Heartbreaking and galvanizing
Our emotions were whipsawed this week between heartbreak and elation. Our next choices will help decide which one wins.
All posts tagged: Democracy
Weekly Reader: It really wasn’t your fault 2020, but good riddance
Articles on the relevance of history, Brexit, steps to save democracy, and a famous Martin D-28.
The abandonment of democracy
“Democracy in Chains” helps the reader understand how unfettered capitalism became more sacrosanct than democracy in America.
No job is worth the condemnation of history these enablers will endure
History will find those who put personal gain and short-term power above service to community and country.
We have to own up to our culture if we want to change it
Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be An Antiracist” is a powerful reminder of our personal responsibilities in fighting racism.
Democracy is never permanent…and the work to keep it never ends
My series of observations on the lessons of history in the fight for democracy.
Disinformation and the threat to democracy
History tells us that fake news and disinformation are long-standing American traditions. They remain a threat to democracy.
History tells us democracy is the objective
The only surprising thing about Mike Lee’s statement saying democracy isn’t the objective is that he said the quiet part out loud.
Lessons from the death of democracies
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt was tapped as my Book of the Year when I first read it in 2018. I bring it up again today, just three short weeks before our election, After yet another major violation of the Hatch Act, where an illegal political event was held on White House grounds on Saturday and labeled — with no sense of irony — a “Law & Order” rally; Soon after a right wing terrorist plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan was thwarted by FBI actions; The day before a rushed nomination of a hard-right judge begins to be pushed through the Senate with the benefit of Republican lies and against the will of the majority of the people; and During the weekend U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said African Americans and immigrants can “go anywhere” in his home state but they “just need to be conservative.” It took me less than a minute to find these four recent threats to our democracy: flagrant disregard for the law, violent threats against …
Defining our democracy
“The good things in our nation did not come about by chance, and they will not be preserved by indifference.” The Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Keeping a democracy takes work. Disuse of democracy by a careless majority is cause enough for worry in a world of constant struggle between tyranny and freedom. But when that indifference is coupled with a deliberate effort by a wealthy minority to undermine the public good for private gain, we find ourselves at a point where Americans are in danger of having government by the people smothered by an oligarchy focused on the enrichment of the few and the repression of those who disagree with them. America as an idea is a work in progress, with an eye on the prospects for the future. At our best, we are always growing, always becoming, as we move toward that more perfect union. But we are not always at our best. The history that really happened, as opposed to the history we’ve told …
MORE TO COME... 