The Next Two Years Are Critical For American Democracy
Why I Am Committed To Saving American Democracy
“Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable year that lies before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same small children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.”- Winston Churchill, Christmas Eve, 1941
Here we are, another new year. Hopefully, everyone had a chance to enjoy family and friends, get off of the grid for awhile and rest, to enjoy their days and nights of fun and laughter, and recharge their batteries for the upcoming year.
Now however, Christmas is over and business is business.
While Churchill was referring to the challenges facing the world at the beginning of America’s involvement in World War II (Great Britain has been involved since 1939). his words ring true with respect to American democracy as we move into 2023.
We as a country face a stern task, a formidable year (really two years or more) in which the fate of American democracy as we know it, will be determined. While, as I have written, the midterm election results may have marked the end of the beginning of the struggle to save American democracy from the hands of authoritarians on both the left and the right, the leaders of the insurrection of January 6th still remain free and there is no indication that they will be held accountable for their actions anytime soon. As we speak, many of them serve in Congress and are participating in the current action to hold the House of Representative hostage as they seek to paralyze government and sow chaos.
There is still a ton of work to be done to restore our political system and political institutions.
Over the holiday, I’ve done a lot of thinking about this.
I’ve been doing politics for a long, long, time (over 50 years). I lived through the Cold War and the threat of nuclear destruction at a moment’s notice. I lived through the tragedy of Vietnam and the damage that war caused to American society. I lived through Watergate and the first resignation of an American president in our history. In the mid 1970s, I served along the Iron Curtain as we trained to repel a potential Soviet invasion of western Europe, wondering from day to day if “today is the day.” After I left the military, I went back to school and studied politics and international affairs. I worked in a number of political campaigns at the national, state, and local level. I taught political science to high school and college students and have spent years writing and commenting about politics. I lived through 9/11 and the war on terror, the debacle of Iraq, and the chaos and craziness of the Trump years. I have, so far, survived Covid.
I just can’t walk away from this fight to save our democracy. I just can’t.
I’ve been around the block a few hundred thousand times and I have seen a lot of political water go under the bridge.
I never in a million years thought that I would see the potential gutting of our democracy and political institutions by a cabal of authoritarian knuckle draggers who claim that they are “fighting” to “protect” the very democracy that they are now, bit by bit and level by level, destroying.
That is what we are facing now.
I reach a life milestone this year as, God willing and the creek doesn’t rise, I hit the “Big 70.” Despite an exterior bravado, this is a big deal and it’s scary. While I am in relatively good health for someone my age, I battle diabetes and a heart condition. I’ve faced some real health challenges this past year (a really bad case of influenza A, blood sugar issues, and a scare with respect to elevated blood calcium). While I still play golf and walk/run, I am physically “slowing down.” I worry about losing my mental “fast ball.”
Given all of this, I could really justify walking away and passing the torch. It would be really easy to kick back, play golf every day, read, travel, substitute teach when I want to, and do all of the other stuff that retired people do. Honestly, It’s really tempting.
Then, I come back to what Churchill says and I hearken back to a couple of things that I learned in the military; one can complain and try to turn their back and ignore a problem, but the enemy is still at the top of the hill and you’re running out of bullets. What are you going to do? The second thing, never, ever, ever quit.
We as a democracy are at a critical juncture in our history. We have government at all levels that doesn’t function and many, if not most elected office holders don’t give a rat’s ass about doing the people’s business. All they care about is the accumulation of personal political power and the exercise of that power to lord it over the very people that they claim to represent. They have been seduced by that power and what it brings.
We have political parties that are controlled by the 10-15% of what I call the “lunatic fringe” (MAGA and “progressive” Democrats) who, despite what the electorate says, wants to impose their extremist vision of America on the rest of us, a vision of an authoritarian government that “knows best” despite what the people actually want.
While many of these elected officials claim to love the country and wrap themselves in the flag, in reality, they only do that to score points and and salve their conscience. . They don’t care about governing and doing what it takes to move the country forward. No, that’s too hard. Rather, they work to perform, get social media hits, consolidate their personal political power and influence, write their books, raise their money off of the chaos, and continue that same chaos that makes it all go for them.
Those who populate the New York/Washington DC political and media bubble treat all of this as some parlor game, a source of amusement at cocktail parties, using it to build their Twitter profile, write books (yes, you, Maggie Haberman), and serve as the ring masters of this circus. Politics has become entertainment (infotainment) and these members of the D.C. professional political class are complicit, to one extent or the other, all of them, in allowing the continued existence of this kabuki theater of the absurd while democracy in this country continues to die a death of one thousand cuts. All the while, Americans outside of the Beltway sit and wonder why all of this is happening to the country that they love.
We have government at all levels that doesn’t function and many, if not most elected office holders don’t give a rat’s ass about doing the people’s business.
Well, I’ve got news for all of them, people are sick and tired of the bovine scatology that passes for government and politics in this country. They are sick of the chaos, grifting, bomb throwing, and performance for the sake of performance.
Well, I just can’t walk away from this fight to save our democracy. I just can’t.
When I entered the United States Army in 1974, I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Elected political officials, even at the local level, take a similar oath. I can’t speak for them, but I consider the oath to be perpetual. My responsibility didn’t end when I finished my obligation in 1980 (active duty and ready reserve).
So here I am, ready to fight, to fight for the constitution and democratic political system that I took an oath to protect and defend with my life.
I am ready to do whatever it takes. My weapon is my keyboard, my phone, my determination and willingness to speak truth to power.
I am a huge fan of the late John McCain. While he wasn’t a perfect person (neither am I) and many times got in his own way (so have I, more times than I would like to admit), he lived a life of service and I really, truly believe that he loved this country with every fiber of his being. I’ve been reading his last book, The Reckless Wave, that he wrote before he died. I was struck about what he wrote about the privilege of service to this great land:
“What a privilege it is to serve this big, boisterous, brawling, intemperate, striving, daring, beautiful, bountiful, brave, magnificent country. With all of our flaws, all our mistakes, with all of the frailties of human nature as much on display as our virtues, with all of the rancor and anger in our politics, we are blessed. We are living in the land of the free, the land where anything is possible, the land of the immigrant’s dream, the land of the storied past forgotten in the rush to the imagined future, the land that repairs and reinvents itself, the land where one can escape the consequences of a self centered youth and know the satisfaction of sacrificing for an ideal, where you can go from aimless rebellion to a noble cause.
We are blessed, and in turn, we have been a blessing to humanity. This wondrous land has shared its treasures and shed its blood to help make another, better world. And as we did we made our civilization more just, freer, more accomplished and prosperous.
We have made mistakes. We haven’t always used our power wisely. We have abused it and we have been arrogant. But, as often as not, we recognized those wrongs, debated them openly, and tried to do better.” 1
The America that McCain describes is the America that I believe most people want. It’s the America that I want. They don’t want the clown show that passes for government and the political perversion that currently passes for “service.”
As I’ve stated, I’m almost 70 years old and, in many ways, I’m tired. But again, I can’t step away from this fight. If I don’t fight, who will?
So, despite my age, I’m rededicating myself to getting back in the fight. The stakes are too high not to. I want my daughter and granddaughters to live in the country described by Mr. McCain and not the current “s***show” that is now going on.
I’m going to write about this stuff, holding the anti-democracy factions responsible. I am going to begin efforts to identify and assist good candidates to run for office, especially at the state and local level. I’m going to work my butt off to hold elected officials accountable and to make sure they focus on doing the people’s business and not “kick the can down the road.”
I have more years behind me than I do ahead of me, so this is probably my last political rodeo and I want to be able to look back and know that I did all that I could to save our democracy. When my time comes, I don’t want to have any regrets.
To do anything less would be quitting, and I just don’t do that.
John McCain and Mark Salter, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, (2018), p.8.