To the Editor:
American Democracy Survived – for Now
Our democratic-republic is not out of the woods yet. We still have to get past January 6, when forces against democracy in Congress may try to block the Electoral College votes from awarding Joe Biden and Kamala Harris their rightful 306-winning tally. Then we have to get through January 20. Will right-wing terrorist groups, like Proud Boys, disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on Inauguration Day? Our vindictive president has recently cleaned house at the Pentagon. Will he try to get his sycophant replacements stage a military coup for him to stay in power?
Although the Trumpista majority in Congress failed miserably to perform its duties of checks and balances during The Donald’s first two years in office, and while Trumpista-enabler Mitch McConnell’s Senate continued covering-up his transgressions over the last two years, the republic has still held. State and local governments (red and blue) have admirably conducted the 2020 free and fair elections in spite of challenges presented by the pandemic and pressures from the Trump campaign not to do so. Based on all available evidence, eligible votes were accurately counted with no credible
evidence of fraud.
Anti-democracy advocates have not been silent. The convicted and Trump-pardoned former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn wants the president to declare martial law. Hate radio’s blowhard Rush Limbaugh repeats others’ pleas for secession. The Trumpista attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, who is under investigation and probably hoping for a presidential pardon, filed suit to prevent several swing states’ votes from being counted. Leslie Rutledge, the attorney general of my home state of Arkansas, joined 16 other traitorous Trumpista state attorneys general in an amicus brief supporting Paxton’s ludicrous lawsuit. Representatives Rick Crawford, from Arkansas’s 1st district, and
Bruce Westerman, from my 4th district, were among the 60 percent of “Republicans” in the U.S. House to endorse Paxton’s anti-democracy gambit.
Of course, I’m appalled and embarrassed by the antiperformances of Rutledge, Crawford, and Westerman, but, sadly, I was not surprised. I have been defending democracy and the U.S. Constitution my entire professional lifetime as an educator and also, since August 2004, in this newspaper by way of monthly letters to the editor and guest columns. The Constitution is extremely fragile, and its endurance depends upon the trust bestowed in those who take oaths of office to defend it. When those people lie, representative government, the truth, the rule of law, the
Constitution, and democracy itself are all in jeopardy.
Surprisingly, but fortunately, our courts, which have been packed with Trumpista appointees, have consistently decided for democracy in all of the Trumpista lawsuits that falsely claimed fraudulent voting. That includes the U.S. Supreme Court, which Trump and McConnell packed with three additional reactionary justices to get the 6 to 3 majority they were certain would decide the 2020 presidential election
The Trumpistas will no doubt be targeting all of these democracy safeguards to subvert them in 2022 and especially 2024. Democracy is easier lost than won.