Democracy is a fragile system of government, depending as it
does on the spirit and education of the citizenry and subject to a number of
diseases that seem to plague democratic systems. These diseases, or as I call
them the evils of democracy, can when left to fester undermine the system.
The first of these is fascism, originally denoted corporate
statism. The state is everything it
rules everything and everything is owed to it. Children are taught what the
state wants them to learn and taught a reverence and obedience to the state
that borders on religious fanaticism. That reverence is often transferred to
the state’s Leader. Lip service is paid
to elections the way large corporations have show-off shareholders
meetings. Fascism depends on conformity
to the rules of the state and obedience to the masters of that state. When the fascist leaders are the rich it's
called an oligarchy or plutocracy. When
anyone questions the decision of the state they are judged either as enemies of
the nation or mentally disturbed individuals. The state has rights the people
do not and the people’s privileges are limited to life in an orderly regimented
society. Societal stress on conformity and uniformity in thought and dress and
action makes the body politic more suspect to fascism.
Another evil of democracy is cronyism. Public officials, who take care of
themselves, financially, and their relatives and close personal friends. Elected officials who care only about the
problems of certain constituents (based on party affiliation, geography or
ethnicity). Usually cronyism is
motivated by greed. The politics of ME
takes precedence over the politics of party or of ideology. In our history we
have seen this evil rise to national proportions in the 1870's, in the age of
the Robber Barons (the 1990's) and the scandals of Teapot Dome (1920's). Today
it is all around us and sunlight does expose it often enough. The Trump administration, his appointees, his
family and his retainers openly personify it. The belief by too many that the group they
belong to: i.e. social class, economic
tier, alumni association or fraternity/sorority, is somehow superior to others
though called elitism is but a mutation of cronyism.
The third great evil of democracy is racism. Unthinking and irrational attitudes toward
usually minority populations e.g. religious, racial, gender, national origin. The ills of society are blamed on the
minority population and the majority is made to perceive a loss of power and
societal control. Restrictions on the
rights of everyone are sold to the majority as a way to control the
minority. I lived through the 1960's
when the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the civil rights movement to obtain
equality for African Americans. In the
1970's women and Latinos won similar access to civil rights. And finally this century LGBT folks won the
benefits of full citizenship. In 2008
with the election of President Barrack Obama many thought we had entered a post
racial state. But unfortunately the
attitude toward “that man in the White House” (a sobriquet they gave to FDR)
became that black man in the White House and racism in all its manifestations
raised its ugly head again. Now the bigoted
rail against Muslims and Mexicans. And, anti-Semitism,
which Americans thought they had beaten back by the 1950's, has again surfaced.
The great Governor of New York, Al Smith, once said the only
cure for the ills of democracy was more democracy. He may have been right and certainly I have
advocated “more democracy” i.e. direct elections, same day registration, public
ballot initiative, etc. But the evil
diseases of cronyism, fascism and racism are like cancers that may lie dormant
but when they break out and spread they can devour the entire body
politic.
The answer is not to sit by and accept the evil and adapt to
it. As St. Paul said, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil
with good.”
.
Political activists and candidates should fight the spread
of these diseases at every level of government.
And the citizenry should insist that its public officials and the news
media stop focusing on the peccadilloes of the Trump family and the sexual
escapades of politicians and start dealing with the real issue before us in the
twenty-first century: can we save and cure Democracy of the evils of Racism,
Fascism, and Cronyism.
24 May 2017