Let’s Not Wave Goodbye as Democracy is Driven Away
When we spot a threat to democracy, we must act right away.
I was at the sink rinsing out the coffee pot when I saw a truck turning around in the next door driveway early on a Saturday morning. It was one of those landscaping trucks with the tall slats on the side you see around the neighborhood on any Spring weekend.
My neighbor’s driveway wasn’t the best one to use as a turnaround on our narrow, dead end street. I implicitly knew whoever it was had to be a new contractor to the neighborhood or hopelessly lost. Even my foggy morning brain recognized it was going to take him about five or six maneuvers to get that truck facing the exit direction. And, it did.
Once he finally got his truck maneuvered around, the driver gave me a sheepish, toothy grin. I smiled back, giving an early morning “what a shame we both are awake” wave. As he pulled away, I saw a Japanese maple tree loaded in the back. It looked so elegant. I wondered which of my neighbors was getting a Japanese maple tree, too.
I had long coveted getting one. I had spent quite a few Fall seasons oohing and aahing over the majesty of its brilliant red foliage. We had finally bought a miniature Japanese maple a few weeks earlier that my husband and I both lovingly tended to ensure it took root. Every time I stepped out my front door, that tree made me smile with joy. I was eagerly awaiting the moment when its green leaves would turn to a brilliant red.
Then, my sleepy morning, pre-coffee brain sparked to life. At first, I was dismayed. It couldn’t be. Could it? No, that wouldn’t happen. Would it? We live in a safe, respectable neighborhood. People don’t steal trees. Do they? As these thoughts quickly cascaded by, an awful sinking feeling gurgled in the pit of my belly. I sprinted out the front door.
In the corner of the front yard, I gaped at a barren wound of a hole where my graceful little Japanese maple used to be. The hole was an ugly torn socket like where some mad dentist has wrenched out a tooth. He had apparently just yanked it out of the ground without a care or concern for the tree at all.
After the initial shock, anger exploded through me. I had never felt anger throughout my entire body before. I was teeming with rage. Why would someone do that! How could someone take a tree from our front yard! Now, it was too late to try to go after the driver.
Coming up underneath my rage was the gut twisting shame — What a sleepy fool I had been! I had given a friendly, “have a nice day” wave to the thief stealing my property.
So, what does this little maple tree have to do with civics?
Based on the testimony at the January 6th committee hearings, we likely came within one SUV ride of the overthrow of our government. I have no doubt that had former President Trump been driven to the Capitol as he planned, our Congress would have faced a bloodbath far, far beyond the hours of hand to hand combat and carnage we saw on TV.
Our institutions held by the thinnest of margins. If this were a Marvel multiverse, we would now be living under a regime where our 45th president would continue on for the rest of his lifetime like Russia’s President Putin and China’s President Xi. We are still at risk of this happening in 2024, whether it’s Trump who runs, one of his acolytes or one of his wannabes.
You may think, “That’s so far-fetched. It couldn’t happen here. We live in a democracy.” There are countless countries that thought the same, too. Take for example Hungary, Venezuela and Turkey. The folks who have spent a lifetime studying American history, fascism and social collapse are sounding the alarm bells like it is a five alarm fire and no one is bothering to care enough to bring a hose.
People don’t steal democracies in front of our very eyes. Do they?
Or, you may think, “For heaven’s sake, we were founded on the principles of democracy. Why would anyone do that? People don’t steal democracies in front of our very eyes. Do they?” The answer is: “Yes, people do steal democracies. in. front. of. our. very. eyes.” Anyone who listened last month as General Flynn — who had been a top candidate for national security advisor six years ago — took the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination on whether he believes in the peaceful transfer of power ought to have a sinking feeling in the pit of their belly that something is going very, very wrong.
Democracies can be demolished quickly in one big event, hollowed out from the inside or slowly chipped away over time. We have had at least five years of overt whacking away at our institutions and norms that provide the foundation for our democracy. It’s like playing Jenga by pulling the bottom rungs to see how long the the structure will hold up.
A Portland legal scholar coined the phrase “stealth authoritarianism.” Its purpose is protecting and entrenching power when “direct repression is not a viable option.”
Stealth authoritarianism is another way of saying stealing democracy without much violence. It is the theft of your voice by making voting meaningless and thus the loss of your personhood or property.
Obviously, that landscaper with the sheepish grin knew he couldn’t knock on my front door to ask, “Hey stranger, will you give me that young Japanese maple so I can use it for my own purposes?” It would have been even more ludicrous for him to use violence by robbing me at gunpoint for it. So, his best choice was to come at a time of day when it would not have been unusual to see a landscaper near my home, but no so late in the morning that I would have been working in the yard and able to thwart the theft. Once he ruled out legitimately earning and purchasing the maple tree, his next best option was to pretend to be legitimate while stealing it. It’s the same with democracy.
Someone unconcerned about the rule of law can stealthily take democracy using a veneer of legitimacy.
We have about 170 million registered voters in the United States out of a population of about 230 million citizens. That means, each voter has 0.0000006% stake in the policies and direction of our country. These policies impact our lives when it comes to housing, education, healthcare, public safety, emergency preparedness and the environment. When put in raw percentage terms, our individual stakes seem minuscule, but collectively it is incredibly powerful. For instance, 81,283,098 million people or 51.3% of the voters cast votes for candidate Biden in 2020, while 74,222,958 votes, or 46.8 percent of voters cast votes for candidate Trump. In presidential election terms, that 7 million popular vote difference is not even a close call. In electoral college terms, it was closer because “a swing of a few thousand votes in a few states this year and the country could have been looking at a second term for Trump, even though Biden would have won the national popular vote by 7 million votes.” (italics added).
Former President Trump had the ability to earn our vote. Yet, when voters said, “No, we are not voluntarily giving you our power for a second term,” former President Trump and his supporters did everything they could to yank that decision away. So, what must happen to a would-be thief? They must be caught and held accountable. Without accountability, they’ll continue whacking away at the job until they get what they want.
In the case of elections, it is ultimately up to the voters to hold elected leaders and candidates accountable for maintaining democracy — so long as voters still have the ability to do so.
Here’s some ideas of how do it in no particular order:
Commit to voting in local and state elections.
- Do not vote for any candidate that claims or is even close to insinuating that the 2020 election was fraudulent unless they have verified proof. There are more than a hundred election deniers seeking office in the primaries. Election deniers essentially are saying that if they or their candidate do not win, the election must have been rigged. Their fraud claims have been repeatedly debunked. Court case after court case has ruled against them. It is essentially a “heads I win, tails you lose” strategy with elections. To crib from Ron White, I don’t know how many of these election deniers it will take to crush democracy. But, I know how many they are going to use. “That’s a handy little piece of information, right there.”
- Support pro-democracy candidates by donating your time and/or money to get out the vote.
Support a cause or institution.
- Pick a cause or institution to support. Many philanthropic and civic organizations now provide for virtual meetings. So, you can participate from the comfort of your home. Pick any topic you feel passionate about and start by listening. If you don’t have time, set up an autopay with a organizations that will fact check, follow the issues and/or do investigative reporting like the e Guardian, League of Women Voters, PolitiFact, etc.
Use your voice.
- Share your views in a respectful manner. I recently spoke with a small business woman whose family immigrated from a repressive country. She was dismayed at how little Americans discuss politics, especially with all of the threats to democracy. A right wing media complex echoes and amplifies their own messaging. It gives those within its orb the false impression that radical or extremist views are held by large swaths of the public. As individuals, we have the power to break through that impression by stating our own views while we can.
- Write/call your senator to let them know that (i) you support voting rights legislation and (ii) anyone trying to take democracy away from voters should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Resist in little ways.
- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder is chock full of quick and easy ideas. It’s a quick read and got even better with the new illustrated edition. If you are not inclined to read, just glance at the table of contents or watch his short videos.
- “Make eye contact and small talk.” Have you noticed how everyone seems to walk around absorbed in their own world lately — even at events where we are all supposed to be together? Once you look them in the eye, they will break out of whatever mental world they are living in and are ready to Be Good Humans and engage in small talk. We need that social connection.
We have just a little time to take action, but we’ve got to collectively wake up from our defeatism, fear, stupor, torpor or whatever it is that holds us back. I keep asking myself: How are we going to feel if we sleepwalk our way into losing our democracy? Will we feel like fools teeming with impotent rage and gut-twisting shame? If so, should we do everything within our means to prevent its loss?
If we don’t act during this narrow window of time, the end result unfortunately will have far more lasting personal consequences than just losing an ornamental tree.
Karen Y. Spencer
July, 2022
