Democracy neither ‘fragile flower’ nor guaranteed

It’s not enough to simply hope that everything turns out all right. It’s up to us to protect our long-held form of governance from forces that are actively working to overturn it.

American democracy is not dead or on life support. That declaration might do little to alleviate the fears of those who vividly remember the anarchy the world witnessed at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and worry that it might happen again.

Revisionists and liars cannot change the fact that there was an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

But it speaks to the strength of the “sanctity of the law” that our democracy lives a year after Americans, hyped up on one of the biggest lies told in generations, attacked one of our most sacred institutions and the men and women assigned to protect it.

Regardless of whether former President Donald Trump or others are held accountable for spurring on the Jan. 6 insurrection, the fact remains that American democracy stands.

For that, we should take comfort. But that solace has its limits.

American democracy was shaken a year ago, and it is at great risk in Ohio and around the nation.

Thirty-eight Ohioans have been charged in connection to the insurrection. Six have pleaded guilty, including four from Greater Columbus and two from Bradford in westcentral Ohio.

We the people feel the stress on our democracy, and many fear that perhaps John Adams – a Founding Father and the nation’s second president – was correct in his 1814 letter to politician and writer John Taylor of Caroline.

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.”

Americans today overwhelmingly see the nation’s democracy in jeopardy, according to a new USA TODAY/ Suffolk University poll.

GETTY IMAGES John Adams, a Founding Father of the United States and its second president, expressed his reservations about the stability of our democracy as far back as 1814.