Democracy is Fragile
We have to learn to trust each other again
On Wednesday, President-elect Biden reminded us that Democracy is fragile. We saw that writ large as groups of White Nationalists, Christian Nationalists, and probably just some general troublemakers stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday afternoon as the Senate and House were certifying the Electoral College vote for president and vice president.
What happened? How could we let this happen? Could it happen again? How can we prevent it from happening again? So many questions, but the answers aren’t clear. I’m not a historian or a political scientist. I’m just thinking out loud here trying to make sense of a horrific afternoon in American history.
Democracy is fragile. Democracy requires that we trust each other, that we believe in the best of each other. We believe that we each bring our best selves to the ballot box, to protests, to our jobs as representatives of democracy if we are elected.
In the Declaration of Independence, our Founders wrote, “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” They knew that democracy was founded on trust. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” He knew the importance of trusting his fellow citizens.
