Our democracy is dying in darkness
A re we allowing our democracy to die the slow death of the frogs? Most of us have heard about the experiment with the frogs, but we do not realize that we can learn and we can grow from stories of that nature. A researcher has said that if a frog is dropped into a boiling pot of water, he will flip out the minute his feet hit the boiling water. On the other hand, the test was carried out in another manner. The frogs were put in a kettle of water at room temperature and the heat was gradually turned up until it reached a boiling point. All of the frogs remained in the kettle and died.
Are we like that last set of frogs? Are we Americans in a kettle of water with the heat being turned up gradually? The heat is our acceptance of lies, unfaithfulness, bullying, deceitfulness, dishonesty and ungodly behavior towards each other. Are we gradually allowing our integrity and honor to die as well? It is happening so gradually that we have not noticed that the principled characteristics of human decency are gone. We have not noticed that we as Americans are fast becoming hollow, empty of compassion for others.
The day when the Hollywood tapes surfaced, and Trump shared with poor Billy Bush how he violates women, our mouths dropped open, and we said, “Never!” But several days later we remembered that we had heard those words before, and maybe it did not violate us as much as when we first heard the confession. So we called for the firing of Billy and the hiring of Trump as our next president. Several days passed, and by this time Trump has cursed someone for a SOB, and we passed that off as just “a man being a man.” Water is getting warmer and warmer in the kettle.
Trump decided to pardon Joe Arpaio in the dark of night, hoping not to draw attention. Joe Arpaio is on the level of a hardened criminal who refuses to see the error of his crime. Arpaio was convicted in court for refusing to follow the orders from a federal judge ordering him to stop racially profiling Latinos. We passed that off by saying, they are not like us so what does it matter to us. The water is still getting a little warmer, but we cannot tell because it is so gradual. We support Trump as he bends the laws written in our Constitution for his own personal benefit. We simply say, “Well, he is the president.” The water is getting warmer and democracy has taken another breath, but this breath is slower than the one before and more shallow.
Trump meets with the two Russians in the Oval Office and refuses to allow anyone from America in the room. He shared with the Russians that he felt freed up now that he has fired FBI Director James Comey, whom he calls a nut job. The temperature of the water is a little warmer this time, but yet our hearts and minds are becoming a little more callous of these autocratic moves. We pass that action off by reasoning that Russia is not that bad, and it would be good to be Russia’s friend. After all, Putin was not the one who said that Russia would bury America, that was another one of their rulers.
Trump does not like reading and did not comprehend facts shared in his history classes in his “good” school and is not aware that Russia is still America’s enemy. We have forgotten that Trump is not even aware that Frederick Douglass is dead and that President Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. A little steam begins to come from the kettle. A few Republicans bail from the kettle because they just cannot take that kind of political abuse of the U.S. Constitution.
To ensure a separation of powers, the U.S. federal government is made up of three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. To ensure the government is effective and citizens’ rights are protected, each branch has its own powers and responsibilities. Trump’s understanding of how the government works is not based on the Constitution of this country. He actually thinks the FBI and the CIA are for his protection only, and there is no one around to help him understand the fallacy of his thinking. Those who are staying around are literally afraid to correct him. The water in the kettle has now become very hot.
When all of the frogs and democracy are dead, who will be around to explain what happened? The blessed fact about this is that we are not frogs and this is not an experiment. When do we plan to get out of the kettle? Will we stand up and tell the destroyers of the free press and democracy that we feel the heat and have no intentions of letting them continue to give away our democracy? As the Founder Fathers were drawing up the Constitution, they realized that it would be inadequate to govern a people who are not responsive to the internal governance of moral and religious strictures.
So how then can we keep from dying and losing our honor and dignity in the American kettle? We must live truthfully, righteously, peacefully, dependently, confidently, biblically and prayerfully. Our greatest problems are not secular, financial, political or intellectual. No! Our real enemies are unseen because the real battlefield lies within the human heart. I believe as Dr. Gary Taylor does, “When the heart is changed, the man is changed. When the man is changed, his life is changed. When his life is changed, the world will change.”
To ensure a separation of powers, the U.S. federal government is made up of three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. To ensure the government is effective and citizens’ rights are protected, each branch has its own powers and responsibilities. Trump’s understanding of how the government works is not based on the Constitution of this country. He actually thinks the FBI and the CIA are for his protection only, and there is no one around to help him understand the fallacy of his thinking. Those who are staying around are literally afraid to correct him. The water in the kettle has now become very hot.