Democracy is in trouble
One of my friends on the right said “I truly fear for our democracy when so many otherwise decent people accept without question the obvious lies being fed to them.” Another friend said,”I do not believe we are up to being a democracy. It is a hard thing to do or be.”
He is correct, because being a democracy means standing up to friends who are wrong. It means losing friends. It means turning away dark money. It means serving people who do not look like you. It means serving people that you may not even like, but you know that you must love them.
To be up for a democracy, we have to see every child as our child. To keep a democracy, we must work hard at making the country work for the majority of Americans, not just a few. It is hard, because in order to hold on to a democracy one cannot turn rail for rail. It is hard, because the leaders cannot put self first, ahead of “We the people.”
My friend then went on to say, “One of the main reasons being that, the tools that it takes to hold a democracy together are the same tools that can be used to destroy it.”
As we reflect back, the Founding Fathers were not sure about it themselves. Being human, they knew how power can corrupt. They knew how flesh speaks louder than reason at times and can cloud the mind from clear thinking. The Founding Fathers knew that once the system is broken, the pieces are almost impossible to put back together.
The main piece that held our democracy together for so long was the smooth transition of power that was never challenged. After breaking one link of the chain, the other links become easier to break, with additional power pulling in different directions.
Today our democracy is the longest functioning-democracy still standing. And it is doing just what the narrative from history said would happen. It is crumbling from the inside. Self-destruction based on internal corruption brought down every empire that has ever existed.
American citizens are being distracted and told to look elsewhere for the enemy, while at the same time the enemy is inside forming internal evil alliances and getting stronger. Lines that were once red lines not to be crossed were being crossed. While the citizens were being distracted, pacts were being made with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other countries whose leaders believe in a government by tyrants, despots, totalitarians and oligarchs.
When greed, hatred, love of power, and collective self-conception call a meeting and they all take a vote, that is the end of “We the people” being considered. The decline is close behind.
The Founding Fathers called this democracy an experiment and there was no example to use as a guide or a template other than the ones that have failed. They even questioned if it would hold. We the people must be responsible for keeping it together.
Quite a few lines have been crossed, and many times once a line is crossed there is no turning back. Those of us who believe in a democracy are hoping that “We the people” can get the government back in line to operate many more years as a democracy.
We the people cannot become disillusioned or distracted. Our story of the American democracy will not be a fairytale ending with “and they lived happily ever after.” But we cannot let it end with ”and when the curtain closed, I saw them standing over the open pit filled with bodies and those standing were holding guns aimed at those in the pit which were still burning.”
Tom Snyder stated in his book “Tyranny” that we need not think that our democracy is our protection. It is not. He suggested that we examine history to understand the deep sources of tyranny and to consider the proper responses to it. He goes on to say that we are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism. One advantage, Mr. Snyder states, is that we might learn what to do or not do in order to avoid falling prey to the enemy of democracy, externally or internally.
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union…”