Democracy on the Ballot
This week, Trinity is hosting a symposium entitled “Democracy on the Ballot.” What does that mean? This is NOT a discussion of political candidates or parties per se, but rather, a dialogue about values and issues at stake for all Americans. This is a program designed to think about the issues of concern to all of us, the values we share and want to uphold in our communities, the ways in which We the People construct our society to achieve the greatest good possible for the greatest number of people.
Or so we should. There is a bubbling school of thought, however, that rejects the idea of Democracy as a function of human self-governance, of choices made in freedom, choices that place the best interests of the community ahead of the desires of any one individual. The anti-Democracy school of thought believes that the power to make decisions for the community should be vested in one person or a small group of people, that the rules should be set by authority rather than the free choice of democracy. This preference for authoritarian rule has been growing in the United States and around the world for a number of years. Fascism is a far-right version of the preference for authoritarian rule, characterized by concentrating power in the hands of a dictator, suppressing dissent, militarizing law enforcement and denial of individual rights, sometimes with violence. The Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany is one of history’s most notorious examples of the rise of extreme authoritarianism and its destructive impact on society.
I’m old enough to remember a time when we thought that American Democracy was a given, that no one would ever choose to end this way of life in favor of a dictatorship. But in the last decade or more, we have seen the emergence of factions in American life who truly do believe that Democracy has run its course, that the 248 year-old American Experiment should end. This is not just a small group yearning for the restoration of monarchy on these shores; this is a substantial movement that stands in opposition to much of what has happened in American society in the last half century. There are people in this movement who speak with admiration of Hitler. To say that could not happen here is to be blind to the realities at stake in this election.
What are the key issues at stake for Democracy in the upcoming election, and what’s driving the anti-Democracy sentiment? We can organize them under several major headings, and these are issues that should inform every voter facing choices in this election.
1. Who has a right to decide the rules for life in America?
In a Democracy, We the People have the right to decide, and we elect public officials to carry out our wishes. At its founding in 1789 (the year the U.S. Constitution was ratified), the only people who could vote were white male property owners. Of the roughly 4 million American citizens at that time, about 20% were eligible to vote or less than 1 million. This year, in 2024, about 244 million Americans are eligible to vote including all of those populations once denied the franchise —- women, African American, Latino, Asian, people who don’t own property, persons of many different faiths and abilities and philosophies and economic circumstances. America’s glory today is its diversity! It’s fair to say that the founders could not have imagined a nation this large and diverse, and yet, the systems of Democracy created 200 years ago still work for today’s United States.
The factions trying to move America toward authoritarian rule do not like all of this diversity, and they challenge both overtly and covertly the rights of people to live here, to vote, to make choices for their lives. Some interest groups and political leaders seek to limit voting in these ways:
- Efforts to establish voter ID laws are the clearest effort of the authoritarian movement to limit voting by citizens of color and citizens who are immigrants;
- The overt attacks on immigrants are a clear signal of the desire of the authoritarians to stop certain persons from sharing in the benefits of this nation;
- The repeated and insidious challenges to the results of elections seek to disenfranchise millions of voters whose choices run counter to what the authoritarian movement wants as the result.
It’s not going too far to say that there is an element of white supremacy undergirding much of the opposition to the free and unfettered expansion of our Democracy. It’s well known that, by 2050 if not sooner, there will no longer be a White majority in this country. The census and the sociological change it describes is inexorable and inescapable. But the authoritarian movement seeks to limit the consequences of sociology, in the long run, a quest that will not prevail. But much damage can occur in the intervening years if we make bad choices today.
WE THE PEOPLE must jealously safeguard our right to make the choices for our nation. The way we do this is to VOTE in every election!
2. What are the most important rights that Democracy protects?
Threats to our fundamental rights are mounting each day. The most obvious threats include:
Limits on Freedom of Speech and Expression: some politicians want to limit the ability of citizens to express disagreement with them. A candidate for the presidency has gone so far as to suggest that he would use the military to go after citizens who dissent from his policies. This is a clear assault on our First Amendment rights and an obvious embrace of actions that can be described as fascist.
Limits on Freedom of the Press: similar to the threats against freedom of speech, there is an effort to intimidate the media. One candidate has gone so far as to say that a major television network should lose its license to broadcast because of a favorable interview with his opponent. Every public official has a right to disagree with the press but no public official should ever seek to use the power of office to limit the ability of any media outlet from publishing what they choose.
Intrusion on Freedom of Religion: some politicians, particularly in the states, are trying to force a view of America as a Christian nation including forcing schools to purchase and teach the Bible. In fact, the founders of this nation deliberately separated Church and State because of the abuses they suffered under a monarchy that dictated religious beliefs and practices. All of us who cherish the freedom to practice our own religions in the ways we choose to practice should object to state-mandated religious expression.
Diminishment of Due Process and Equal Protection: every person in this country has a right to due process and equal protection of the laws; but the authoritarian mindset favors arrests, imprisonments, deportations or outrageous forms of punishment with little due process and no legal protections. A candidate for president is going so far as to advocate in favor of “rounding-up and deporting” hundreds of thousands of immigrants with virtually no due process in violation of some of the most fundamental rights of this society. Authoritarians believe that the way to solve problems is through punishment, not dialogue and patient negotiation leading to solutions. In fact, history shows that the authoritarian “crack-down” model eventually fosters a revolution against such tactics, but meanwhile, millions of lives are lost and society is ruptured. (Note this sentence in the Declaration of Independence evoking John Locke’s Second Treatise (225) on revolution: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security…”)
3. What other issues are at stake?
Education is the most important resource for a Democracy to thrive, and education at all levels is in jeopardy if authoritarians rule. Recently, one of the candidates for president spoke enthusiastically about eliminating the Department of Education and putting the responsibility for education policy in the hands of a few cronies.
- Higher education is already under fire as never before, with Congressional inquisitions into campus management and states imposing bans on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, banning books, ending tenure, diminishing academic freedom and even demanding review of course syllabi for content. Higher education should be on the barricades opposing this movement, but instead, too many higher ed leaders are hiding in bunkers of neutrality, afraid to say anything lest they lose appropriations or donations. When the Third Reich rose to power in Germany, too many university leaders remained silent. Our silence will be our destruction.
- K-12 education is similarly at risk, all the more so because states truly believe they can dictate the content of K-12 curricula, the books in the libraries, the topics taught.
- In particular, at all levels of education, the authoritarian movement wants to ban teaching any form of American History that addresses the facts of slavery in the formation of this nation, including banning books like the 1619 Project and books that include Critical Race Theory elements. In addition to race, the authoritarians would ban books and course materials on Women’s Rights, LGBTQ+ issues, and almost anything related to sex education.
Racial Justice: Threading through all of these issues is the challenge of achieving true racial justice in a nation that sometimes seems to be fighting the Civil War again. I mention the problem of white supremacy above. This is a real problem and it is driving many of the repressive actions in K-12 education and even higher education. We need leaders in this nation who can move us forward to that pluralistic society of the future, in harmony and respect for our many differences. We also need leaders who are not afraid of the truth of American History. It is true that slavery was an economic foundation for much of America’s founding. It’s also true that the historic figures most revered in our history — Washington, Jefferson, Madison — owned slaves and could not bring themselves to do what they knew was the right thing by ending it at the founding. Denying our history only debilitates our ability to achieve true racial justice in contemporary America.
Women’s Rights and Bodily Autonomy: No one should suffer the indignity of having the State decide what medical procedures they may or may not have. But since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, in state after state women have suffered the most egregious forms of State intrusion, with heinous forms of tests and proofs required before doctors may treat them for pregnancy complications, resulting in much injury and even death. Some state politicians have proposed even more draconian rules including monitoring menstrual cycles of girls.
The disrespect for women’s privacy in their medical affairs now also extends to disrespect for persons seeking transgender care. The obsession of some politicians with policing bodies of persons who they deem unworthy of respect is a dangerous sign of a growing authoritarian state. In a truly free society, medical decisions should be between the patient and doctor, period.
Immigration: I mentioned this above under Due Process and Equal Protection, but the issue is much larger than even those Constitutional protections. The repeated disparagement and slurs against immigrants by one of the candidates is a disgrace to our country and our electoral system. Immigration is a serious challenge, yes; the situation at the southern border, in particular, needs a solution. But the name-calling, slurs and lies about immigrants serve no purpose except to reinforce the idea that the dictator will “solve” the problem through mass deportations, which is no solution and unlikely even to occur. Voters need to cut through the rhetorical fog to understand that the issue of immigration needs a thoughtful, durable solution in federal legislation — legislation that Congress has been unable to enact for many years. Elect members of Congress who are actually willing to do something other than posture and pledge allegiance to an authoritarian wannabe.
Healthcare, Medicare and Social Security: Three huge issues, rolled into one paragraph here not because they are simple but because the authoritarian assaults on them all arise from the same ideology: a desire to un-do decades of federal policies that are seen as “liberal” and caring for people in need. The idea that the federal government should take care of the citizens of this nation when they are at their most vulnerable — seeking affordable healthcare, getting healthcare and having income in their older years — is anathema to an ideology that lacks compassion, that seeks to overturn the longstanding will of the majority in order to impose the desires of the few in power.
Many other issues come to mind, of course, and every person reading this may well say, wait, you didn’t include MY most important issues. Great! Add them to the chat box below.
So, what does this mean for the upcoming presidential election? That’s up to you as well. I cannot tell you how to weigh the issues, nor which candidate should get your vote. I do feel it’s important to raise up the fundamental threat to Democracy overall and what the threat might do to the issues listed above, among many others. Perhaps you disagree, and that’s just fine. Feel free do put your thoughts in the box below. A robust Democracy demands a great deal of dialogue and debate. But it also demands respect and care for the fundamental principles of freedom, individual rights and justice for all. Let’s make this election the last time we have to worry about losing all of that to the whims of those who have authoritarian tendencies.
Most of all, please VOTE!
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