Entering 2024, our concern for US democracy is what keeps us up at night
The year 2024 has arrived, a presidential election year in the United States. Incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden may face former President Donald Trump, who is seeking the GOP nomination. The Republican presidential nominating season begin Jan. 15 with the Iowa caucuses. While Trump is considered the strong front-runner for the GOP nomination, new obstacles have arisen in recent days.
A Dec. 19 ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court barred Trump from the primary ballot in that state; the justices ruled that Trump had engaged in an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, thus violating the 14th Amendment and disqualifying him from high office. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal on the Colorado decision.
And Thursday, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state removed Trump from that state’s presidential primary ballot, also under the Constitution’s insurrection clause. That decision is on hold so Trump can pursue appeals.
We generally offer a litany of wishes for the new year, but this year we have one overriding wish: that our democracy survives what will almost certainly be a turbulent presidential race.
We still want to see communities rally around their public libraries and school boards support school libraries, so they can meet the diverse needs of those they serve. And we want state and federal lawmakers to work aggressively on legislation to reduce carbon emissions, substantively address climate change and ensure that future generations will inherit a healthy planet.
But the thing that keeps us up the most at night is our concern for American democracy.
We are far from alone in that concern. As Ann Womble, a former Lancaster County, Pa., GOP chair and former member of the LNP — Lancasteronline Editorial Board, wrote in a Dec. 17 column, today’s Republican Party “is beholden to one man whose only platform is to exact retribution on anyone who crosses him and, according to his own words, rule like a dictator and suspend the Constitution if he deems it necessary.”
You might dismiss Womble’s concerns because she’s now a registered independent, having changed her political affiliation because of what she saw as Trump’s corrosive effects on the GOP. But she’s still a dyed-in-the-wool
The election of a candidate who vows to act like a “dictator” on Day 1 of his second presidency might not be something this nation can survive. And so we hope that somehow the danger will be averted, that Republican voters ultimately choose a presidential nominee who honors the Constitution and the rule of law.
conservative. She has written repeatedly about her admiration for former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-wyo., whose recently published book, “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning,” identifies a dangerous and growing contempt — fomented by Trump and his many enablers — for the rule of law in the United States.
We saw the horrific consequences of that contempt three years ago on Jan. 6, when Trump supporters rioted at, and inside, the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
What occurred that tragic day is not up for dispute or alternate interpretation. It was crystal clear from the first moments who had encouraged the insurrection, and that it was a shattering and antidemocratic episode for America.
In the very next day’s editorial, we wrote: “What have we become? What has our beloved nation become? We will not mince words. The MAGA extremists who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday are domestic terrorists and criminals. They smashed some of the glass windows of the historic building at the heart of our representative government and punctured the very heart of U.S. democracy. ... The pro-trump extremists were marching at the behest of an American president trying desperately and illegitimately to cling to power — a president who appallingly had egged them on.”
Yet here we are, three years later, faced with a GOP that still mostly embraces Trump and the very real possibility that he will be elected in November 2024.
The election of a candidate who vows to act like a “dictator” on Day 1 of his second presidency might not be something this nation can survive.
And so we hope that somehow the danger will be averted, that Republican voters — in the primaries to be held in the weeks and months ahead — ultimately choose a presidential nominee who honors the Constitution and the rule of law.
We also hope voters pay close attention in the new year to what each of the presidential candidates say about democracy and their commitment to preserving it. Anyone promising dictatorial rule, threatening revenge on perceived enemies or expressing admiration for foreign authoritarian leaders should send you running in another direction.
If you aren’t already registered to vote, please do so.
There will be many voices competing for our attention in 2024, so please choose your news sources wisely. Make sure those news sources clearly distinguish between news and opinion.
Another marker of a reliable and trustworthy news source: It acknowledges and corrects its mistakes, as quickly and as clearly as possible.
Our democracy was a gift from our
Founders.
If we are to keep it, if we are to protect it, we must resolve to think critically about the decisions we make in 2024.