REMEMBERING DEMOCRACY’S FRAGILITY AND TREATING IT AS SERIOUSLY ENDANGERED
BY
ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
————————————————————————————————————————-
Our
democracy is in real trouble when candidates for public office are
unable to debate issues with one another without deteriorating into name
calling. When Kamala Harris was announced as the Democratic Party’s
candidate for president, how did Republican candidate Donald Trump
respond? He called her “real garbage.” A week earlier, he referred to
President Biden as both a “fascist” and a “communist.” Without civility,
democracy is unlikely to survive into the future.
Our
political life didn’t used to be like this. When I graduated from law
school and went to work in the U.S.Senate, Republicans and Democrats did
not view one another as “enemies,” as many seem to do at the present
time. Remember Ronald Reagan, the Republican president, and Tip
O’Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House, becoming good friends.
Working together, Republicans and Democrats won the Cold War and
advanced civil rights. It was an era when American politics worked.
A
common phrase in those days was the need to “disagree without being
disagreeable.” During the Vietnam War, I was a member of the staff of
the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. I was the author of the
committee’s report on the New Left and traveled around the country
debating with critics of the war. In these debates, people on both
sides were polite to one another. We often went out for drinks and
further conversation when the debate ended. This was a highly emotional
issue, but I remember no negative exchanges. In some cases I, as a
young person, was even aided by my older debating opponent. In one
instance, the Rev. William Sloan Coffin, the chaplain at Yale
University, quietly told me that I had gotten several dates wrong in my
presentation. Now, in retrospect, my views about the Vietnam War have
changed. On some key issues, I now agree with the views of my debate
opponents.
Today,
unfortunately, politicians who disagree often do so in a way which
demonizes those on the other side. At a rally in Middletown, Ohio for
Republican vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance on July 22, the
speaker who preceded Vance was Ohio State Senator George Lang. He told
the audience of an impending “civil war”if Donald Trump were to lose in
November. He declared, “I believe wholeheartedly that Donald Trump and
Butler County’s J.D.Vance are the Last chance to save our country.
Politically, I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil
war to save the country.”
The
assault on the U.S. Capitol after Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020
election, shows us where the unwilllingness to accept the results of a
free and fair election can lead. Honorable political leaders like Vice
President Mike Pence insured that the rule of law would prevail. And
Attorney General Barr made clear that the election was properly
conducted. What will happen if there is a similar refusal to accept the
results of the 2024 election?
Our
country is preparing to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our
independence. No other people in the world today live under the same
form of government which existed in their country 250 years ago. The
Founding Fathers got something right. Earlier democracies, in Athens
and Rome, lasted for a limited period of time
and
then faded away. That was the prediction that was made for America. So
far, we have avoided fulfilling it. But some fear that time is not on
our side and a number of current developments are concerning.
The
Founders understood some things many of our contemporaries seem to have
forgotten. Brown University historian Gordon S. Wood notes that, “They
put a heightened emphasis on learned and acquired values at the expense
of the traditional and inherited values of blood and kinship.
Contemptuous of the pretension and luxury of metropolitan England, they
enthusiastically adopted the new, enlightened 18th-century ideals of
gentility and public service.”
Dr.
Wood cites William Livingston, New Jersey’s first governor, who at the
outset of the Revolution set forth prescriptions for proper enlightened
behavior: “Let us abhor Superstition and Bigotry, which are like the
Parents of Sloth and Slavery. Let us make war upon Ignorance and
Barbarity of Manners. Let us invite the Arts and Sciences to reside
amongst us. Let us encourage everything which tends to exalt and
embellish our Characters. And in fine, let the love of our country be
manifested by that which is the only true Manifestation of it, a
patriotic soul and a public spirit.”
In Dr. Wood’s view, “These prescriptions for a healthy and civilized society seem relevant today.”
Discussing
the decline in civility and the respect for opinions different from our
own, Prof. Brian Schrag of Indiana University, in his book “Civility
and Community,” provides this assessment: “Modrrn American society is
marked by a high degree of mobility, a decline in voluntary civic
activities and an emphasis on rights (i.e. what others owe me). The
result is rootlessness and detachment from family and friends. Higher
crime rates, chiefly among youth, show a strong statistical correlation
with lack of self-control, moral disputes are often marked by
dogmatism, the inability or unwillingness to see the moral voice behind
another point of view.”
In
response, argues Schrag, “…the possibilities for improvement include
(1) reinvigorating our civic associations, (2) developing self-control,
and (3) demanding higher levels of mutual respect and tolerance in the
way we speak to and treat one another.”
The
American society is something unique in history, though there are some
who wish to transform it into just “another country.” It is based on a
unique idea of limited government, with a written Constitution, dividing
power among three branches of government. Uniquely, it gauranteed
religious freedom to all. It is made up of men and women of every race,
religious faith, and ethnic background. If you shed a drop of American
blood, the author Herman Melville said in the 19th century, “you shed
the blood of the whole world.” It is an extraordinary legacy, if we
can keep it.
But
democracy is fragile and ours is being challenged, both from within and
without. Will we properly rise to this challenge as we have in the
past? Let us hope that we will.
##