PLEASE READ THIS ONE!

The Possible Death of Our Democratic Republic

Abraham Lincoln in his famous “House Divided speech,” on June 16, 1858 upon accepting the Republican nomination for the presidency said:

“In my opinion, it (the slavery issue) will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’”(Lincoln quoted this from a similar idea in the Bible, Matthew 12:25 and Thomas Hobbes, 1651 Leviathan, both of which referred to kingdoms rather than houses.)

“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved–I do not expect the house to fall–but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.” [Emphasis is mine.]  https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/june-16-1858-house-divided-speech

At that time, it was the Republicans who believed in and acted on freedom and equality, as personified in Lincoln, and the Democrats who opposed it and ultimately seceded, a tactic that ultimately led to the failure of their position. We are at a similar place today. Again it is the two parties, but with opposite positions from their past.

What is dividing our house now are not all the single issues we disagree about, nor the culture wars, but whether or not to keep the very democratic foundation of our Republic. It is a house absolutely divided about what form of government we are going to have in the future.

It will either be a democratic Republic with equality and accessible voting for all registered voters, the very foundation of this form of government; a reasonable social net, including some form of universal health care like every other civilized Western nation; acceptance and affirmation of our quintessential diversity; there will be a free press, but hate speech will be a crime (in spite of the ACLU); education designed by educators will be available to all, including courses about our real history, and how to become a responsible citizen, another requirement of our present governmental type; and a reasoned approach to resolving internal issues and those we share with the rest of the world, such as climate change, pandemics, maintenance of an international rule of law, and insurance against nuclear accidents or confrontations; there will be a strong middle class with means for access by the current poor class through training, jobs, education, and a  responsible sliding scale of taxation.

Take note of Benjamin Franklin’s warning as documented in the writings of James McHenry, a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention. “A lady asked Dr. Franklin, ‘Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?’ ‘A republic,’ replied the Doctor, ‘if you can keep it.’” [I added most of the punctuation, which is missing from the original document.)

The other choice:

A government of those greedy for more wealth and power, with all three divisions of our government: the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial in the same court. Voting will be allowed, but limited and similar to that in Russia, Hungary, Turkey, with no opposition candidates ever winning. The poor will get poorer, the middle class will virtually disappear as we know it today, and the very rich will get richer. International problems will increase and worsen, because our country will have taken on the narcissistic characteristics of our leaders. Climate change, pandemics, the high cost of medical help will lead to a decrease in the population, and parts of our country will become unlivable, crime will increase, gun deaths will increase. Christianity, evangelical specifically, will become the state religion. At some point the media will no longer be free, but become nation state propaganda, witness Fox News now. The uses of social media to increase the various toxic, untrue, but believed by many, conspiracy theories will increase to demonize the Others: Democrats, people of color, women, LGBTQ+, non-Christians, anyone outside their narrow, white supremacist, Christian world. These changes won’t happen instantly, but probably faster than we think possible.

If you think I am describing some sort of horrendous hell that couldn’t happen here, look around you. It’s already happening!

George Washington gave us two particularly relevant and prescient warnings in his Farewell Address. He was very much against the idea of political parties, for the reasons included in the following excerpt. But History, Civics, Social Studies are not even required subjects in K-12, so how are citizens to know and understand what our foundations are or what the Founding Fathers really had in mind, such as equality and separation of church and state?

“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.”

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”

Consider what has already happened.

We’ve already had proven foreign influence from Russia try to affect a presidential election. in 2020.

We already have a politicized Supreme Court thanks to Mitch McConnell, who refused to act on Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Court on March 16, 2016, almost 9 months to the day before the election, then his obnoxious, smug hypocrisy of pushing Coney Barrett’s through at the last minute before the 2020 election as McConnell rushed through the reviews and hearings for her, and she was sworn in on October 27, 2020. Election day was November 3^rd that year.

We have the entire Republican party—with the exception of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who act on reality, facts, and truth—in the throes and clutches of the absurd, bizarre lies of trumpism. The Republican Party today is no longer a political party, it is a power-hungry evangelical Christian, white supremacist cult.

The documentation for President Biden’s win is clear, and affirmed by the courts, the electoral process, and innumerable audits. Facts, documentation mean nothing to these people. They watch Fox News (an oxymoron if ever there was one), listen to their preachers and GOP bigwigs, read specific social media sites, all of which reaffirm their distorted reality. Those same sources encourage them to turn to violence, witness the attempted coup January 6^th, Pizzagate, the recent Buffalo mass murder; all inspired by Republican rhetoric.

Members of the GOP are even trashing democracy. Here’s Senator Mike Lee’s (R, Utah) tweet: Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that. 1:24 AM · Oct 8, 2020 (Emphasis is mine.)

Really? Democracy thwarts liberty and prevents the human condition from flourishing? Look at our history, buddy.

Voting rights, women’s right to make decisions about their own bodies, restrictions on people of color and the LGBTQ population are already passed or in the works in many states. More will come.

“Since January 6, the Republican Party has shifted its focus to the states to undermine the federal government. Nineteen states have changed their election laws to enable Republicans to win their states regardless of the will of the voters, sending Republican electors to put a Republican president in place. Encouraged by the Supreme Court’s “originalist” majority, which denies the ability of the federal government to protect civil rights in the states, Florida, Mississippi, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Texas have all overridden the constitutional right to abortion, and Republican lawmakers have indicated they are gunning for birth control and interracial marriage as well. Dramatically, in the last week. Texas governor Greg Abbott has effectively shut down international trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, explicitly asserting state power over national power and thus driving prices up all across the country.” Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, April 15, 2022

On April 17, 2022, she wrote: “Arguments based in the idea that some people are not capable of making their own decisions “are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world,” Lincoln said in 1858. “I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it[,] where will it stop…. If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out[.]”

WE HAVE TO WAKE UP! Stop thinking that sanity and common sense will rule. They aren’t now and won’t in the future, unless we act with those concepts, truth, and the will to keep our precious and fragile “Great Experiment” from failing.

“The only way to save democracy is to vote for Democrats in the fall [2022, 2024]. And I say that as an ex-Republican turned independent. It doesn’t matter if you disagree with Democrats on some issues. The overriding issue is the preservation of our democracy.”

Max Boot, “We’re in Danger of Losing Our Democracy. Most Americans Are in Denial,” www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/11/americans-in-denial-trump-threat-jan6-elections/

Hopefully after 2024, we’ll have two parties to choose from again with reasonable, albeit different, views of how to run this country. That’s not the case now.