The rhetoric of
political discourse today is rancorous, partisan, inflexible, and destructive
to a degree I've not seen in my lifetime of more than seven decades. When radical Christian fundamentalists demonstrate
against the President with biblical quotes that are unconscionably mean
spirited and potentially dangerous to his health and even survival, a tipping
point has been crossed. And when mature leadership of the Republican Party
takes the position that the congress should not be permitted even to discuss
openly, proposals to challenge the ethics and efficiency of the distribution of health care services in the country, because the mere discussion itself would threaten the underpinnings of the status quo, something more than the usual rough and tumble of politics is going on. Both examples illustrate a larger problem: American democracy is increasingly under assault by the ideologies of capitalism and religion, manipulated by political professionals and others, for short term, essentially self-serving objectives.
The essential genius of democracy is its principled potential to encourage civil, and moral behavior among those who are its adherents.
That our founding fathers could have gotten so much so right is a source
of wonder, awe, and inspiration. I am an American citizen living in a time and place that may well be mankind's best effort to achieve a social order based on the profound belief that all are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, an entitlement that I share as an extraordinary accident of birth.
But the practice of democracy in my country during my lifetime frequently has been antithetical to this principled ideology, never more so than presently. Many citizens see their civic responsibility in different, often mutually exclusive, ways.
Conventional wisdom holds that much of that disparity could be put right
through education and rational conversation.History seems to refute that hope.
Notwithstanding our contemporary environment of massively improved modes
of communication, our differing perspectives have sharpened and hardened, and civil disagreement is rapidly evolving into partisan contempt.
In part, the problem is exacerbated by a casual human willingness to subscribe to multiple ideologies which, when examined, are mutually incompatible. For example, if a primary aspect of the ideology of democracy is in fact its egalitarian nature, both capitalism and religion, as practiced by some, can be in serious conflict with it
I propose that if one is to assert a serious support of democracy as envisioned by the founding fathers, certain realities apply: government must be secular, must be tolerant enough to eschew a double standard when considering differing perspectives, must exercise a collective and practical concern for those of its members who are unfairly disadvantaged, and must recognize in an intuitive and comprehensive way that humanity is populated by people like us, whose disagreements with us are largely a function of where and when they were born and the consequent life experiences that molded their individual, unique identities. Unhappily, we live in a time when the mechanisms of our political system, and the professional politicians and ideologues who manipulate them, encourage us to ignore these principles. The American public is appalled by the disconnect between its collective will and the actions of its elected representation. We present ourselves to the world as egotistical bullies. Our candidates for office always opt for image over substance, and our uncertified fourth branch of government, the press, is a castrated semblance of its proper self. Perhaps we already have the evidence that the combined forces of corporate greed, religious fundamentalism, self-serving political professionals, and "human nature will overpower the ideology of democracy. It's not a pretty picture, but we had better look at it.
I propose that if one is to assert a serious support of democracy as envisioned by the founding fathers, certain realities apply: government must be secular, must be tolerant enough to eschew a double standard when considering differing perspectives, must exercise a collective and practical concern for those of its members who are unfairly disadvantaged, and must recognize in an intuitive and comprehensive way that humanity is populated by people like us, whose disagreements with us are largely a function of where and when they were born and the consequent life experiences that molded their individual, unique identities. Unhappily, we live in a time when the mechanisms of our political system, and the professional politicians and ideologues who manipulate them, encourage us to ignore these principles. The American public is appalled by the disconnect between its collective will and the actions of its elected representation. We present ourselves to the world as egotistical bullies. Our candidates for office always opt for image over substance, and our uncertified fourth branch of government, the press, is a castrated semblance of its proper self. Perhaps we already have the evidence that the combined forces of corporate greed, religious fundamentalism, self-serving political professionals, and "human nature will overpower the ideology of democracy. It's not a pretty picture, but we had better look at it.
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