Today we ignore the need for fundamental reform of government at the risk of losing the very democratic nature of our country.
There are two aspects of this.
First, the very basis of our democracy is being disassembled before our eyes and the USA is moving toward a new and authoritarian relationship between citizens and the executive.
Second, our representatives in government fiddle while the country burns -- offering themselves to the highest bidder, selling out not only themselves and us, but destroying the very concept of the public trust.
As to the first aspect, our democracy is at risk in much the same way as the ancient Roman republic met its end.
As Robert Harris recounts, "in the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped. [I]n the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. ... Over the preceding centuries, the Constitution of ancient Rome had developed an intricate series of checks and balances intended to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a single individual. ... But such was the panic that ensued after Ostia that the people were willing to compromise these rights." See the New York Times piece of Sept. 30, 2024.
We are today going the same way as Rome -- descending from democracy into Imperial rule by passing our own Lex Gabina -- suspending the right of habeas corpus for terrorism detainees, denying them their right to challenge their detention in court; the careful wording about torture, which forbids only the inducement of “serious” physical and mental suffering to obtain information; the admissibility of evidence obtained in the United States without a search warrant; the licensing of the president to declare a legal resident of the United States an enemy combatant — all this represents an historic shift in the balance of power between the citizen and the executive.
We need to talk about this -- not just about political style points. The substantive basis of our nation is crumbling, being overthrown, before our eyes.
As for the second aspect, I agree with what Bill Moyers has said:
"There are no victimless crimes in politics. The cost of corruption is passed on to you. When the government of the United States falls under the thumb of the powerful and privileged, regular folks get squashed.
"Washington would have you believe this is just "a lobbying scandal." They would have you think that if they pass a few nominal reforms, put a little more distance between the politician and the lobbyist, you will think everything is okay and they can go back to business as usual.
"Something can be done about it. Organized people have always had to take on organized money. If they had not, blacks would still be three-fifths of a person, women wouldn't have the vote, workers couldn't organize, and children would still be working in the mines. Our democracy today is more real and more inclusive than existed in the days of the Founders because time and again, the people have organized themselves to insist that America become "a more perfect union."
"It is time to fight again. These people in Washington have no right to be doing what they are doing. It's not their government, it's your government. They work for you. They're public employees - and if they let us down and sell us out, they should be fired. That goes for the lowliest bureaucrat in town to the senior leaders of Congress on up to the President of the United States."
How about it? Can we get our heads out of the weeds long enough to see that the forest is on fire?
