I
love to write. I think about the subject of my efforts long and hard
before I write. Sometimes it does not come easily to me but
listening to Ali Velshi yesterday morning on MSNBC (a channel which occupies 9/10ths of
my time) culminated in a light bulb moment. I figured out what was going to be the
subject of my next effort.
Ali Velshi's soliloquy on Democracy after
covering the war-torn Ukraine was extemporaneously brillant. He
delivered with perfection his profound thoughts on the brutality of war against a totalitarian Russian bully, Putin, and at the
same time gave me the subject of my next piece. It will be entitled On Democracy. Thank
you, Ali Velshi, for delivering one of the most profound rationales for
Democracy I have ever had the privilege to hear and why the struggle to
maintain our democracy is so costly but ever-so necessary.
Thank
you
again, Ali Velshi. I will dedicate my next piece to you and, as always,
continue to watch MSNBC because it has the best news coverage,
commentary and communicatively conveys, by far, the best and most
profoundly humane
political thought of any other news programming station. Your profound
thoughts on Democracy moved me to tears!
On Democracy
I
spent two days last week viewing historical documentaries on Netflix --
one was entitled "Pearl Harbor." I know the historicity of Pearl
Harbor. If I know it so well why does it make me cry everytime I view
it and everytime I hear our National Anthem when viewing it? I cry when
I see the dismemberment of our entire Pacific fleet, the bravery of our
men and women in uniform, and their horrific injuries by the surprise
attack on the US at the hands of the Empire of Japan on December 7,
1941. Those in the military risk their lives so that our Democracy and
we live. Especially during WWII that remained clear.
Japan
was celebrating the efficacy of the attack and bestowing
congratulations on the Japanese officers who led it. Another Japanese
officer said he was not so ebulent. He said "I think we have awoken a
sleeping giant." He was, of course, correct. The attack ensured the
United States would enter the war and thousands if not millions signed
up to do so.
On December 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked a Joint
Session of Congress to declare war against Germany and Italy and against
the Empire of Japan in response to the
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. "In his remarks, the president assured
Members of Congress and the American people, “With confidence in our
armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, in our
righteous might we will
gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God.” The vote to go to war was
nearly unanimous. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom, said he had never slept so well as when he heard of the
Japanese sneak attack on America at Pearl Harbor because, he said, he
knew the United Kingdom would be safe when America entered the war. The
allies would add US power to their arsenal.
I
can only watch the events of that day with a sense of envy. I thought
that it would be the last time the US was so united. Love of country and
its Democracy led us to that day. America rolled up its sleeves and
went to war to save Democracy for us, for the United Kingdom and for,
indeed, the world.
Governments are Instituted to show where the decision making powers
exist.
It has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except
for all the others. Yes, it is difficult to get an entire nation's
representatives to agree on one issue. If one wants ease of decision
making then a totalitarian form of government is the one for you. The
totalitarian state takes the responsibility of decision making out of
the hands of the people and places it in the hands of one omnipotent
leader and his supportive henchmen whether one likes that decision or
not. His or her word is law. The leader is above the law. Moreover,
if one questions the leader's powers one opens oneself up to retaliatory
violence and even death because in a totalitarian form of government
such as Communism, Fascism, or monarchy the leader is the final and
really the only word. To defy his word means imprisonment, torture or
worse.
Our
Founders showed their brilliance by dividing power up between three
institutions -- the Legislative, mentioned first, then the Executive,
and the Judicial branch each with its own set of powers and checks on
the other powers within the system. They called it "checks and
balances" whereby each institution can ride shotgun on Constitutional
democracy to protect it, importantly, by non-violent opposition.
That power is derived from a just set of Constitutionally allowable
techniques to arrive at policy through duly elected representatives of
the people. Yes, Democracy is sometimes messy and difficult but strives
toward fairness. The final arbitrators of stalemate are the Courts.
President Barack Obama loved the Martin Luther King quote "The arc of
the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" so much so that
he had it woven into the carpet in the oval office.
Our
values, those of our elected representatives and the courts are the
nationally agreed upon formation of how to handle differences in a
democracy. Couple that with a separation of church and state which the
Founders so presciently formed because they saw what happened when
religion's mandates are the final but ever so debatable arbiter.
Include the Bill of Rights to the essential fairness against the
usurpation of government power and one has a nation which has guarded
our Constitutional republic carefully against tyranny for over 200
years.
Totalitarian
governments kill millions as there is no inhibitor on the leader. The
Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan in WWII killed an estimated 50
million or more. The founders of Democracies can try to stop that
because of the essential fairness within Democracy itself and its
ability to debate policy. Our Founders formed a Constitutional
lifeguard to protect our democratic union. We have as Benjamin Franklin
told the one who asked him what kind of government they had created--
"a Republic, if you can keep it" he said and so we have kept it for
over 200 years. 200 more years, anyone? Let's go for it!!
