The real threat to democracy: It's us
The two “alte kakers” (Yiddish − look it up!) who accuse each other of being threats to democracy both miss the mark. They are symptoms of the true threat, not its cause.
That real threat to democracy is democracy itself, or more precisely, the voters as a whole who participate in that system. Democracy may be the “least worst” form of government its well-intended architects could choose, and with some tweaking can keep a country’s political system stable, productive and responsive to inevitable challenges from without and within.
But like a car out of alignment, democracy requires attentive drivers skilled enough to keep it out of the ditch or worse. In the beginning of a new form of government, often through revolution or civic strife, “the people” are generally enthusiastic and engaged in the democratic process. That creates stable ballast that prevents excesses in one direction or another.
But the demands of democracy are fatiguing, and as “the people” lose interest (or are made to lose interest by unscrupulous politicians who want a smaller electorate to manipulate), they become “distracted drivers” of a political vehicle that is congenitally and inherently out of alignment, no matter how many checks and balances its designers built into it.
A proof of this in our country is the abysmal choices we are apparently being offered in our next presidential election and have been offered in the recent past. In a population with over 200,000,000 “natural born” U.S. citizens over 35 (the constitutional requirements for the office holder), if that’s the best our democratic system can produce the drivers must be asleep at the wheel!
In his famous sardonic twist on Master Commandant Oliver Perry’s report during the War of 1812, cartoonist Walter Kelly’s Pogo observed: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” That neatly sums up the condition of American democracy today which is as much in its dotage as the “A.K.s” competing for the Offal Office.
So what is the answer? Dictatorships and monarchies don’t work because they are too vulnerable to the weaknesses and foibles of one individual. The idea of democracy was to spread that risk over a much larger number of individuals, but the negative synergy of a disengaged or misinformed public is a prime example of Hobson’s choice. Is a room full of idiots smarter than any one of them?
The solution may lie in the form of a draft or jury duty selection aided by A.I. to present to the voting public some better choices, but let’s not get into that now for fear of sounding like dystopian science fiction.
For now, let’s spend more time looking into the mirror.
Bruce Diamond is a resident of Fort Myers.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: The real threat to democracy: It's us
