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Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Will America's Constitutional Democracy Hold For Four More Years?

John Dewey, known as the founder of American progressive education, declared that "Democracy, and the one ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind synonymous."  As an educational reformer, and one of the most prominent American scholars in the early twentieth century, Dewey believed that an informed and educated electorate was the key to preserving America's constitutional democracy.  

Dewey was right.  Events leading up to and including this 2024 election in the United States have proved his words to be correct.  If the election is an accurate reflection of the political will of the people, then this one is a reflection of appalling ignorance about the issues at stake, and of the ability of sheer propaganda to penetrate and saturate the electorate to achieve a result not consistent with reality.  We have an electorate that is blatantly apathetic, appallingly ignorant and inexcusably uneducated that has just allegedly elected leadership bent on the destruction of American Constitutional Democracy.  

And the clown that was elected is lining up a group of individuals whose incompetence and inability to manage the parts of the executive branch to which he plans to appoint them will destroy what they don't intentionally ruin when they get there. For anyone who might be placing hope in a group of Republican senators to stop this clown show, and demand that the people appointed to these cabinet positions at least be competent and capable of doing the job, and not flawed by a criminal record, or by a subversive, treasonous relationship with Vladimir Putin, or by their own deviant sexual behavior, I'll tell you now you will be disappointed.  No Republican anywhere in that party's leadership has integrity any more.  They're just protecting their assets at this point, like pathetic Lindsay Graham, who trots around after Trump with toilet paper and tissues, to wipe his ass and blow his nose.  

Don't Count on Any Republican to Display Any Integrity or Conviction

The Republicans are weighing their chances of survival and thinking of themselves.  Who, among the Republicans, has the guts, or should I say the balls, to step up, block Trump's appointments, demand better, and let this lame duck President know that they won't help him destroy the American Republic?  Mitch McConnell?  He'd dismantle it himself, in his own way, if he had the chance, and he's the chief enabler.  Thune?  Barrasso?  Ernst?  Moore-Capito?  If these Senators actually had integrity, they'd have spoken up before the nomination started and instead of vacillating, they'd have been decisive when it counted.  They've all clearly chosen party over country, and over the people.  

Mitt Romney is gone.  Not that he would have had the courage or resolve to right what he repeatedly called wrong.  He put out a lot of words, and did nothing to back up what he said.  There was a time when I thought his Mormon convictions might actually be real, and heartfelt, and that he would follow them and not allow the stain of Trump's worldly evil splash itself on the Mormon Church, but they're complicit, just like conservative Evangelicals.  They've been deceived and deluded by a demon posing as an angel of light.  Romney has clearly made it known how he feels, but is not courageous enough to step up and do anything meaningful about it.  Trump won the Mormon vote, undermining their credibility as a true faith, and by it they are declaring their own racism, misogyny, bigotry and prejudice.  

The only senators who have spoken up about this are Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.  And I have no confidence in their discernment, given the way they were talked into voting for Supreme Court justices who lied to their face and told them they would not vote to overturn Roe, which made them, particularly Collins, look foolish.  No kudos are in order for just speaking up.  Let see the strength of conviction in actions, not words.  

What Can Democrats Do At This Point? 

Democrats started talking about 2024 as the "most consequential election of our lifetime" shortly after the mid-term elections in 2022.  I'm still trying to get past the shock and disappointment that occurred on November 5th, I remain unconvinced at this point that we lost solely because bigotry, racism and misogyny are more important than core political issues.  We lost our free press, who gave Trump four straight years of 24 hour a day, 7 day a week news coverage, far more than they covered the sitting President.  We lost because they had an open, free platform to convince their supporters that the lies they were telling about every single thing they addressed were true.  We lost because hardly any Americans, even a lot of Democrats, were aware of the remarkable achievements of the single most accomplished President since Lyndon B. Johnson.

And I am extremely difficult to be convinced, at this point, with all of the shrieking and lip flapping and caterwauling that Trump and his loyalists have done about how the 2020 election was stolen, that they didn't start planning and organizing to steal this one, beginning on January 21, 2021.  I'll need conclusive proof those votes are real before that's settled.  And that doesn't make me a conspiracy theorist, it makes me one of 75 million Americans who are also not convinced this wasn't rigged.  I hope there are Democrats who hear this from their constituents and don't just let the other side roll over us for the sake of making a big deal out of a peaceful transfer of power.  I'd expect that much follow-up from leadership of the party that convinced me this election was the most consequential of my lifetime. 

So what should we now expect from the leadership of the Democratic party, after losing an election they convinced most of us to believe was the most consequential of our lifetime?  Is it politics as usual?  Is is an attitude of, "Well, at least I won my election and I'll be able to take my seat and collect my government paycheck and expenses."  If this election was so consequential, and our democracy is now in the most danger it ever has been in, then I need to hear from the party leadership, and I need to see something that convinces me that they don't just think this is all intense election rhetoric aimed at getting contributions and votes and now we're all just going to hunker down and endure until the next election gives us a chance to change things.  

If our democracy really is in danger, there may not be a "next election."  

I'm going to need to see more than what I'm seeing now.  If, somehow, someway our democracy does survive the next four years, the person who gets my vote will be the one who led the way through this darkness, confusion and terror of what's coming, shows no fear of Trump, challenges any moves he makes to abuse the law to get even with his enemies, and leads a genuine resistance movement that I will gladly volunteer to join and financially support.  

There are those who stand to lose a lot if they become a target of Trump's vengeful anger.  I've always enjoyed Stephanie Miller's daily program, blending politics and news with a good dose of humor and lighthearted fun.  Obviously, her program is dependent on getting the air time it needs to be heard, and I'm sure there are corporate owners in the media upon whose good graces her show is dependent for its freedom.  She's not backing down, or taking steps to circle the wagons and tone down the rhetoric, watering down the truth for the protection of her program.  She's still speaking out, and it makes it worth listening to her program as a result.  Trust what you hear there, it's the truth, and unlike Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, she's not running for cover.

That's the kind of example we need to follow, people.  And if Stephanie Miller asks for my support, she's got it.

The Trust and Integrity That the Founders Assumed Would Always Be There, and Which is Required for Constitutional Democracy to Work, is Gone 

Were they able to see what is happening now, I believe our founding fathers would have written a much more detailed constitution, including restrictions on holding any office in government at all by a person who was a convicted criminal.  They would have put more teeth in the enforcement of conclusions determined by Congressional investigations.  They would have determined how corrupt judges and public officials could be removed without impossible to obtain two-thirds majorities of votes of Congress, because they would have been more visionary when it came to the idea that loyalty to political parties would develop and be more divisive than boundaries between countries on the ground.  

As a result of what was, in 1789, a high level of trust, integrity and respect among the founders, who believed in the values that distinguished the United States of America, we have a constitution that depends on those things needing to be defended when they are no longer characteristic of our politics, or present in our society.  People had to be informed, reasonably educated and skilled in critical thinking.  Ironic, isn't it, that in an age where communication is instant, and prolific, in every corner of life, people can be completely uninformed, unaware, and dangerously ignorant and apathetic.

I listened to a radio interview tonight with a voter who couldn't possibly have been more misinformed, gaslighted might be a better word, unable to cite a single fact, not even one, in defense of casting a ballot for what she claimed was a return "to the way things used to be."  She was completely lost when asked to explain exactly what that meant, and vehemently denied that Trump was going to appoint RFK Jr. to anything.  She had no idea who any of his other proposed appointees were, couldn't identify one of them, and was sure the media was "just lying about it."  She was baffled and unable to discuss the January 6th insurrection from 2021, did not know what the host was talking about, and had no idea that there were wars going on in Gaza and Ukraine.  

If she's a good example of the electorate that put Trump back in office, and I think that's probably right on the money, then the odds of the constitution holding out for the next four years are not even close to 50-50.     

An Educated Electorate is the Key to Preserving Democracy

I'm a former high school American History and Government teacher.  I patiently tried to help my students learn how to think critically, to get the information they needed to make informed decisions and to know everything they needed to know about how our government works, and how the Constitution protects precious, vital individual rights, limiting the government's intrusion and preventing the imposition of tyranny.  I also taught them the basic principle of human equality, and the value and sanctity of human life and I tried to set a personal example by demonstrating love for my neighbor, respect for the rights and opinions of others, and to invest in an effort to use what I know to make the world a better place, starting in my own corner of it.  

I started teaching in 1979.  As I look out over the former students I've been able to keep up with, as they have gone out into the world, I can point to some shining examples who have made the choice to use their talents, abilities and their education for the benefit of others.  They got it.  I've had the privilege of sitting in a doctor's office at a teaching hospital, and when the door opened, the resident department fellow who walked through the door for my initial examination was a former student.  I got called to jury duty about ten years ago, and when the district attorney who was prosecuting the case walked into the room, I recognized her as a former student, and I smiled, not just because I was about to get out of jury duty, but because she had pursued ambitions she expressed to me when she was a student.  

I ran into a former student in the Metro in Washington, D.C.  I heard my name being called behind me on the escalator, and when I got to the bottom, turned around and greeted a former student who was serving as an intern in the US Senate, for a Democrat, which was a shock, because his parents were staunch Republicans.  And I have a former student who got into education as a history teacher, always a point of pride, and who is now the director of diversity and inclusion at a major state university in a southern state.  I can only hope I made a difference.  I'm just glad to know that they are thinking people who saw an opportunity to serve in a place where they make a difference.  

That's the kind of electorate we need.  It is, unfortunately, not the electorate we have.  I am now hoping there is enough critical thinking, appreciation for a constitutional democracy and desire to protect our freedom to sustain us through this inside attack on our own values.  

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