a democratic way,” the mayor said.
“Democracy requires us to engage in a public square, where we can debate and find the facts and the arguments to persuade. It requires us to build coalitions and find common ground,” Lightfoot said.
“What Democratic engagement doesn’t mean is who screams the loudest. It doesn’t mean issuing a set of demands and then villainizing anyone who doesn’t immediately pledge allegiance to your particular manifesto.”
Lightfoot has made no apologies for using Twitter to fire back at White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany — “Hey, Karen. Watch your mouth” — after McEnany blamed Lightfoot for the recent spike in Chicago homicides and shootings.
Karen is a derogatory term used to refer to a privileged and intolerant white woman.
But Wednesday, the mayor bemoaned how social media has widened the political divide in America created by the 24-hour-news cycle and talking heads on cable news — and exacerbated by the more recent racial reckoning.
“When we limit our means of public engagement and public dialogue to a mere 140 characters behind anonymous monikers or on other forms of social media, we deepen the divides and burn the bridges that lead us to solutions,” Lightfoot said.
“We’ll get what we’ve seen: conspiracy theories, targeted misinformation campaigns and pure hatred.”
As she often does when making a point, Lightfoot argued “our children are watching.” And what they need to see is that there is “no substitute for direct engagement and actually having a conversation and understanding another point of view and tolerating difference,” she said.
“Make no mistake. This toxic environment is fomented by extremes on the right and the left, neither of which leave room for compromise, which is one of the pillars of democracy,” the mayor said.
“Compromise is not a dirty word. It’s not complicity or capitulation. Compromise … is the most important tool we have to find common ground. … We always need to fight passionately for what we believe in. But we also need to do so in ways that build bridges to allow for people we disagree with to cross over to us and us to them.”