On Democracy

 

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!!