More from the bright side

The United States has a republican form of government, public offices are temporarily filled by citizens bound by the law using the most democratic means possible. We may fall from this ideal in practice, sometimes to spectacular effect, but as an American tradition it is woven strongly into our civic fabric. The founders were skeptical of innate human goodness and fearful of concentrated power, therefore they designed the constitution to frustrate would be dictators and tyrants. After studying the right for so long, I share that skepticism and wonder if the ambition to rule and dominate others is not the natural instinct of the elite. Or at least one side of the elite, another side can find satisfaction in building structures and rules, and enforcing them with professional detachment. If there is any validity to that idea then the space between is where democracy can insert itself. Then, if the idea of self-government and a society of laws, not men is strongly ingrained in the electorate, it may be possible to rescue democracy even in the face of doom.

An individual can be smart and responsible, a group unfortunately seems to fall to it's lowest common denominator. Why is authoritarianism so popular among white men without college degrees? Why are there always members of the elite able to play on their fears? Demagogues and the scared, angry people they prey on are always going to exist, rolling in and out like the tide over time. So tyranny and dictatorship are easy, it is democracy that is hard. What actually happened in 2010 that allowed so many would be dictators to  take over governorships and public offices in that election and following off year contests? Was it simply that republicans rebranded as the tea party, allowing so many conservatives to embrace their hatred of Barack Obama without the taint of having supported Dubya? And that so many Democrats were disappointed in Barack Obama that they couldn't muster the will to counter the vile candidates running as tea partiers?

Swings in the public mood like this are why democracy is hard. The first thing so many tea bag governors and state legislatures did was push to break unions, demonize teachers, and restrict voting. If the business corporation is an economic incarnation of authoritarianism, labor unions are the equivalent incarnation for democracy. Unions are hard to build, difficult to maintain, trust in them easily lost but when they are strong they bring great benefit to their members, just as democracy can. And by making unions fight for their very existence, the tea bag governors eased the way to attack democracy itself through voting restrictions. Governors like Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, and then Pat McCrory invented a crisis of voter fraud and then pushed numerous provisions to make voting harder after the Supreme Court's authoritarian wing effectively nullified the Voting Rights Act. The northern states paved the way to ram through all sorts of voter suppression laws, but the old confederacy followed enthusiastically after the roadblock of the VRA was removed.

Elections are decided by who shows up to actually vote. People already have numerous reasons not to take the time to go vote, for democracy to work it requires the voters to know who the candidates are and what the issues are. The mass media, especially cable news, makes it very hard to actually find the facts, it is all buried in spin and punditry. Democrats are not perfect but Republicans go out of their way to obscure their motives and disguise themselves. So it is hard, these are basically givens. We assume the worst and grow cynical.

So it is very important that the courts can step in when voters are bewildered and exhausted on one side, and eager to throw democracy away and embrace authoritarianism on the other. This week the courts reminded us that democracy has strong roots in our social fabric. Some of Scott Walker's voter suppression schemes got thrown out by the courts as well. These are shining examples of why appointed judges who respect democracy and understand the benefits of letting people vote is such an important part of the system. We should be able to state openly and without apology or qualification that any attempt by elected officials to kick the ladder away by making it hard to vote are anti-democratic and anti-American. Suppressing voters, especially as it happens the votes of your opponents, should disqualify a party from holding office. If you can't win unless you prevent your "enemies" from voting, or even feel that this is a legitimate strategy, then you don't deserve to be a part of a democratic society.

This is the bright side, that the system is fighting back against those who would destroy democracy. Even if it is uneven, for instance, the Democratic Party should be running a strong campaign to get IDs for their voters in addition to educating people on the process and registering them to vote. More is better and the Children of Light have to do better than waiting for the firewall of courts to resist the hollowing out of democracy by its enemies.