The road to ruination is paved with optimism.
5
Democracy in the United States is on its deathbed. November 6, 2018 could be the day when it draws its last breath.
4
What a memorable line in this column:
“The most ugly chapters of history are littered with bystanders.”
14
Not much democracy left
3
Democracy is not what it is made out to be. Nobody believes in the will of the people unless the people advocate whatever passes for the truth. One more electoral vote is trivial and to fill it with decisive meaning is ridiculous. The same with one more Senator or Congressperson. And for 5-4 to mean the difference between choice and life is total nonsense.
The best government is the government that makes the best decisions, not the government that goes the way of the majority. Treating the will of the people as sacrosanct is a terrible idea. Counting votes to determine the direction we go is also a bad idea. Majority rule is idiotic if the majority are idiots. Winston Churchill said it best when he said that the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
5
Cohen finishes his marvelous treatise on democracy with the "story of the old man on his deathbed who was approached by his children.
“Dad,” they say. “We were afraid to ask you but perhaps the time has come. Do you want to be buried or cremated?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he says. “Surprise me!”
Democracy will still surprise us."
Yes but, in Cohen's parlance, we are dead and the surprise moot. Quite fitting!
4
No other country on this planet has dared to declare the loser of a presidential election by 3 million votes the victor by a gimmick like the slavery-born Electoral College. Democracy tops the list of what is utterly fake about the US.
20
While it is true that "democracy has served injustice" -- to blacks enslaved for generations under its slave laws, to Japanese Americans imprisoned in concentration camps during WWII, to innocent people it exterminated in Southeast Asia during its Vietnam Holocaust, to children who did not deserve to be nuked, to innocent people who did not deserve to be killed in its Panama invasion or its Middle East Holocaust or to Native Americans whom it exterminated or dispossessed -- when we examine all its innocent victims, perhaps we shouldn't sing its praises, for the relatives of its victims might find that old tired tune rather insensitive.
13
“Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Unlike Abe, the global elite is not willing to let the people burn their behinds - that's a problem.
When the people want to sit on their blisters they are now called uneducated racist, xenophopic, backwards -
Let them sit and learn
1
“Then the very word becomes a sham, a disguise deployed by autocrats like Vladimir Putin.”
We should remind ourselves more that the weaknesses in our society and in democracy itself were carefully exploited by Putin to maximum effect. Without that interference we’d only be about half as damaged. That’s a big difference.
I'll never understand the promotion of voting. We don't need more voters, only more voters who are informed. If you have the wisdom to vote, you don't need public service announcements to get you to the polls. We need to promote political literacy, not dumb voting.
My pet theory is that the Walkman and progeny have disconnected people from even basic hourly radio news.
B.
4
I want to be optimistic like Mr. Cohen. It is hard.....
When informed with accurate and in-depth information about the real choices in any election, most American voters will choose wisely. However, we have entered a time when there are precious few sources of unbiased, accurate news and information. Educating the voting public will become the most critical job in our near term future. Absent an informed electorate, the forces of dark money, gerrymandering, false narratives, racism, and anti-immigrant hatred will continue to make a very strong case to too many voters. Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the dark money corporatists will do all they can to keep America's voters as ignorant as possible---they have done this quite well up to now.
5
I enjoy reading the columns and comments by some very intelligent people. I still do not understand why many of you believe we are living in a democracy; we are living in a plutocracy. Everything that affects the populace of this country is done by the wealthy for the wealthy. It is infuriating and tragic to see and hear how much money one person needs. It is also evident that the recent 1.5 trillion tax cut for those very wealthy was met with very meek outrage by democrats as they needed to pay off donors, as well.
We are not the United States of America. We are the United States of Greed.
5
Virtually all of America's "problems" are self-inflicted. We have allowed crony capitalism to replace real, competitive capitalism. We have failed to enforce and strengthen anti-trust laws. We have corrupted the political system with lobbying, gerrymandering, voter suppression and the need now for "representatives" to gather large amounts of funding just to run for office in most cases. House members spend 60% of their time fund-raising. This is an absurd implementation of representative government.
Moreover, the Electoral College has now transformed into an obsolete, unrepresentative disaster. There were some decent reasons and some deplorable reasons for the EC when Madison and Hamilton conceived it, but the evolving distribution in the population has rendered it antiquated, obsolete and unrepresentative. How is it fair that California has two Senators while North and South Dakota have 4. It is absurd!!!
So, we're really back to where we started before the Revolution: taxation without fair representation. It's as simple as that. California and New York are bulwarks of the American economy, and both states are severely underrepresented.
Bezos, Gates and Buffet are good people, but is it okay that they have the combined wealth of the lower 50% of the population? Of course not!!!
A couple of hundred families provide half of all political contributions. Is that okay? Of course not!!!
4
As our founders knew from their deep understanding of Roman history, "the disease of Republics is Empire".
But not just the founders knew this, but also the majority of farmers, tradespeople, fishermen, sailors, Minute Men, and patriots knew in their DNA coming from the "Old world" to the "New World" --- as Fitzgerald wrote, "that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder."
The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Kindle.
But likewise, the disease of Republics, Representative democracy, even popular democracy, is all the same, Empire.
Roger asserts, "Democracy is stubborn", but over many millennia, Empire has prevailed --- and still does "on little cat feet".
Trump is not a fascist, although Marx was right.
Fascism was just a 20th century 'tool of Empire'.
Trump is not an Emperor, just a faux-Emperor of a real post-1991 disguised global capitalist Empire which employs the camouflage of dual Vichy parties, distraction, and inane smiling entertainment to 'divide and conquer', but still optimism in we the people exists.
1
The Masters of Wealth hate the middle class and will do anything to keep it suppressed and weakened.
4
I'm pushing seventy and 1968 is a big marker in my experience in the "democracy" that has always been waved at me just as if it were a flag - a symbol with no real force in reality. The political murders, the inability of the will of the people to end the war in Vietnam, the treasonous acts of the president-to-be - all these things and more have continued to beat down the hope that America has always claimed to represent. Eventually, we have arrived at Trump and all of the worthless excuses for department "leaders" that he and his family have poisoned us to accept.
Keep hope alive is a wonderful concept that I just cannot summon at this time in our history.
10
The quality of life of the poorest in the west is higher than 90% of the rest of world. Unless you want to condemn our poor to world standards of poor be sceptical of this piece.
I envy, but don't share, your optimism about democracy. South Africa is hardly a stirring example of the redemptive power of a putatively democratic system. if anything, it confirms the limits of democracy's ability to constrain the worst impulses of voters and the leaders they elect. More to the point, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan -- to name just a few -- are all nominal democracies which are democratic in form but not in substance. Poland and Hungary, though both are members of the European Union, are less anti-democratic than those mentioned above only as a matter of degree. And yes, the German decision to abandon the Weimar Republic in favor of Nazism is a lesson that seems to resonate more and more with each passing day.
2
Others have said it better and more at length, but you confuse democracy with capitalism.
Democracy is not an institution. It is a commitment to democratic principles, and it's only as good as the people holding office. A democracy can quickly turn into a plutocracy or kleptocracy or theocracy by putting on the wealthy in office, the crooks in office or the religious in office. Democracy will completely disappear when courts are filled with people pandering to the wealthy, the crooked and/or the religious. We're headed in the wrong direction. Everyone sees it. Losing the Supreme Court to the pasty white frat-boys with ecclesiastical leanings will be the straw that breaks democracy's back.
4
But democracy has surprised you, Roger, first with Brexit, then with Matteo Salvini. You don't seem to like surprises as I remember.
Democracy has powerful enemies. Citizens United showed it has enemies on the supreme court. Trump shows it has enemies in the republican party. But democracy's most powerful enemy is money. Until we get money out of our elections, the Mercers, the Sacklers, Foster Frieze for pities sake, those people will be picking our leaders.
6
I suggest that Roger "Pollyanna" Cohen read Chris Hedges's recent jeremiad, "America: The Farewell Tour". He may well conclude that his optimism is a bit cockeyed.
The human desire often turns out to be for safety rather than freedom, unfortunately.
A million years of evolution leading to whatever we are has programmed us differently than Locke (and maybe Becket) would have liked.
WE , as a species, continue to revert to our tribal ways-- us against them-- in a never-ending struggle for imagined resources. Dictators and dictator wanna be's have harnessed that tribal urge to their own ends turning brothers and sisters against each other since the dawn of our existence. We won't escape our fate easily.
Democracy is an antidote but you have to want to take the medicine. You have to be smart enough to take the medicine and not many of us are.
5
Mr Cohen ... you write that you worry about atomization; but isn't that the very essence of the 18th Century Age of Enlightenment Liberalism; e.g. Rouseau? Liberalism in the sense that the individual is paramount and surmounts any claims of family, culture, nation? Are people, at least those that are not part of the globe trotting financial and media elite, to be blamed if they wish to preserve and remain attached to their regions, traditions, histories? Why should Brussels tell all Europeans how to think and live. You refer to classical Athens. Perhaps a re-reading of the speech of Pericles as written by Thucydides may remind one of the deep ties felt by many toward their home soil and it's traditions.
Would have been easier to have kept the "Jenius" throughout.
But Roger Cohen hardly needs any advice from me.
Thanks again for all your columns.
Hope your optimism is well founded.
1
I find it difficult to reconcile the concept of modern Democracy with Mr. Cohen's citing a Greek minister of the crypto-Bolshevik party.
If Democracy means free elections and the vote of the majority imposed on all, then the history has shown many times that "The voice of the people is NOT the voice of God". Unless, of course it was God's inexplicable will to make the people vote for the Evil.
Oligarchy is what we have , not democracy. Take a good look at the Federalist Papers- the news letters meant to sway propertied white men to support the Constitution . Madison speaks of the fear he has for “factions,” i. e majority rule. So a government of rich white men was inaugurated and that’s what we have to this day .More and more inequality , more and more rule by the 1%.
5
"Democracy" does nothing. It's the product of what we do. It is not a human, not a subject, not a person with agency and the ability to act. As an institution, yes, it is "stubborn" in the way any institution tends to be, because institutions tend to be durable, especially if they are well-established and have extensive "buy in" from the people whose lives they encompass.
I see nothing of use in the sorts of platitudes about democracy that Mr Cohen is spilling on the page here. They only serve to trivialize the matters at hand; they render our level of discourse on a childish level.
Whatever we got now, it ain't democracy and I doubt we'll ever again come anywhere near it. The strengths of the founders' visions have been hobbled and cast aside. The enlightened hope that leaders would be moral and just has withered and died. There are no surprises left. It is a dim and rotten future quite possibly more angrily desperate than any dystopian prophecies already offered.
2
How very motivating these words from Yascha Mounk, are regarding the anti-democratic fires raging, “Each civic act, he suggested, is a glass of water that may help extinguish the flames.” Great visual that every step we take, whether registering voters, donating to a civil minded candidate or making calls in a call center is a glass of water that will help put out this fire. Yes, democracy will prevail if we all do our part.
2
If somebody told me three decades ago that one day there was going to be a device capable of hosting the entire knowledge of humankind in a palm of our hand but that we would use it to post the photos of the food we ate for a lunch, I wouldn’t believe it.
That’s the problem. Don’t think for a single second that either Obama or Trump could be some kind of a global curse!
They are just two individuals with ten fingers each, exactly like all of us.
We are the problem, because there are the billions of us.
If a single person could change the course of the entire humanity for worse, then we are to blame - not any politician, leader or elected official.
We have freely chosen to voluntarily obey them and blindly follow whatever they preach…
5
The biggest advantage in democracy is freedom. You are free to do whatever you want. In America, a President is attacked, of course verbally, like no one else. Still nothing happens due to freedom of expression. This simply can’t be expected under dictatorship. You will be jailed or even murdered without someone knowing.
The New York Times has published an anonymous OP - ED against the President recently but still survived. Is it not because of democracy ?
In democracy you are at will to vote for whatever candidate you like and get them elected but not so in dictatorship. You have the choice of worship in democracy but not so in dictorship.
The disadvantages with the democracy is mainly electoral corruption which involves huge funds donated by the big corporations resulting in wholesale corruption that includes lobbying. Unless it’s plugged, nothing can be achieved like reducing the gap between the super rich and the common man. Due to electoral corruption politicians dance to the tune of rich businessmen.
Unlike India you have only two major political parties. Unfortunately they don’t even come to some sort of understanding in national interest. That’s one of the biggest problems there. I don’t think this problem is due to democracy. It’s something to do with the lack of will to improve people’s lives and nothing else.
4
That sure looks like a wildfire sky, familiar to Southern California. And there are certainly enough wildfires ablaze in the world's democracy ecosystem. Mainly nationalism and partisan divides.
1
Exquisite column, Roger. Can't thank you enough for your wisdom and long view. Yes, we should all be thinking about Athens now.
1
I understand and share a desire for some optimism in our modern political morass, but as we have seen the surprise of democratic governance will not necessarily be on the upside: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/1/15515820/donald-trump-d... ("Two eminent political scientists: The problem with democracy is voters," 24 June 2017). The subtitle for that essay: Why almost everything you think about democracy is wrong. The essay, a discussion with the authors of "Democracy for Realists" (Princeton Univ. Press, 2016). Here is one short paragraph from that Vox piece:
"Even voters who pay close attention to politics are prone — in fact, more prone — to biased or blinkered decision-making. The reason is simple: Most people make political decisions on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not an honest examination of reality."
I do not get much reassurance from our congressional leaders, and forget the crew in the White House.
1
The reality Cohen entirely ignores, or simply does not understand, is that bad people make progress as surely as good people. While human civilisation has marched on in areas like democratic government, health care, knowledge and access, there have been bad people working on other projects, like organised crime, political corruption, misinformation and inequality of wealth and opportunity.
Democracy as a system is dependant on many other systems functioning effectively. But we live in a world now where taxation can be massively avoided by transnational transaction manipulation, regulation can be avoided by corrupt appointments based on blatant partisanship, responsibility for fellow citizens can be avoided by extensive disinformation campaigns run by corrupt capitalists on new technology that allows messaging to be manipulated.
The idea that our government systems are somehow automatically self-correcting is naive nonsense. The last time fascists took power in democracies like Germany and Italy, it was more or less only through dumb luck and the stupidity of the fascists in charge that a world war was fought and won to put them back in their boxes. But more than half the world now live under one form of fascism or another. It's not as if democracy is sweeping the planet.
Cohen has fallen back on complacency because he doesn't have the wit, wisdom or courage to mount a fight against the evils on the rise all around him. We can't be complacent, we need to fight hard to win.
2
Rule #1: If it happened in the past, it can happen worse in the future.
Rule #2: If there are a sufficient number of people who don't believe in rule #1, then it can only happen worse in the future.
Rule #3: If it happens in the future, then it can only ever get worse from there.
Rule #4: The future is coming.
2
It's true that democracy will still surprise us. The question is, will it be a happy surprise - and for whom?
It's that uncertainty that causes some people to reject democracy for whomever promises to bring order and safety.
That's why democracy can't be a spectator sport. The largest voting block in 2016 was the block that didn't vote. The world is made by the people who show up for the job.
We all need to show up in November and vote as though our lives depend on it. They do.,
1
This bothers me: " Western democracy is in upheaval. Of late, it has concentrated, but not spread, wealth, suggesting that it’s no more than a vehicle for injustice."
How has Western democracy concentrated wealth or been a vehicle for injustice? Mr. Cohen doesn't explain. I fear he conflates democracy with capitalism. Read CD in Maine for more.
1
Wouldn't be great if we had a system of electors. Chosen from the finest progressive universities. Nurtured and trained to participate in our Democracy to benefit the people. Naturally this nurturing process can take many years to ensure they vote correctly. What a magnificent democracy the chosen can provide the people the masses. But only if they obeyed.
@JoeG: oh boy! I thought Hermann Hesse was smoking some wierd stuff when he was writing Magister Ludi. Mistake!
1
Freedom and democracy require doing one's homework and taking the time to do it. In my day (late 1960s), we wanted freedom and settled for license. Today this trend has even accelerated by technology and more instant gratification.
2
When the subject of democracy comes up, I often mention term limits - actually a universal one-term limit for any mandate - arguing that the possibility of a second mandate skews the elected politician's behaviour in view of the next election. It does not encourage honesty but rather endless political wheeling and dealing, which is actually detrimental to the healthy functioning of democracy.
Such a limit would continuously rejuvenate the political class and allow more non-professional politicians to contribute their talents.
Unfortunately the response if more often than not dismissive, as if this is a far-fetched idea and not the efficient remedy which I dare - humbly -envision.
1
Doubtful, in any real sense. Oh, since nothing turns out precisely as we expect, I imagine that we’ll have some tactical surprises to keep us entertained; but I imagine that democracy’s development will pretty much follow de Tocqueville’s predicted lines, and in the end those who haven’t and largely can’t will vote themselves the earnings and accumulations of those who have and can. At this point the goads and incentives that cause those who have and can to produce the goodies that others can’t will go elsewhere to create a new society; or will simply cease producing. And, for a time and apart from that new Athens consisting only of those who have and can, and their service robots, we will see society slowly return to a basic subsistence status that sees disease and want take hold again, dramatically lowered life-spans and a notable loss of a sense of humor.
But, in fairness, it wasn’t Athenian democracy that failed so many centuries ago. It was Greek armies that were conquered. Different reality. But of late a new world’s Greek democracy has been taking it on the chin as a debt-fueled Kumbaya and a corrupt society whose wealthy stop at nothing to keep the leveling of “demos” outside the walls, have also sought to keep the free cheese abundant … somehow. THAT kind of democracy is failing before our eyes – and it’s failing everywhere, not just in Athens, not just in view of the Parthenon.
Democracy has no useful human purpose if it can’t find a way of sustaining itself.
1
You forget. In a democracy the candidate with the MOST votes wins. In the US the candidate with the FEWEST votes wins.
10
Democracy and the US
Most Americans will be surprised to learn that the word “democracy” does not appear in the Declaration of Independence (1776) or the Constitution of the United States of America (1789).
For more
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-that-the-word-democracy-doesnt-appear-in-th...
2
Global trade raised the salaries in China and lowered the salaries of those working in the same profession in the US. And those are not just workers but increasingly high tech folks as well. IBM now has more employees in India than in the US.
No one likes to see their real salaries fall.
That is what it is all about.
6
Mr. Cohen writes about the Athenian democracy and cites Samual Becket, and later even Goethe's Faust.
As to Goethe's Faust, I do not think that technology was twin-souled, but that Republicans sold their soul to Mephisto for the riches of paying less taxes, while the least of us are losing their safety nets.
When it comes to Mr. Cohen's optimism, he will be waiting forever for Godot, akin to the little tramps on the stage in Becket's play. At the same time fascism is quietly taking hold not only of the administration of this country, but a far too large number of voters who are believing that all that ails this country is the fault of those "Others".
6
Mr. Cohen
I love your column, but this one misses the cause of Western discontent.
a) I an global society, where goods and manpower (via immigration) can move freely, wages of those in the West exposed to global competition must fall to the global average.
That's roughly the present level of wages in China.
That is what all the unrest is Trump, Brexit, Orban is about.
b) On the other hand, the owners of capital in the West profited from globalization. Moving the factory to Mexico, lowers wages and increases profits. Maximizing profits is what Wall Street is about.
a) + b) are the root causes of increasing inequality
Democracy as practiced in the US is unable to rectify it, as it is the owners of capital finance the campaign of the political parties. In the US that is both the Republican and the Democratic Party.
Goldman Sachs was the single largest contributor to the Obama 2008 campaign. The top 10 campaign donors to the leader of the Democratic Party , Senator Schumer, are all from Wall Street.
There is NO party left that is financed by average American
8
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone."
Republicans and centrist Democrats are cooperating to undermine the Constitution.
By adopting Republican economic positions about the Constitution as their own, the Democratic Party leadership is helping to sell their lies.
The Preamble of the Constitution is our mission statement, and lists a lot of expensive things we are supposed to accomplish: Justice, Tranquility, defense, and promoting the general welfare and liberty for posterity. That is a call for spending.
To pay for it, Article I clearly authorizes Congress to tax and regulate trade. What do traders trade? Capital: land, machinery, inventory, and wealth.
The Constitution says tax and regulate trade to pay for investment in We the People.
Capitalism was not a word when the Constitution was ratified. It says nothing about "unfettered free trade," kow towing to global markets, or making corporations into people.
Corporations are not supposed to be pseudo citizens. Corporations are chartered by the states, and are originally expected to deliver benefits to all stakeholders (the state, the community, the workers the consumers, management, and the shareholders), in return for protecting shareholders.
The two corporate parties are doing the opposite of what the Constitution says, then blaming the disasters on government. Then that becomes am excuse to privatize government functions creating more disasters, repeat....
The Constitution is a left document. Read it.
7
I'd like to believe this. In practice, I'm less sure. What happened to Ancient Rome?
1
@Mike Livingston
Helloooo, Mike, when was Ancient Rome ever a democracy?
Democracy at best is the egalitarian ideal espoused by Mr. Cohen and many of the commenters. At worst it is little more than rule of the mob. As in mass group of people, not the Mafia. What the Founders of the Country gave us is not a democracy at all, but rather, as Benjamin Franklin said,"A Republic, if you can keep it."
But all the political terms have become so jaded from their original meaning and intent that the "People's Democratic Republic" of Wherever is not democratic, nor republican, nor even of the people, but is rather some totalitarian regime run as this country is turning into, a wealthy oligarchical elite, and then the rest of us.
Add to this political layer the economic layer of capitalism. Ideally it can create a "rising tide that lifts all boats" as we saw in the 1950's-1960's when broad economic purchasing power was made available to more people than ever before. But this was done at the moral cost of the Vietnam war, and when the bills came due for that, plus the Arabs asserting OPEC, Nixon taking us off the fixed-rate gold standard, in the 1970's things got bad. From Reagan forward the mantra has been "how much can I get for me," with CEO's earning mega millions, with "golden parachutes" even if they failed. Career politicians started greasing the skids to please their donors, not the people they purportedly represented. We say,"vote the bums out." But how will our representative democracy survive when we keep sending the same people back to DC?
4
I'm at optimist about democracy too, but saving it requires more than optimism.
2
Al Smith: “The cure for bad democracy is more democracy”
1
"Democracy in Chains": Professor Nancy MacClean - it is coming to pass.
3
China's "social credit score" is the wave of the future, hideous though it is. The infrastructure for such a obscenity already exists in the US, still fragmented between Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and the government, but the days are numbered before they are all integrated under the West's golden calf: efficiency. Here you'll get Amazon coupons for being a good robot.
The Chinese system wields real carrots and sticks, with the intention of creating a perfectly docile population that has internalized all the restraints placed upon them; only massive civil disobedience could overthrow it and that is highly unlikely unless the rewards stop flowing while the punishments remain. Technology has created a world in which there is no court of last appeal. The events in your life, once ascribed to "Fate", will now be due to algorithms running invisibly in the background, their creators long dead.
3
"Of late, Western democracy has concentrated rather than spread wealth, suggesting it serves injustice."
Ok, a lead in line so some latitude is given.
That said, baloney. The hidden message in that tag line is a desire to redistribute wealth, because it is "more fair".
As for the rest of the article, well, rambling, but hey, why not.
It should be noted that the Founders studied the democracies of times past when designing the Constitution. The failures they saw lead directly to the creation of a republic (representational democracy), rather than a direct popular democracy.
American exceptionalism is real, and our democracy will continue to amaze the world for centuries to come.
Despite the Democrats.
:-)
1
@Objectivist:
"It should be noted that the Founders studied the democracies of times past when designing the Constitution".
My, my, that study by the Founders took just a few minutes, due to the complete lack of democracies since the Athenian one.
2
Republicans continually drag America into the income inequality gutter, crashing the economy. The Democrats consistently bail them out, with the Republicans kicking and screaming about deficits and taxes, understanding neither as they exhibit whenever they get the power. Witness the last tax heist. Without the Democrats your backwards, self-centered Libertarian "democracy" would have collapsed long ago. The current Trump administration will probably end that streak, collapsing the country so Trump can get richer. Keep voting Republican if you want bread lines.
2
@Objectivist: funny coincidence that your comment was published right after mine.
I don’t know if I need to add anything to what I already said to refute your thesis but one thing to add: there is no such thing as American Exceptionalism in a positive sense at least. Our history is full of atrocities committed towards people, Native Americans, Blacks, Central Americans (Guatemala for example), Latin Americans (Chile and the CIA backed/organized coup), Iran (we got rid of Mossadegh and installed back the Shah whom we then dumped when he served his purpose and was dying of cancer). We banned our citizens from using the same urinals as some other citizens used because their color was black. This is on top of keeping their ancestors in chains until they reached our shores and then enslaved them until they cost more than the Whitney invention’s production.
You don’t want me to go further do you?
Learn history my good sir. Do your self a favor and leave ignorance, jingoism and the GOP behind. This is the 21st Century.
2
OK, you are in Athens on a New York Times expense account so you have to turn in something.
You speak of Democracy yet we are actually living in a oligarchy. A few own an incrediblely large portion of the planet's wealth.
Simon Kuznets' optimistic numbers (that inequality was going down in the period between the end of the First World War and the early Seventies) turned out to be an honest "in sample mistake" as Piketty, Milanovich, Saez, Atkinson and others have shown conlusively.
Inequality is growing and as long as the inequality “r > g” holds, it will keep growing. Your democracy is ran by a few people owning pretty much everything, controlling the media, the democratic elections (remember Citizens United?), wealth, education. The Koch Brothers and Mercer Pere et Fille make sure our trade unions, public education, public transportation, affordable healthcare, infrastructure and social safety net is kaput. Our democracy is in the hands of oligarchs (so is it really a democracy after all?) who want everyone to lower their expectations. What was gained in the years that Kuznets' data explores was lost after Reagan. We get to be less and less equal and therefore less and less democratic.
Please read Harari’s books. They will help you understand your place in the universe and in the history of human beings. Western Civilization represents a tiny sliver in the history of human life in plane Earth.
Now back to your glorious Athens and its ruins.
7
Unsurprisingly, your article bolstered my optimism about the current state of affairs, and encourages me to be more optimistic, and I'll try applying my new approach to running to the political game. After a few falls while running recently, I'm careful to only run uphill and walk down. It's more strenuous going up and better for me, and I can relax and think while going down. Thanks Roger.
Liberal democracy is not rule by the majority. It protects a range of liberties, even when those liberties are used against the majority.
Democracy is not the same as capitalism, but from the 1980s to 2008, a consensus developed among liberal democracies that free markets, deregulation and globalisation, combined with democracy, was the best means of achieving human progress.
Since 2008, liberal democracies have failed to adequately meet the challenges of economic inequality and economic insecurity that have been spawned by the financial crisis and exacerbated by globalisation and automation. As a result more people have looked to populists and demagogues instead of democrats for answers.
Liberal democrats have to be more assertive and more imaginative in our efforts to solve these problems or we will not fail better. We will simply fail.
2
@CarpeDiem64: The fact that the US Constitution delegates only a sharply restricted set of delegated powers to government here flies over the heads of the whole infantile right wing.
So there's still fire in the coals in the "(At Least We're Not China, Russia, Iran or Saudi Arabia)USA" is there Roger? That's good to hear mate.
1
September 21, 2018
Whatever is the surprise the facts manage the surprises and so let's add to Roger Cohen's insight and wisdom:
To quote our New York Times best -Thomas L. Friedman -
“When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.”
― Thomas L. Friedman
3
Trump is a gift of enlightenment to all Americans brought to us as a sign of our moral and ethical decline.
Only a dysfunctional society driven by greed and self obsession would vote for a pathetic pariah like Trump.
We should all be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this to happen to our country!
10
I find this dangerous nonsense.
A liberal democracy is a pretty show of innumerable balls in the air, sent aloft by a dedicated and upright minority over centuries.
That intelligent minority went to the bother owing to indignance about being pushed around by kings and aristocrats as though little children.
We live in the show. It's marvellous.
But the upright minority has fallen away, as it tends to, and it's we who must do the juggling.
A poll last year showed only a fraction of the young feel it's important to live in a democracy, suggesting that the
Achilles heel of our system is its inability to produce the people needed to keep it aloft.
Mr. Cohen himself is a jolly perfect example, in this column at least -- letting on we shouldn't worry, democracy is bulletproof, etc. All he left out was 'our best days are ahead of us.'
Cant and complacency are not the juggler's friends, nor ours.
It's not democracy that's failing, it's unregulated capitalism. Anybody who has ever played a game of Monopoly knows that, without regulation and some level of income redistribution, unfettered capitalism results in income concentration. Historically, extreme income inequality has led to extreme political polarization, and that's exactly what we are experiencing right now. What's more, the GOP is taking active steps that not only exacerbate income inequality, they've equated wealth with speech, and made it easier for the extremely wealthy to influence our politics. This, of course, is contrary to the core democratic principal of "one person, one vote."
3
I am also optimistic, but in a different sense. I am optimistic that we will see a change. How that change will come, painfully or not, and what the result will look like, democratic or not, I don't know.
The world is a very different place that it was when the US form of democracy took hold and took off. I think that we may have out grown it.
"But, yes, Western democracy is in upheaval. Of late, it has concentrated, but not spread, wealth, suggesting that it’s no more than a vehicle for injustice."
Mr. Cohen's essay is about democracy, but it is easy to argue that capitalism has been the force that concentrates unprecedented wealth into the hands of a few. These oligarchs then take over governments, bribing politicians to do what is needed to further enrich the oligarchs. They often maintain elections and other symbols of democracy, but face it, they own the place.
Democracy, if it can be restored — which at this point in time is by no means a given — can pave the road to unseating the oligarchs, with luck before they destroy the planet and its human civilizations. It will take the efforts of the many.
3
Our Republic is strong. Checks and balances will prevail. We will see change this November, and by November 2020, we will see more change.
Democracy only works when the majority of the people decide who wins an election, not the "electoral college" or the people who draw gerrymandered maps.
Democracy only works when every person's voice counts equally, but how can that be achieved when a state with 1 million people has as many votes in the Senate as a state with 40 million people?
The concept and philosophy of Democracy is not the problem, the way it is being applied is.
4
Democracy stopped working when SOME people realized that OTHER people were going to ask for their share in the polity, were going to vote for it, and, when there were enough of them, were going to take their share and change things. Hence, trump.
3
Mr. Cohen you say, "If Trump is a Fascist, Marx was right: History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. I wonder."
I don't wonder. HIStory is one of death and destruction fueled by greed, hate, anger and fear. It is the exploit resources, enslave those "lesser", rape, pillage, plunder mentality of antiquated men and the women who think they are protected by these men. Remember Marie Antoinette. How protected was she?
HIStory is changing right now to OUR story. Women are saying, "Time's UP". WE are sick of these greedy, Robber Baron socially unconscious men and women destroying OUR lives and those of our children and grandchildren. Women are stepping up to take one-half the power and bring balance to OUR country and world.
Yes, democracy will still surprise the world because WOMEN demand equal participation in every part of society. Women and men who support them in OUR United States will once again be the world leader.
5
@njglea Hear, hear!
2
"Western democracy has concentrated rather than spread wealth"
Yes, indeed. A reminder that democracy and capitalism are not synonymous!
But simply saying that "democracy will surprise us" doesn't make it so. Where's the evidence?
It's worth reminding ourselves that democracy as the norm of government world-wide is a relatively recent phenomenon (really since the end of WW2, or maybe even the 1990s, post fall of Soviet Union) -- not the way things inevitably work out.
The era of democracy as the norm could well be ending. Certainly if you look at the way democracy is working in the USA, Britain, Poland, Hungary, etc, you've got to wonder.
5
Recognizing the anti democratic power with which Putin dominates Russia with. The NYTs is involved in anti democratic smear campaign against Russia with their largely unproven accusations of interfering in the US election. The incredible power of the NYTs to brazen its way through this is sad. Trump is no doubt a plutocrats populist. He is a racist and a sexist. He could care less about the environment. He seems locked into some sort of confrontation with Iran, probably Syria and possibly Russia and China. He lies without constraint. On Athens, Lewis Mumford states the Parthenon was paid for with the extortion by Athens of the Delian League.
While we gaze at the ancient wonders of Greece for a moment, let's also attend to those who live in the shadow of the Acropolis, like the city street cleaners. Are they getting a fair shake for their work? Where is their voice heard, are they even organized? Did you talk with anyone out side the grounds of the conference?
Abstractions, like 'democracy', don't carry us along very far. A more useful focus: are we engaged in our city, in our neighborhood, school district. Do we have any contact with our Congressman? And he with us? Difficult though that is, at 400,000 constituents per district.
Rousseau did not embrace 'democracy' nor did J.S. Mill. Keith did James Madison for that matter. But both Mill and Rousseau defended the irreducible person, the individual in us all. Both stressed the tendency of institutions to promote hierarchy and in-equality. And for Rousseau, he was skeptical that any political order larger than the city-state of Geneva could avoid such tendencies.
Any ethos, like shared self-government, requires more than proclamation or nostalgia for lost triumphs or dashed hopes. To be one with our fellow citizens requires more than voting. It is our daily practice and attention that counts. What we say to each other, what we hear from one another, what we learn and how we assess common predicaments --- that's the stuff of making our experiment work.
No, 'democracy' will not surprise us; but we could do that for ourselves. Let's see.....
2
Fail better. Or as Melania Trump would say, be best.
“Oh,” said Putin, “what does the J stand for?”
“Jenius!” said Trump.
This is the Age of the Genius.
I fell out of my chair laughing so hard. That was priceless, or should I say jenius!
2
Too bad Wall St. bought the support of the Congressional Black Caucus and black preachers in their campaign to smear Sanders with black voters in 2016. He won the white primary vote, of course. If blacks had not nominated the most despised nominee in party history, Sanders would have given America its biggest democratic "surprise" since 1932. Alas.
3
The Russians learned a lesson. You cannot defeat democracy with war. You can, however, destroy it from within. Trump and the Republicans have taken us far down the road to a racist fascism underlying an oligopoly.
I see zero evidence that the majority of white America cares. The coalition of Christo-fascists and white supremacists have won.
3
I don’t like surprises. The last huuuuuge political one happened almost two years ago, it just seems much, much longer. Due to exponential misery, or Trump time. When every week feels like a month, even every day can feel like a week. It’s like the movie
“ Groundhog Day “. From HELL. Please, stop the Madness.
VOTE in November. Straight Democratic ticket.
11
Who is "us"? What is "democracy"?
America is not and never was intended to be a democracy.
America was meant to be a divided-legislative, executive and judicial - limited power constitutional republic of united states where all white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men who owned property were divinely naturally created equal with certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
See "The Half Has Never Been Told : Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism " Edward Baptist; "Dog-Whistle Politics : How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class " Ian Haney Lopez
6
Democracy, corrupted by post-classical liberalism, has hastened its own demise. Thank you.
1
Nice.
You lose me when you start a column “gazing at the Acropolis the other day....”
Just another elite who doesn’t get it.
3
Democracy led to oligarchy in this country. The tiniest fraction of the population own most of the wealth and dictate their will upon us using tools like Citizens United. Funded by people like Koch Brothers and Mercer Pere & Fille, they are destroying the social fabric by killing trade unions, public education, public transportation and healthcare.
Mr Cohen is pontificating about democracy from the beautiful city of Athens.
I would recommend him to read or reread Piketty, Atkinson, Saez, Deaton, Milanovic and Stiglitz.
When the income and wealth distributions are L-shaped what does democracy even mean?
The Times does not like criticism of their pundits so this saccharine op-Ed is protected. I doubt my comment will be printed.
5
@Blunt
If we truly had an oligarchy Donald Trump would not be President. No one with any power wanted him in the White house. He was put there by the voters. (Spare me the popular vote and Russia nonsense. The rules of the election have been with us since the beginning, and Hillary couldn't even be bothered to campaign in the Rust Belt)
Ah, the trials and errors of mankind with their petty concerns,those with more than enough placating those who are satisfied with just enough. While Mother Earth and her other creatures are "failing better." Mankind is a child , screaming "me,me,me." We have produced what we have gotten. We will deserve what we get.
1
"If Trump is a Fascist, Marx was right: History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce,,,,I worry about the insidiousness of Trump’s moral depravity." Wow. These lines deserve an entire essay in themselves. And not only about democracy's capacity to deliver surprises.
1
So there’s this old joke:
Mommy and daddy are sitting around the dinner table with six-year old Johnny who has never spoken a word in his life.
Johnny suddenly blurts out, “Pass the potatoes.”
Mom and dad are shocked. They say, “ Why have you never ever said a word before.
Johnny replies, “Up until now everything was O.K.
The American people are currently living with a six-year old psychologically messed-up kid named Donny who is in love with the sound of his own voice; is thrilled by what he is hearing; is under the impression that he is the boss of the world; and will soon discover that he is dispensable.
Meet the new boss
The same as the old boss
Surprised?
1
Okay, go ahead, Democracy. Surprise me.
3
I think we saw someone stand up for the truth this week, Christine Blasey Ford. She refused to appear before a kangaroo court that had no interest in the truth by insisting that her allegations be investigated by the FBI. We cannot allow our Senate to become a dog and pony show like the trump WH.
2
So there’s this old joke:
Mommy and daddy are sitting around the dinner table with six-year old Johnny who has never spoken a word in his life.
Johnny suddenly blurts out, “Pass the potatoes.”
Mom and dad are shocked. They say, “ Why have you never ever said a word before.
Johnny replies, “Up until now everything was O.K.
The American people are currently living with a six-year old psychologically messed-up kid named Donny who is in love with the sound of his own voice; is thrilled by what he is hearing;
is under the impression that he is the king of the world; and -- with God's help -- will soon discover that he can be tossed out on his ear in a heartbeat.
3
A democracy needs a vibrant free press and a well informed electorate to survive.
We have had neither for quite some time. I can't quite put a finger on when both of these pillars of democracy began to whither, but my instinct tells me about 1980.
During the run up to the invasion of Iraq had the Times done a piece on the front page like the piece today, detailing the hacked/stolen election of 2016, we might not be seeing the teetering of liberty and democracy we are seeing world wide.
I am heartened, at last, that reporters and newspapers/TV news are once again pointing out facts instead of opinions.
When Obama would say the economy is getting back on track but there is still work to be done; McConnell would find a mic and say Obama is a complete failure and the economy is going nowhere; and the TV and print news people would say: "You decide who is telling the truth".
I think reporters are once again remembering that in a fascist state they are typically out of work. And in prison.
Let's all get back to work. Roll up our sleeves. Get out the vote. Tell the truth.
Make America mean something again instead of just being mean.
2
@Bob Laughlin Very good comment but I always enjoy comments by Bob Laughlin. I agree that "We need a vibrant free press and a well-informed electorate to survive." We also need an electorate that has some common sense and the intelligence to question a few things and do some independent thinking. When someone on television tells you it is a clear day; look out the window and see if that is really true. When the press says something; look if up in Wikipedia or other places to see if it is true.
But you are right, if democracy is to survive we need for voters to be well informed and to vote at every election. Often times the side that shows up at the polls is the one that wins. Who said, a lot of life is just showing up? But it is true.
2
@Bob Laughlin The following are facts.
-There has been no credible evidence of Russian's doing anything beyond FaceBook ad buys in attempt to sow discord and sully Hillary
-There hasn't even been a suggestions that the Russians hacked Hillary's Calendar and canceled all of her campaign events in the Rust Belt or forced her and the Democrats to double down on hard Left social policies.
-President Obama presided over the most sluggish recovery since WWII.
-Economic growth took off like a rocket as soon as President Trump started rolling back President Obama's regulatory state.
1
The Obama recovery, sluggish or not, was necessitated by yet another Republican crash of the economy. As with most of your bullet points, Republicans are the problem, not the solution. It must be boring going through life with conservative blinders on. It certainly is not factual.
1
Thanks, Mr. Cohen. I needed that. Two quick things:
(1) That quote from Beckett. Marvelous! I love it.
(2) That joke at the end. ALSO--marvelous. I love it.
Years ago, I had to read Plato's "Republic." In Greek, no less. Gosh, what a grind. Now THAT, sir, I did not love.
But he sounds a theme sung since by many a pundit.
Democracy by its very nature is unstable and impermanent.
Think back. Remember Plato's Philosopher King? The guy doesn't WANT to be king. He'd rather sit somewhere, meditating. That makes him the ideal ruler.
Then comes oligarchy. The few--the not-so-proud--the no-good. Running for their own benefit. Hey! Sound familiar?
Then--democracy. But Plato's opinion of "the people" was not high. "The people", you remember, had howled for the blood of Socrates. And so democracy dwindles into--
--dictatorship. "The people"--thrusting their fortunes into the hands of one man.
How clearly--with what desperate CLARITY--the Founding Fathers foresaw that possibility!
How assiduously they labored to forestall it!
And what vigilance--you hear me, you supine members of Congress?--with what VIGILANCE we should ever be doing two things:
(1) Preserving our rights.
(2) Discharging our duties.
I am thinking of those two old guys, flaunting stuff on their T shirts: "I'd rather be Russian than Democrat."
Hunt down those guys. . ..
. ..and make them write out your article, Mr. Cohen. . .
.. .TWENTY TIMES.
1
"Elections will surprise you." Dwight Eisenhower, I think.
Can be reallyreally bad surprises, especially when that old racist anachronism that the US has left festering in the Constitution lo' these 200 odd years comes into play.
Race will really matter if it ends up ironically turning the US into a failed state.
1
Roger: Wonderful Beckett quote to start your column. don't forget his famous line of Hamm's in ENDGAME:
"You're on earth. There's no cure for that!"
1
“Representative democracy provides a means to mediate these differences for the greater good”
Ah there’s the rub: The greater good. What is that?
There was a time in the 50s and 60s, before SCOTUS enshrined corporations as people, where we believed “What’s good for General Motors is good for America”.
In 2008, we declared “What’s good for Wall Street and Banks is good for America.” While today in the post-truth era, when representative democracy is all a jumble, we argue “What’s good for me and mine is good for ... oh the heck with America ...
is good for me and mine!”
1
DJ--Whatever it is, if it's good for the AVERAGE American, it's good for the country.
2
Thanks....we needed that.
1
What makes me optimistic in this very dark age of Trump is his sheer incompetence and yes, absolute moral depravity. Although I tend to hold to H. L. Mencken's view to never underestimate the stupidity of the general public---Trump's intellect and strategic thinking falls well below that standard. Having said that, I have a concern in the back of my mind that a smarter more politically astund fascists---a Putin type, at least at this point in time, could bring this Republic to and end.
2
As long as big money dominates and guides political decision making on the US, and a minority of citizens can elect the president, we do not have a representative democracy.
5
Thank you Roger Cohen for a wonderful op-ed.
Here in Quebec we are in the midst of an election and indeed democracy has come as a wonderful surprise. An election that started as a death knell for our Liberal Party of Quebec's 15 year reign seems to be closing with the realization that the perceptions given us by the US media were indeed totally incorrect.
Our high taxes, high regulations and high levels of immigration have created a society where unemployment is no longer a problem and what we desperately need is workers . We are a world leader in new start-ups and our economy is in overdrive.
Our future looks prosperous, healthy and socially dynamic and optimism is the order of the day except for the power of the failing nation state on our southern border.
I knew right away that perception was wrong when the chief issues of election campaign were how universal government Dentalcare will be and what the government can do to keep Senior's in their homes as long as possible.
This is what healthy democracy looks like in 2018.
The technological revolution is in its infancy and conservatism is a sure fire recipe for disaster.
1
Liberals are not only bores, but as seen by the rest of America, they are preachy prigs, perpetually telling others what’s best for them and the country—but in fact looking out only for their own best interests.
Rightly or wrongly, that is a fair approximation of how liberals are seen by the rest of us. It should come as no surprise then, that they have been banished to the political wilderness, and for all the talk of a "blue wave," may yet remain there after November 6.
Liberals take your heads out of the sand. You want to win in November? You want to change things? Then vote by all means. But also let go of your superior, judgmental attitude. Government by, for and of the people means ALL the people, not just a few elitist groups who think they know best, such as Southern evangelists, Koch network billionaires, or coastal liberals.
Diversity so dear to liberals does not mean just black and white, or men and women; it also means wealthy and poor, educated and uneducated, progressive and conservative, religious and nonreligious.
Respect—true, not feigned respect—for the utter diversity of the electorate, is what liberals must acquire if they are to regain power, and having done so, to govern effectively. They must devote themselves to resurrecting the big tent that served the Party and the country so well for so long.
7
@Ron Cohen To this old liberal, the current crop of intolerant, preaching, hectoring progressives is more frightening than the right. The new left seems to hate the values and accomplishments of western civilization, intent on destroying the liberal democracy created by European and North American males over the last 2500 years.
The identity politics beloved by progressives are every bit as hateful and destructive as the identity politics practiced by white nationalists. The difference is that the latter constitute a tiny handful of losers playing soldier games in the woods, whereas the former are ubiquitous on campus and the big cities which control the country and its future. Their naivete and antidemocratic sympathies seem determined to turn the west into one vast banana republic, as racist as the American past they deplore.
@Ron Cohen Sir, you meam "neoliberals."
Neoliberals want to save you from yourself even if it kills you, if they are cats, the believe they need to catch all the mice to save them, and they are the ones who taught the neoconservatives that they had to burn down the village to save it, and of course, the US Forest Service to burn down the forest to prevent forest fires.
Liberals, on the other hand, are increasingly becoming an endangered species, the folks who live and let live but want to ensure, nonetheless, we are all able to live. Liberals, want to help others once they have secured for themselves the ability to do so. Your commentary is welcome and spot on if you agree to put the "neo" modifier in front of the word "liberal."
@Ron Cohen
If you want me to respect idiots, bigots, et. al. (of ANY political preference or party), try somewhere else.
If the goal is to defeat Trump, then what Democrats (of any of their variants) have to do is nominate someone who citizens respond to positively. Clearly, not a Hillary, not an Al Gore. not A Mike Dukakis. Nor a Mitt Romney, nor a Bob Taft nor a Tom Dewey, for those whose memory goes back that far. A Harry Truman, a Lyndon Johnson, a Bill Clinton would do just fine. They may or may not be "liberals," whatever that means today, they just have to be likable, positive, and not disrespect people. And if they are running against an extremist, please, not another extremist.
Why is something so simple and obvious, so difficult? The Electoral College, gerrymandering, and our primary system which tilts strongly toward the extremes.
I have been canvassing five days a week for two months in some of the most depressed and pro-Trump areas of Florida. I have never been more optimistic.
Stop wringing your hands on social media. Don't like, comment, and share. Knock, call, and listen.
We beat this back by turning people out. We turn people out by making them feel heard. We make them feel heard by listening to them. Don't yell. Don't patronize. Don't judge.
Find your local party and get to work. Don't expect someone else to do it.
1
Wonderful column, Mr. Cohen, I wish you're right that democracy can still surprise us and in a good way. Hopefully your comparison to us of Athens is closer than another commenter's to late Rome...
"It’s important to put our current democratic travails in perspective. At its best, democracy is a culture that empowers free citizens to participate in shaping their fates. At its worst, it is a charade in which civic bonds erode, power accrues to the few, self-aggrandizement becomes the norm, and tolerance and restraint are consumed by the howling mob."
Now the 'howling mob' consists of the rough beast tweeting in the White House, GOP Congress and its base base.
Liberals may have become bores: are we the only ones noticing and wanting to mitigate the world both on fire and drowning at the same time, and insist on talking about climate chaos? Conservatives have always been bores, but now they're frightening bores.
Vote, People! Please surprise us, Democracy!
It is telling that the preferred shield of monsters is the guise of religion, and the preferred shield of tyrants is the veneer of democracy. Most sham democracies value the cachet of the appearance of popular support while desecrating democracy's institutions: of fair voting, of loyal opposition, of powers devolved from a unitary authority. When Republicans pass a fly-by-night unpopular tax bill, when they ram a nominee through confirmation, when they label as enemies of the state those who would oppose them, when they strip power from both voters and opposition parties, when they enable and empower an admirer of tyrants, one has to ask: in which part of democracy do they participate, its values, or its veneer?
This is a time of personal moral reckoning; a man in the mirror moment.
I am specifically keeping this within the framework of the male perspective. Certainly this is cross-gender, non-partisan moment for us all. But, for men, it is especially a time for self reflection.
Who are you? What are you made of? What is in the core of you? What is the core of us?
Donald Trump epitomizes all of the ugliest aspects of male dominated culture. He is dishonest. He’s controlled by his genitals, unable, it seems, to place a value driven consciousness ahead of his glandular excretions. He’s prone to violence, sees power as derived from domination and subjugation. He’s an abuser, reckless, guided by impulse, lust and what is clearly being described as an uncontrollable response to rage.
So, who are we, the non-Trumps? I think there’s a little Donald in everyone, even Colbert and Kimmel.
The difference is, the redemptive quality inherent in life is that most people are capable of recognizing that everyone can spiral into personal, moral self-debasement. Trump’s problem is his choice and that of the people around him, and all of us.
We have the ability to choose our path, whether it is the first thing in the morning, when you design your day, or as a nation, when we go to vote, or choose an elected representative.
Trump only represents the worst in America, in the patriarchy. We all have, within us, much better angels.
It’s a good time for us all to call upon them.
Be the contrast.
1
Democracy, like a growing child, thrives in a healthy environment. Wealth is not and should not become the measure of citizen participation in government. When the vox populi is unrestrained, government responds beneficially. Voter suppression is the cyanide of a free and functioning country.
Liberals could use an injection of humor, a proven tool of good penetrating communication. Humor, however, doesn't equate with meanness like racism. Read the comments of FDR, JFK and Churchill who were masters of wit with a purpose.
Athens was defeated by Sparta 404 b.c. and would never regain hegemony. The movement bearing Obama was defeated by the one bearing Trump, who may have colluded with Russia (as Sparta with Persia). Democracy may be resilient but we cannot wait for it for centuries.
It is not democracy that concentrates wealth, it is capitalism. The antidote to capitalism - democracy - has failed to reign in capitalism.
Liberals understand that.
Republicans leaders (not the followers) understand that too. This is why they actively try to undermine democracy. Tools: Fake news assertions; gerrymandering, voter suppression, disinformation, tax on labor and not capital, and the spreading of hate.
What they do not want to appreciate: They will bring down themselves with all the others.
2
If democracy's time has ever come, it is now.
Teddy Roosevelt was a trust-buster among many other things. FDR perhaps influenced by Eleanor took the part of the poor against his rich brethren.
Since then we have become a corporatocracy, not a democracy. Politicians who were anti-war and progressive fell to the military/industrial complex and their oil and arms barons.
It's time to educate the people to recognize who is leading them into war after war and increasing helplessness before these masters of the universe playing their global game of monopoly.
Bernie Sanders is the latest clear voice for peace and a social safety net for all.
1
Democracy Will Still Enrich Us, All of US!
Democracy and normal capitalism is failing in distributing the past gains in labor productivity. All these gains are channelled to the owners of the means of production. This is the evident explanation for the increasing wealth of the one percent. Finding a solution to this is the difficult part. Tax cuts have increased the bias to the richest. We are far from a solution.
Democracy failed because the rich have taken possession of the election process resulting in plutocrats being in power who have successfully defended the point one percent. They have hijacked the election process by using all means available to influence the elector’s decision-making process. The tools used are lies, racism, religion, bullying, data hacking, disinformation, drowning of priorities, make-believe in the plausible return of the good old days, discrediting the justice system and the government in general, investment in the means of communicating through all available media, social media data analysis, feedback analysis with message dosage and targeting adjustments. The free will to decide is then smothered. Facts and policy choices become invisible.
The solution is to rethink how the people can be truly be represented.
1
There is an epic failure occupying the oval office today. If the so called "blue wave" (I hate this term) fails to materialize in November I fear we will not be able to try again and fail better. We could be stuck with him for 6 more years and if that happens there might not be another chance to fail better. We certainly can't do worse.
1
What is on display is something the founder's feared the most, and that is in effect mob rule, driven by the passions of the time and as they knew, often driven by a demagogue. It doesn't matter whether 'mob rule' represents the majority of the population or a minority with the power to decide things, it is about the kind of knee jerk government Trump is leading. The checks and balances the founders envisioned have been diluted, the Senate, once appointed by state government (who theoretically could stand up to Trump better than someone elected), is elected; the electoral college, envisioned as a place that could prevent an autocrat from being elected, today represented the mechanism that got Trump elected though he lost the popular vote substantially.
The real fear I have is the re-emergence of aristocracy. Not the aristocracy of nobles, but rather an aristocracy represented by the Koch brothers and their ilk, who want the government out of the way so they and people like them can decide who is worthy of help and who isn't, they want to be the de facto rulers and also the arbiters of society. Much like people like Churchill, they believed that the 'upper class' is better served to decide who and what need help then the 'socialism' of the government who is supposed to help people without that kind of bias; and that is aristrocracy. If they bankrupt the government, then they will be the lords of society, and I think that is what is the real fear.
The rich will always be with us.
The rich will always want to be richer, the powerful will always want to be more powerful, no King ever abdicated his throne and set up a democracy, most were forced out in one way or another. This is the human condition, this is how humans behave and act. Our Democracy, in particular, was put in place to save us from our worst impulses. It was fortunate that George Washington was the president who was offered the crown, there are many in the long list of men who would be elected President who would have not turned down that offer. No matter the time, no matter the circumstances, the powerful will always exist to assert their power over others, a democracy does not live or die by the words placed on documents but by the inspiration and energy of the people who live in that Democracy. A very important vote is coming this November, one of the most important in this nations history, this nation cannot long survive and the peace of the country remain strong if one party (any party) continues to control all of the levels of power.
Greed knows no party or ruling class or political ideology.
Democracy is on paper only. We don't exist in one.
We are told we live in a Democracy but we don't.
It is a falsity. Right up there with ''We're #1''.
It is our democracy`s resiliency that always gives me hope. A line from a song - Will you remember the famous men who have to fall to rise again, So take a deep breath, dust yourself off, start all over again.
Will Democracy still surprise us, Roger Cohen? History has catalogued the fall of empires, even the Greek and Roman and Chinese, Indian, Japanese and African and Middle Eastern tribal empires, Not to mention the downfalls of Alexander the Great and the other leaders of genius (not "jenius", like Donald Trump...). Injustice is served daily to the American people and like the French Miserables seeking "liberte, egalite and fraternite", Americans are this very moment seeking to change the course of our demented American presidency. It will take a monstrous catastrophe (perhaps wrought by Mother Nature in collusion with Father Time) to upset the applecart of Democracy today. History has taught us through the aeons of recorded and unrecorded time, that nothing lasts on earth.
1
I hope democracy will surprise. I suspect it is more likely to empower demagogues and evolve into tyranny as Plato predicted in Book 8 of "The Republic."
The compromise with slave states that allows some 20% of the US population to control a majority of the senate, and thus, the Supreme Court, is anti-democratic, encourages demagoguery and militates against truth. It can't be changed absent a 2/3rds vote, requiring states vote to relinquish power. I am not sanguine. I do hope our current failure moves us closer to an Athenian dawn.
1
Roger, democracy is not an object, it is a process. It is under attack by the wealthy, buts that's not new. What is unprecedented is that the White House has several actual traitors living and working there. They are being rooted out by the special prosecutor, and should the Congress be taken, in whole or part by Democrats, that process will quicken. Strange how republicans are aligned with actual traitors?
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
1
Democracy is unlimited majority rule, based on changeable, short-range emotion, w/no objective political principles. Anything goes.
America's Founders hated both democracy and aristocracy as types of tyranny, i.e., the violation of individual rights. Plato and Aristotle recognized ,from bloody Greek history, that democracies necessarily develop into anarchy and then tyranny. Obama developed into Trump. The Weimar Republic developed into Nazism. Progressivism has developed into nationalism.
The Constitution limits democracy to the relatively unimportant task of electing govt officials. The Constitution is the protection of individual rights against society (living Constitution), against tradition (Originalism), against religion. The Constitution is a recognition that individual rights are an objective need of the individual in society.
The Enlightenment culture that created the Constitution is the ONLY BASICALLY individualist culture in history. America was not founded as a democratic or religious culture.necessarily develop into anarchy and then tyranny. Obama developed into Trump. The Weimar Republic developed into Nazism. Progressivism has developed into nationalism.
1
Democracy doesn't fail us. Our democratically elected presidents did pretty good jobs. The two in my lifetime who weren't democratically elected--W. anointed by SCOTUS and Trump, by our antiquated electoral college with lots of help from Russia--not so much. Our congress worked when it was democratically elected. After rampant racist gerrymandering by republicans--not so much.
The mess we're in now isn't a failure of democracy. It's caused by the absence of democracy.
3
A couple of howlers in this column, Mr. Cohen. Thank you.
You mentioned "atomization, the reduction of human beings to extensions of their [populist autocrat's] devices." Human beings will be so reduced only if they allow themselves to be manipulated by switching off their brains.
Although highly imperfect most, if not all, of today's democratic systems of governance contain the tools for effective self-rule. These tools fail to work if we fail to use them.
In the USA, our record of voter participation is abysmal. In one recent report a 22% turn-out for a congressional primary was celebrated as "outstanding." It was not; it was pathetic, especially this year.
If we depict such a participation as "victory," and if we truly believe that democracy owes us entertainment in order to survive, then we are not serious enough about it to save it.
The alternative is not pretty, nor is it entertaining.
A bumper sticker seen during the Bicentennial (but only once, so I guess it was custom made) 42 years ago:
Happy Birthday, America!
You're not perfect,
But we're not finished yet.
May that always be the case!
1
One-person, one-vote and we're all equal. The greatest ruse of all time. Democracy was used to shut us up when true inequality was in the financial wealth that bestows real power. What is one vote compared to millions and billions of dollars?
"When they complain about not being equal, tell them they all get one vote each, just like us."
No amount of voting has ever amounted to any real power to counteract the true inequality of wealth power, and it was only after realizing how ineffectual voting really is that they eventually allowed renters, slaves and even women to vote, knowing it would never amount to any real countervailing force to capitalism that sluices the excess wealth off of our backs into their ever increasing pools of wealth.
All they needed was the perception of a countervailing force, and when we all started to figure out what a sham and a ruse democracy in America is, we stopped voting, resulting in the widespread apathy seen today in low-voter turnout.
1
"These are the times that try men's souls."
Who'd have guessed that the American Revolution, discounting the American south with it's institution of slavery, would descend from an idyllic agrarian aggregate into a despotic surrogate of the European aristocracy left behind, with corporate entities replacing feudal overlords.
At present, we have plutocrats & oligarchs skillfully harnessing anger & resentment created by those same people through their incessant warmongering & profiteering resulting in refugees & economic displacement tarnishing the democratic concept.
Witness the cavalcade of despots & war criminals who've sought & received shelter in the Western democracies throughout the past. And now our present administration is railing against the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
We can blame the Russians, Citizens United & other scapegoats in our domestic decline, but in the final analysis we must face our collective stupidity.
1
This piece is a tad gooey, but it is always good to sit and think in the morning.
The two greatest threats to democracy in America are the air of superiority manifest in the coastal liberals' treatment of 'flyover country,' and the voter suppression efforts of the GOP.
"Liberals don't care what the solution is, as long as it is mandatory." Increasingly, what is becoming mandatory are the cultural values of liberals: All Americans will have warm feelings towards LGBTQ (even the acronym is coercive); there is no justification for owning multiple guns without restriction; racism is evil and therefore racists are immoral; people of faith who want to share their faith publicly are obviously stupid and we should pity them. We see subtle and not-so-subtle coercion, particularly in the workplace, like mandatory sensitivity training centered on issues of sexuality. Can't we just let people believe what they want to believe as long as they understand they must be civil at work? Seems simple enough.
As regards voter suppression, this can undermine democracy like termites. The GOP is increasingly settled upon a strategy of insulting and publicly abusing whole demographics (Taking children away from their parents and refusing to return them -- ¡YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!) while insulating themselves from the consequences by preventing those same demographics from voting. This strategy is dangerous to democracy, and to the GOP in the long term -- a horizon to which they are blind.
2
Although I am fearful of all the attacks here and round the world against democracy, and its fall in some places, I agree with you completely. What is also at work is the very human desire to be free. Even the Chinese population will tell its government ENOUGH soon, and an article I read yesterday shows a revolt rising again in Russia against the murdering thug of a dictator Putin.
I too am an optimist about democracy because it is the right and just way to govern.
Posting about the benefits of democracy from a country where democracy meant voting for benefits that bankrupted the country. Nice one.
A pitiful column. No new insights, no new facts, no new analysis. Some cheerleading, some old jokes, some Acropolistic nostalgia.
We all know that Roger Cohen is capable of far -- and I mean far -- better than this.
Maybe it's a symptom of just how difficult is the present crisis (crises?) of how to govern. Maybe it says that simple, basic, hope for a [pleasant?] surprise is the best we can do. Looking at the current status of our system in the USA, we seem to have arrived at the worst of both worlds: true, direct, democracy wherein the citizens themselves vote laws up or down, or representative republics wherein the voters choose (hopefully) wise and honest representatives to make the decisions. Our present system gives too much power to the voters, especially the extreme ones, who time and time again prove themselves incapable of rational decisions, and at the same time too much power to the representatives, who time and time again prove themselves ideological, dishonest, pandering, and caring only for their re-election.
Viktor Orban's solution is loathsome to me but it's all too easy to understand its popularity. I'm way more pessimistic than Roger.
Democracy is unlimited majority rule, based on changeable, short-range emotion, w/no objective political principles. Anything goes.
America's Founders hated both democracy and aristocracy as types of tyranny, i.e., the violation of individual rights. Plato and Aristotle recognized ,from bloody Greek history, that democracies necessarily develop into anarchy and then tyranny. Obama developed into Trump. The Weimar Republic developed into Nazism. Progressivism has developed into nationalism.
The Constitution limits democracy to the relatively unimportant task of electing govt officials. The Constitution is the protection of individual rights against society (living Constitution), against tradition (Originalism), against religion. The Constitution is a recognition that individual rights are an objective need of the individual in society.
The Enlightenment culture that created the Constitution is the ONLY BASICALLY individualist culture in history. America was not founded as a democratic or religious culture.
"Put your faith in democracy," elite liberals exhort, as their constituents submit themselves to the daily tyranny of the workplace.
The issue is not democracy. The issue is capitalism. If you are a liberal I strongly urge you to consider which of the two systems you value more, because we are rapidly moving into a world where they cannot coexist.
3
@Dan Capitalism is the only economic system that can coexist with classical liberalism (i.e. freedom of the individual). All other economic systems require the individual to surrender freedom to the State.
That the Left no longer sees capitalism as compatible with their ideals shows how illiberal Leftists claiming to be Liberals actually are.
Cute, but it only works if more than half of any given country's people care more for justice and ideals than for their own comfort.
As long as their is comfort, even fake comfort, provided to people by those in power, most people will do nothing. And a lot of those who can are those who have nothing due to the system. And it's tough for uneducated, unemployed people to start movements in a democratic world. Especially without being exploited by those who are already at the locus of power.
As long as the middle class is mostly content I don't see a world in which this situation changes. We in the middle class constantly exchange the wellbeing of others for our own, through every action word and deed we do in our daily lives, without ever even realizing it.
We exploit the labour forces of dictatorships in the east, the suffering of aboriginal populatons everywhere to the benefit of our corporations, and our own poor to the benefit of our children. Doing up with that would mean accepting our own role in this exploitation, this modern day slavery and all the destruction it brings. It would also mean giving up our privilege. Most people are not willing to do that.
1
Special interest groups and corporate greed crush that ephemeral idea of democracy. Alternatives? Communism is a joke in which the middle class have next to nothing due to communism's infallable inefficiencies. Most Democratic nations are afraid of the term "Socialism" because of the welfare state it evokes in some. But modern Democracy seems to be devolving into an iron-willed system to cater to the already privileged. Capitalism is the political system we're presently engaged in, and Democracy remains just a splendid idea. The new Dems may have a more balanced way forward but is a bigger safety net and a "chicken in every pot" a bridge too far for free-enterprise? Makes my head hurt.
1
Vital to the health of democracy and capitalism is a government that protects the value and freedom of all it's citizens. Individuals should be able to reap all the rewards coming to them with hard work; but when a person's efforts to do business involve significant participation of the American workforce as employees, government needs to insure that profits are spread equitably throughout the entire company. The fact that this doesn't happen is a significant reason why our democracy is under threat.
Democracy and capitalism are not the same thing. It is not democracy that is creating inequality, but a rapacious capitalism that is increasingly free from the limitations that should be imposed by a well functioning democracy. We need one to check the other, or we will be looking at a very different political economy in the coming decades.
The effects of social media on our democracy are not just the result of technology. They are also the result of business models that are built on harvesting and monetizing personal information for economic gain. With different models, we could still be connected in ways that didn't destroy us in the process.
For the Republican minority to retain control over the country, anti-democratic measures are required. Packing the the Supreme Court with ideologues is just another play in the playbook, intended to ensure anti-majoritarian government for as long as possible while money is extracted from the powerless, disenfranchised, and disengaged masses.
Our democracy doesn't survive without a more fair version of our capitalist system that is adapted to the 21st century. So far, our leaders are nowhere close to confronting or even identifying the seriousness of this challenge.
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@CD in Maine
In order to do that, We the People would have to re-read our Constitution and see that it clearly states that We established our Republic to create a more perfect union, Justice, Tranquility, Defence, promotion of the general welfare, and liberty for posterity.
None of that is cheap. We the People authorized our Representatives to tax and regulate trade (not labor). What is traded? Land, machines, inventory, loans: capital.
The king had spent thousands of years taxing the 99% to give to the rich. This is why Robin Hood is loved. He reversed it. Likewise, the revolution flipped the equation. We taxed the rich to invest in the 99%.
This pushing of power down and outward, released the energy that powered the industrial revolution, through mass education, entrepreneurship, local control through local democracy, and massive investment in infrastructure which created entire regions of industry. There was no Chicago before the Eerie Canal.
But the mega rich like being royalty, and democracy is inconvenient, cutting into profits. So they used their media to convince us to,
Trade Justice and Tranquility for law and order.
Trade Defence by militias for a worldwide, nonstop, violent offense, that they profit from, and is used to benefit their global corporations.
Trade Liberty for a militarized police state with the mass incarceration of poor people (mostly brown) for more profit for their global conglomerates, and
Trade Posterity for quarterly mega-profits.
@CD in Maine We are under the thumb of an interlocked directorship that spends about $2 billion per year on political character assassination here in the US.
@CD in Maine
"For the Republican minority to retain control over the country, anti-democratic measures are required. "
-- gerrymandering
-- voter ID restrictions
-- Reducing early voting days/locations
-- Phony "voter fraud" investigations
-- Unlimited campaign contributions
Did I forget some?
I am sitting on a ship in the lightening dawn with a pod of dolphins breaching beside us thinking how each day brings us a world of possibilities to “fail better”. As I ponder the terrible list of our allegorical ship of state today, I so desperately want to believe in democracy’s resilience like Mr. Cohen does even as the rogue wave of a tweet storm is bearing down on us.
In the pithy admonition of the Navy in which I served, we must “secure for sea”.
116
Democracy assumes something that no longer exists, an electorate that shares the same reality. Athenians could not have imagined Fox News. Systems of governance that value fairness are in constant battle with those who demand a greater share of power and wealth. The New Deal was the last American movement for fairness. It ushered in decades of prosperity and stability. It was dismantled by the forces of the wealthy and powerful few, but not by direct government takeover. If the people, through democracy, can thwart the greed of the few, then it is the people who must be subverted. Enter conservative think tanks, conservative talk radio, conservative media outlets, all aimed at enticing society's most naive factions to vote against there own best interests. Wildly successful would be an understatement in gauging the results. By abandoning reason and instead selling fear, resentment and spite, the wealthy and powerful few have undermined the mechanism of democracy. They saturate their audience with so many lies, distortions and grievances that they have created a fully independent alternative reality within the populace. How effective have they been? A born rich, lying ignoramus enjoys the unwavering support of 40% of American voters as he actively and in full public view passes legislation that enriches the wealthy with borrowed money, cuts healthcare benefits for millions, increases air, water and ground pollution to further benefit the wealthy.
Democracy is in trouble.
320
@Rob: but it was OK when "born rich" FDR was President? and "born rich" JFK?
Excellent point. In the mid-twentieth century, when there was a single, shared reality, if a rich man became president and then wantonly pursued policies that benefited only him and other wealthy people, he'd have been swiftly rejected by the people. Now we do have such a president, but the people most in danger of being hurt by his pro-rich policies adore him thanks to their alternate facts universe.
@Rob The fact you understand what is happening and the damage it has done says much about what will happen. In the 19th century bosses ruled entire states and the US Senate was bought and sold by corrupt legislatures. Into the 20th century blatant racism and brute violence was common toward anyone who stood up, but still the naive mob sensed something wrong and voted for FDR 4 times and Truman in 1948. The flash and fire of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell and their wealthy backers is intense but a deeper and more genuine want and belief will prevail. Humans will vote for men like Trump from time to time but in general they don't. Eventually even idiots detect fraud and lies. All this unpleasantness will go away in due time, not even Fox News can defeat the light of reason forever. Italy and Germany survived madness, America will as well.
It was easy to despair when both parties put forth badly flawed candidates and the most flawed won because of the Electoral College. But then as Lincoln said a new burst of freedom came forth almost immediately- the Women's March. And then I found out my sixteen year old grand daughter was marching on almost the same route that my wife , my infant son in a stroller and I marched in the late sixties to protest the war in Vietnam.
It is easy to despair when the most undemocratic institution, the Senate is controlled by our worst examples of citizens. But now an adult woman badly wronged in her youth is by herself is attempting to thwart at great risk to herself and her family the machinations of those old, twisted and bent white men in the Senate.
Despair is too easy sometime when hope seems a folly but even in my declining years I still find hope because of our women citizens and our youths..
229
@Edward Blau all over the country, people are standing up, taking responsibility upon themselves to make things better, and taking action. Be of good cheer. We are much better off than we were twenty years ago, when the vast moral majority was sleepwalking into the W admin...
6
@Edward Blau, I share your age and much of your perspective. Cohen's 'surprise' imbedded in democracy sounded more like hope than anything more tangible. To take his metaphor a bit further, it depends on the people to dig us out of much of this darkness. The life of democracy depends the organization of citizens committed to its survival. We cannot be bystanders. May Prof. Christine Blasey Ford show Republicans on The Senate's Judiciary Committee and Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh out the door. Onward!
2
@Edward Blau: Bless you and your family. Thank you.
What is surprising about Democracy is that it means so many things to different people. In America, Democracy is too often confused with freedom. Democracy, at least to me, means sharing the burdens and benefits of an open society in an equitable manner. Our obligation in a Democracy is to understand the meaning and power of each citizen's voice as expressed by the vote.
Our Democracy has worked so well up until now, that we have become complacent about this gift bequeathed us by our unique history. Our schools no longer instill in children the importance, the obligations, and understanding of this thing called Democracy.
Our citizens insist upon all kinds of rights and privileges without doing the due diligence of understanding who and what they are voting for. The insidious forces of greed, influence and power have eroded our Democracy. Unscrupulous forces have all but seized it from our weakened, unthinking grasp. It will be a harsh surprise when our Democracy is no more.
163
@Reed Erskine I've been livng in Mexico since the establishment of the concentration camp at Gitmo. Current events are no surprise.
Our democracy is no longer a "representative" democracy.
Money buys elections.
Gerrymandering buys elections.
Electoral college buys elections.
Voter restriction laws buys elections.
There is no such thing as one person, one vote.
Utah with it's tiny population gets 2 senators same as California with its enormous population. How is that one person, one vote? The district of Washington (our capital is represented by no Senators.
Democracy will still surprise us.
Problem is the United States is NOT a democracy.
405
@esp, And tampered, manipulated electronic machinery wins elections.
@esp
To be honest, money matters more than most people. Who matters more, a millionaire or a homeless junkie? Do you really want those living off of government hamdputs determining the size of said handouts?
And, the US is a federal republic, not a democracy. That is why Utah and Valifornia have the same number of Senators. Go back and study your civics.
@esp
The US was NOT founded to be a democracy. It was founded to be a Republic.
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-that-the-word-democracy-doesnt-appear-in-th...
A lot of wisdom in this piece, especially this:
"Each civic act, he suggested, is a glass of water that may help extinguish the flames."
A society marked by liberalism in the classic sense is one made up of liberals in the classical sense. We must follow a civic creed that we live out daily and commit ourselves to, not just for our "side" to win, but for liberty and democracy to survive.
It is difficult. It means being educated and engaged, voting. But it also means being very patient, humble and disciplined, listening to the other side and honestly, however vociferously, debating, while not demonizing the other side, even when they're doing. It means recognizing that every time we appeal to the government to limit someone else's rights, however proper, we just set a precedent for that someone to limit our own rights one day and so use these appeals wisely.
3
With the prevalence of enormous campaign funding to candidates from wealthy corporation, I am not sure that the U.S. exists in the democracy we once envisioned. Certainly the electoral system has failed our democratic ideals in the past--is it perhaps time to consider defining a more stringent idea of democracy that will go uncompromised in our country?
3
The Republicans cry out "elections matter" as they conspire to make sure votes do not. Democracy may yet surprise us, but the republic must be reformed, and soon. Optimism is essential but inadequate by itself. We need engagement at a new more universal level, commensurate with our age of instant communications. We need courage. We need a vision for a more perfect democracy. We need energy and stamina and perseverance to make changes in law that tame the power of political parties.
Our Founding Fathers were rich and resentful some far off government was telling them what to do with their money, a king no less. These guys were the highly educated few.
What manner to poke the king better than declare we're all equal? Then to declare independence from him, again for financial reasons, by those who wanted the freedom of their money?
Freedom was about their money, it was not about the people who didn't own land, the people who were women, or the people who were slaves. Let's just get that straight.
In 1776, Adam Smith published his treatise on capitalism. That, and the Declaration of Independence were both derived from the Enlightenment ideas that said we can do whatever we want simply because it occurred to us as humans. Ergo, we can be free to make as much money as we please.
The Founding Fathers formed the American Republic as a representative democracy, and reserved political and economic power in the hands of the few men who already had power, themselves and their peers. They didn't want the common people in power for real, and since that time voting has been to empower the powerful to rule over us, much more than to represent our interests.
Capitalism formed at the same time and was seen as the greatest wealth concentrating system of all time. Worried about losing their heads as was happening in France in 1789, it occurred to the political bosses in the US they'd better get some political cover: Democracy.
One-person, one-vote, we're all equal.
5
Minor technical detail: they weren’t all rich, they weren’t all white, and they weren’t all capitalist. Heck, they weren’t even all fathers.
I am not optimistic. A democracy (or a republic if you prefer) cannot stand when there is a tyranny of a minority, or multiple minorities. Indeed, that is what we have now, magnified. Let's count them:
1) the very rich have out-sized political power and influence that rightfully belongs to the rest of us. But we have no voice, when politicians are mostly purchased..
2) Christian evangelicals are easily manipulated by their elmer gantry leaders and the GOP sound machine. thus their two issues: anti-abortion and pro gun-- drive them to a party that does not represent the values of the majority.
3) The Senate: 2 per state may have seemed a good concept when the founders had no idea HOW the nation would grow. Now the senate is a powerful tool of the right wing and the rich. Congress is not much better-- having been ceilinged at 435 when the population was what, half?
4) The Federalist Society: not only are our courts stacked with Ivy leaguers, in no way representative of this diverse country, the two nominations from an illegitimate president went to the same high school? Why was this not a full-stop, well before all the frat boy behavior was exposed?
5) Monopolies that limit wage growth, prevent fair pricing of cable & internet, and allow userous baggage fees on airlines, etc.
6) I could go on and on.A democracy: NOT.
3
Your point may better be presented as "unfettered and corrupt capitalism" will not result in a broad-ranging, successful economy. With the current leadership in all branches of the federal government, we are quickly approaching a government much like Russia or other failed democracies. A big change must begin with this November's elections. If not, I fear for our future.
1
While much stress, and rightly so, is placed upon the importance of voting, too little attention is given to the necessity of producing informed voters.
A growing segment of our population has proved itself during the past election to be suffering from cognitive dissonance and laziness, preferring to regurgitate slogans and spoon fed talking points, rather than to take on any independent study which might move them from their comfortable space. Unless we instill the importance of curiosity, and a burning desire for the truth among our young, the future electors of our country, this experiment in real self governance is doomed.
The last I looked, the United States ranks 42nd in education among the developed countries of the world; how we have let this happen is of the greatest concern to me. Unless we rectify this deep failure of responsibility to our children, we should not expect to see much improvement to our government in the future; we have already seen what manipulation of the undereducated can produce.
1
'' The voter is wise. Voters have been telling us something about failure these past several years. ''
Aye, they are wise, but only to a certain point.
Over a 100,000,000 stay at home, instead of voting in any given election. What that means could be many things, but most chalk it up to apathy - about the candidates, the policies, or the entire system.
What they fail to realize, is that when they protest like this (if they are doing so), then they allow forces that are diametrically opposed to them (see this administration and President, or just republicans in general) to control the narrative, the policies and ultimately them.
Wise indeed.
3
@FunkyIrishman
Indeed. When you don't cast a vote, it benefits the candidate whose ideas are the most in opposition to your own. There is no such thing as "not voting."
The poorer half have about 1% of net family wealth. It does no good to divide them by race. The rich get richer because the poor and middle class are over taxed.
Did you know Donald Trump proposed a national wealth tax? The Democrats don't want Trump to get credit for the idea.
1
"I listened to the Greek foreign minister ... allude to 'undemocratic liberalism' as a catalyst to the current wave of 'illiberal democracy' in places like Poland and Hungary."
The minister's words are as sly as they are dishonest. The liberalism of recent years has not been undemocratic, and what is presently happening in the United States, Poland and Hungary is not at all democratic.
Our own American society and government have, among other things, failed to pay folks equitably, failed to provide good, affordable health care, and failed to fix a failing public education system.
The Democrats have made many mistakes but by and large all of those failures are the result of specific laws and policies enacted by Republican politicians whom Americans voted for.
Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine. Republican deregulatory mania led to both the 2008 crash and the unfettered monopoly power of Google YouTube and Facebook which Russia effectively coopted on behalf of the Trump campaign. And the Trump Republican tax cuts have greatly exacerbated the socioeconomic inequality.
The Republicans have been playing a long con game, based on resentment and anger, that has taken in far too many Americans for far too long. These Republican policies are hurting the nation and decimating its democracy.
We--all of us--are better than that. Where are the American values that have brought us so far? The skepticism. The pragmatism. The independence. The live-and-let-live tolerance.
4
Voting would be the easy fix, but people better wake up to it before the efficacy of voting erodes any further.
The surprise about Democracy is that the people who stand to gain the most by participating in it can't even be bothered to vote.
4
There is a simple metric for assessing the extent to which a government is, "...of the people, by the people, for the people, as Lincoln put it." Count the citizens who are destitude, marginal, middle class, affluent and super wealthy. Then look at what government is doing to protect those in greatest need.
Governments exist to protect our lives, liberties and pursuits of happiness as stated in the Declaration of Independence.
8
Democracy is probably better than all alternatives. But even in democracy, the rich inevitably find ways to take more than their fair share of control (see Citizens United vs FEC, for example), limiting democracy's ability to deliver economic justice.
"Across recorded history, the periodic compressions of inequality brought about by mass mobilization warfare, transformative revolution, state failure, and pandemics have invariably dwarfed any known instances of equalization by entirely peaceful means." - Walter Scheidel, Stanford professor of Roman History
4
Our democracy may be stubborn and adaptable, but it is much more fragile than most want to admit. The founding fathers were working in the dark when they sought to envision what would be necessary to sustain it through the centuries. They knew of the danger from rogues like Donald Trump, but they had no way of knowing about the ability to manipulate millions through the use of today's mass media. With the aid of Republicans who only think of power by any means and an oblivious electorate, we are on the brink of bringing down the most noble experiment in government ever instituted. It's a shame.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
6
Just last night I watched Michael Moore's new movie. Future historians may not be as hard on Presidents Clinton and Obama as he was. However, it will be hard to escape the conclusion that they missed the central fact of American life: in conditions of high inequality, democracy either focuses laserlike on making society more equal, or it digs its own grave.
7
When our system permits a President to take office after losing the popular vote, I fail to understand how it can be identified as a democracy. When a state with a population of 500,000 sends two Senators to Washington and so does a state whose population tops 38 million, America's voters do not have equal rights in selecting their government.
33
The trouble with democracy is that we are in an era that it is no longer "failing better".
It's failing worse, in the US at least, because it has been hi-jacked by a wealthy elite and its politcal servants. We have democracy on paper, but its mechanism has been manipulated to serve their interests.
As impressed as I am by the NYT's current exposé of the Russian interference in our elections - a relatively recent development - I feel so let down that I could scream at the failure of the Times and other organs in our mainstream media to run an equally complete and painstaking investigations of home-grown corruption of our electoral processes. It's left to writers on the fringes of our media, like Greg Palast and Carol Anderson, to describe the myriad forms of disenfranchisement and voter suppression that, by no accident at all, always favor the Republican Party, and their documented evidence is hardly ever reported elsewhere.
Democracy still surprises us - but the surprises always seem to be unpleasant.
4
Thanks for an optimistic and welcome piece but are you writing about democracy or democratic ideals? Your piece references the historical arc of these ideals but, unfortunately, the realities may not support your optimism. Ancient Greece was only democratic for the chosen, not the masses. The United States only exists as a country due to the disenfranchising of slaves, women and non-property owners by the patricians of colonial times. And today, wealth and power are more concentrated than ever in the US while democratic votes are compromised, manipulated and hacked. And though idealists gnash their teeth when the president is elected (again) not by the clear majority but by an undemocratic body remember it is not a failure of the American system but as designed by a ruling class to control the electorate.
Idealized democracy requires truthful, accessible information and an informed electorate that actively and earnestly votes. In the politics of manipulated information, concentrated control of economic assets, accelerating poorly governed technology, and disengaged voters is “fail better” inherently likely from within? Improved democracy historically arises from failure in one polity to be rekindled (or imposed from) elsewhere- often after a protracted period of non-democratic control. Those benefitting in the transitions are rarely the general populations. Is this where we are? Is your faith in the democratic arc of history a comfort for us or only some future generation?
1
The movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, coming on the heels of the end of WWII celebrates the triumph of the common man over the various agencies employed to oppress him. FDR championed that.
This is why I believe that the greatest historical person in the second millennium had to be Franklin Roosevelt because the triumph of the common man is so rare & had never been so completely successful. For the next 35 years New Deal Keynesian demand side economics prevailed.
But psychopathic greed never disappears & never gives up. They have entire philosophies manifested to justify their positions on one hand, carnival barkers inciting fear & anger on the other & tax free foundations endowing religious entrepreneurs running tax free entities with $ in exchange for yanking their multitudes to the right. The rich will embrace anything that doesn’t get in the way of concentrating wealth.
In fall 2002 I took a history of property rights class from Nobel Laureate Douglas C. North. We had to read his book “Structure and Change in Economic History”. On pages 100-115 he tells how wealth had concentrated in the Roman Empire, 6 senators controlled half of North Africa. The wealthy & powerful used their influence to avoid paying taxes. Rome lacked the political will to fund an army large enough to protect its borders. I soon learned that similar events happened to Byzantium, Medieval Japan, Hapsburg Spain, Bourbon France, Romanov Russia, Coolidge America. That track record is why FDR is so huge.
25
Uh, I always thought “democracy” was a political and not an economic system.
“Capitalism,” and its variants, are like Socialism, economic systems, that can be chosen by anything from a universal Democracy (rather inconvenient in populations with more than 100 citizens) republican democracy (not the parties - representative democracy, representatives chosen on the theoretical basis of one citizen, one vote- what we aim for, despite the wight of the Senate, a residue left from the House of Lords, turned into a bizarre concept that a state with a population of 5 million and another with 100,000 deserve equal power at the higher legislative level), all the way to any form of dictatorship are government systems.
They have a lot to do with the economic system, and it is time to revise the idea that money=speech, which has turned US democracy on its head, and that 1% of the population should control 99% of our nation’s wealth.
But these are not meaningful terms when it comes to one’s basic form of government.
4
Yes, the fact that so many people vote Republican is discouraging. Whenever I ponder why people so vote against their best interests I always come back to two possible reasons: 1) I don't understand what they consider their best interests; for example some people may consider it more important to keep their homeland Anglo-saxon, than to do something about preventing global warming, and 2) the electorate is uninformed (staring at length at sources such as Fox News only worsens that affliction).
However, I still have a grain of optimism. My unscientific observation is that racism has become passe', not as obsolete as I would like, but well on the way to a color-blind society. On the second, I am hopeful that exposure will cure the "uninformed electorate" problem: how many times does a person have to be exposed to Facebook "revelations" that turn out to be nonsense, for even a naif to get it.
10
Your columns always make me feel like I’m in the company of an adult. This one gives me a bit of hope. I have spun myself up into a frenzy reacting to this Trump thing...the raging Id of a man and his followers. It’s frightened, angered, depressed, nauseated me. But I refuse to lose hope. And your column today gave me a little different perspective with which to think about hope. Resilience is complicated - it may not look like I think it should.
4
One cannot read this essay without easily applying Rogers ideas and intent in so many areas of our own lives. It is a calm and rational process that most of us have lived and relived, "...Try again. Fail! Fail better!"
Our Democracy is that project in our own lives that is important and in need of attention, but is such that we believe it can be set aside. I will get to that-soon, as the song goes by Gillian Welch, "...but not right now..."
BUT, this project is one of those that if not attended too, will cost us more later.
We may or may not have believed in that, "...a shining city upon a hill...", but the phrase described our hopes and aspirations for ourselves and other nations. Democracy is work. It needn't be an overwhelming task, but as in our health, our homes, and so many other areas, it requires ongoing attention.
"The most ugly chapters of history are littered with bystanders." Well stated Mr. Cohen. True then. Even more true today.
3
If democracy's time has ever come, it's now.
Teddy Roosevelt was a trust buster among many other things; and FDR perhaps influenced by Eleanor took the part of the poor against his rich brethren. Since then we have become a corporatocracy and lost our democracy.
Politicians who were anti-war and progressive fell to the military/industrial complex with its oil and arms barons .
It's time to educate the people to recognize that we are being led into war after war and increasing helplessness before these masters of the universe playing their global game of monopoly.
Bernie Sanders is the latest clear voice for world peace and a social safety net for us all.
1
@betty durso, liberals need to study IKE. I know he blew it on Iran, but he got just about everything else right. Most important, he believed in the power of government. Having led the NA theater in WWII, he knew that only government-- flawed and lumbering though it can sometimes be-- can take on a giant, and slay it. Our somewhat naive Obama looked to Reagan as a great GOP president. That was a mistake; among other reasons, it showed perhaps his own disregard for the workings of government. St. Ronnie was no Eisenhower.
f there's something new in the US today, it's that half the country is wedded to an anti-democracy ideology. It began with "government is the problem." Which is fine if you're making a point about a specific issue or program. When it became an ideology that meant that democracy was the problem. "Trickle-down" and neo-liberalism and other guises for the idea that the powerful should make our decisions for us now has people cheering their own impotence. In the context of multi-national corporations, self-destructive financial instruments and automated stock markets, "deregulation" is simply re-regulation by one set of powerful interests, and "small government" is the public turning big government over to their financial minders.
People have become convinced that consumerism is freedom, that financial powers ruling their lives is democracy, threatened only by the totalitarianism of their own power. Bribery is re-defined as "free-speech" by the Supreme Court, and Congress treats conflicts of interests as desirable expertise. Voter suppression & privatization & every other form of stealing public assets & power are called "reform." Voters champion actual corruption under the guise of "draining the swamp." Instead of democratic responsibility, they embrace racism & demagoguery & partisan hatred. Democracy isn't working because half the country is against it.
52
@Martin It is much less than half.
Democracy isn't an antidote to greed, arrogance, and egoism. Those human ills must be resisted by generosity, humility, and compassion. But most of all, we need courage. When Bernie Sanders is the only prominent leader of the resistance, we should be asking penetrating questions about the party of opposition. Democrats get rolled routinely. Doesn't anyone remember Mr. Sanders warning that most Democrats are as corrupted as Republicans? We need new leadership, top to bottom. Our government has been corrupted by money and will continue to be unless more candidates are willing reject corporate money.
Democracy is not material, it is an organisational method of dealing with large concentrations of post- nomadic animals - us.
So far it hasn't turned out very well, nor have other organisational methods, as numerous civilisations before us appear to have
demonstrated. It appears to have arisen, by happenstance, in an ancient Greek city state called Athens - one among other differing city states. And, in the end it, was demolished by the Athenians themselves, through the expression of a human character flaw called hubris, a term coined by these very same people. Donald is an example of hubris taken to a ridiculous, even hillarious, extent, were it not so tragic (another Hellenic term). Still I much prefer it to all others so far and it seems to persist in a Scandinavian form and stubbornly north of us in Canada.
4
While I would love to share your hope for surprise I am afraid the current administration has done nothing but expose a system that is corrupt, morally bankrupt and hypocritical. We have created a financial beast that has become the enemy of its customers rather than a support system. We have been locked in the high 30's of countries in our education pursuits. Our infrastructure is one bridge or tunnel away from disaster. Our healthcare system is a joke and for some odd reason Republicans think its a good strategy to remove preexisting conditions. Our political system is now no better than the Shiite/Sunni's that we ridiculed for always acting against their own self interest simply because they belonged to their "tribe". We have two legal systems, one for poor people and one for rich people. And if you are a person of color and poor you have no legal system.
I am tired of people saying "but its better than a lot of other countries". That's true but the list of countries above us is alot longer than the ones below us. I always thought we actually wanted to be the best at everything. Now we just say we are and hope everyone believes it. Which brings me to our current President. He has managed to expose us to the world and many are no longer buying what we are selling.
My neighbor flies his American flag but voted for a man that said McCain wasn't a hero because he was captured.
My "surprise" will be if we survive as a nation.
7
@JackieR, trump exemplifies our descent into show biz ignorance. You are correct, his very presence has exposed our monstrous failings. I do not share Roger's optimism about our ability to bounce back. Not when dems on these very pages claim that "Bernie Sanders is our only hope." The GOP will squeal with delight at that XMAS gift from the democratic party.
@JackieR I can connect you with your local DEC if you'd like to do something about it.
Indeed, history repeats itself. Progressive and reactionary, inclusive and xenophobic, multinational and isolated, warring and peaceful, educated and ignorant, democratic and authoritarian - these are all opposing forces which go back and forth in human societies. Yes, democracy will reappear. People too will again look forward. International alliances will again matter. Cultural pluralism will be the norm. And so on. But don't be too confident that any of this will be the last word, either. All of these patterns come from people. And human beings, for better or worse, will live out what's inside of them.
Roger Cohen's hopes are laudable, but he hasn't read the history of ancient Athens. Athenian democracy was ultimately crushed by the autocrat, Alexander of Macedon at Chaeronea. Prior to that event, it was locked in a death-struggle with oligarchy.
The period going into the First Peloponnesian War saw a democracy beset by hubris, taxing its allies to build the structures of the Acropolis and producing the traitor Alcibiades. Sparta, a military oligarchy, won the war and afterward replaced democracies with oligarchies and buttressed existing oligarchic regimes throughout Greece by providing garrisons.
Spartan occupation of Athens encouraged the merchant elite to set up their oligarchy, known as the Thirty Tyrants, led by Critias. After Spartan occupation ended, this merchant elite inspired the conservative philosophy of Critias' nephew Plato and the latter's pupil Aristotle.
America is in a similar existential struggle between those who desire democracy and its business elite. There is a thread of continuity here, as the theology of the pro-business religions is Calvinist, which largely derives from the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
8
The problem with liberals like Cohen is that they forget what has happened over the past ten (10) years either by design or unwittingly. For eight (8) years under Obama, they ruled imperiously by executive orders. More than half the American population disagreed with this as shown by majority Republican control of not only the House and Senate but also on the individual state level. Trump was merely a reaction to Obama imperialism. Arrogance? Undemocratic? Thy name is Liberalism. Cohen has shown some thought about this over the last year or so, but has a long way to go. Until he and other liberals recognize their contribution to the problems we now face, there's little chance of finding a easy way out of our current political mess.
3
@Blasto
So what does the "easy way out of our current political mess" look like after liberals "recognize their contribution" to it?
I'm having a difficult time reading your comment as anything other than "whataboutism."
Yes. I was very surprised two years ago. Surprised by people’s intense hatred of “the other.” Surprised by the election of a man so vile, so lawless, so immoral. Surprised that this man and the Republicans have systematically undone so much progress made in voting rights, improving our treatment of Mother Earth, marriage equality, women’s right-to choose. Surprised by how outright, bald-faced lying has no consequences. And, now surprised that a woman is about to be pilloried and shamed for speaking out about sexual assault, in this day and age. Trump is absolutely correct. All this IS sad, but not in the way he means it. I’m praying we’ll get a course correction. Since I can’t feel as hopeful as Mr. Cohen, perhaps I can borrow some of his hope until I can authentically feel proud of my country again.
23
@Kathryn
Beautiful and heartfelt comment Kathryn, thank you. I share your observations.
Democracy and Capitalism are synergistic, but the lynchpin of both is competition. Take away competition and they both fall apart.
Here is the Merriam Webster definition of capitalism.
“an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”
Without competition, we no longer have capitalism, but rather unfettered corporatism, also known as “free enterprise” by the right and “predator monopolies” by the left.
The rapid automation of our society in a competitive environment preserves working family purchasing power.
Take two corporations producing the same product in a competitive environment. Each will lower their price of goods to make the minimum reasonable profit in order to hold market share (e.g. 5% of sales from 1948-1972).
When automation becomes available, each will reduce their labor cost through automation, but also be forced by competition to have a corresponding price drop in goods produced in order to keep market share. This means that the purchasing power of working families (I.e. wages/GDP) is preserved (e.g. 50% from 1948-1972).
Since 1973, we once again have made the mistake of letting monopolies re-form and corporate profits have risen from 5% to 12% of GDP while wages have fallen from 50% to 43% of GDP, $10,000/yr for each full time worker.
1
"Western democracy is in upheaval. Of late, it has concentrated, but not spread, wealth, suggesting that it’s no more than a vehicle for injustice."
And there's the rub. Plutocracy masquerading as democracy is the new normal. Except the wealthy have always wielded disproportionate political and economic power. We have simply strayed further from the democratic ideal and allowed injustice and inequality to take deeper root.
In the United States, once the role model for democracy, it is the Republican Party which has most—but not exclusively—embraced plutocracy. Trump, in all his "moral depravity," perfectly symbolizes what the GOP has become: the Anti-Democratic Party.
Indeed, Trump and his policies are so repugnant that the actual Democratic Party has finally awoken from its collusive slumber and begun to reassert the principles upon which this nation was founded. Will they surprise us? Only if we-the-people awaken ourselves and recognize that democracy is not a given, that it is not a gift to passively accept but a civic responsibility to actively embrace. And, when we-the-people do so, then democracy can become the vibrant force for positive change that it was meant to be.
Surprise yourself, people.
1
This piece provides at least a partial corrective to the monotonous shrillness that courses through the op-ed world about the state of US and world politics. I would have thought that such a sense of continual crisis and dialing outrage up to eleven for each perceived political setback would have seemed silly and gotten old before now. One could do worse than to adopt a kind of Beckettian stoicism along with the mordant humor. I can't go on. I'll go on.
2
Actually, democracy is the outlier. A short lived phenomenon in ancient Greece (about 100 years) picked up 2000 years later and starting to collapse not even 300 years after that.
In those years of relative peace and prosperity I think we forgot the wicked nature of men consumed by power and/or greed. They will do anything and overlook anything to feed their evil addiction. And sooner or later one of them will be cunning and amoral enough to prey upon the weak, the fearful and the ignorant who are always ready to submit to the tyrant.
I think you have to be blind to history to be optimistic about democracy given the current state of the world.
1
Our democracy died in 2000 when the Supreme Court in a partisan vote, gave the Presidency to the losing candidate.
It was a soft coup; and the only thing that enabled it to happen was the fear of Democrats that if they persisted in fighting, it would damage our democratic process. In 2008, our democracy was buried forever when Democrats again feared to fight, refusing to probe the crimes of the previous administration that slaughtered thousands and bankrupted our nation while creating an oligarchy that now owns our country. It took 18 years, but we have now learned that not fighting was far worse.
4
@Sage613, if I could "recommend" your comment 100 times, I would. Thank you. Roger-- I hope you read Sage's comment and explore this for another column. It's hard to disagree with Sage; and admitting it is the only hope America has of democratic survival.
The modern liberal democratic system is based on simple Enlightenment assumption - human being is rational animal. The evolutionary biology now challenged that assumption and showing the complexity of human race - complex play of lower brain and upper brain. All our theories - theory of democracy, economics, social science are now exposed. We are faced with a internet connected human society where the complex play of lower brain and upper brain are displayed every day through social media and fake news. We lost our bearing of truth, every belief is questioned - the society is unoriented. Can our social science go back to basic assumptions of the theory of liberal democracy and check whether democracy is a viable system in this new context. Time has come to return to the roots of our civilization and find ways to reestablish the basic principles of human growth - trust, belief, truth and finally love. We are lost in the desert, where is our Moses.
Democracy gives equal power to its citizens, be they virtuous or not.
Democracy is perverted by the unvirtuous who want more than equal power.
As the power scales are tipped by those gorging themselves on the freedom of democracy, others are being starved by it and America becomes an aristocracy.
5
I suppose we all want to be surprised for a change, as our complicity in the current democratic failure attests, and based on our loud silence of "indifference". Is there anything worse than being a passive log in an active sport? I don't think so. For now, at least, we seem to have the government we deserve, based on lies and exaggerated claims of solidarity....absent in real life. Unless we take charge, and tell the rascals abusing their power (conferred by the people) to go home (by our vote), things shall only get worse...and only ourselves to blame!
The Trump administration and the Republican party have two primary principles: profiteering and voter suppression. Put more money in the pockets of their crooked, corporate cronies, often by appointing them to Cabinet positions, and limit votes to probable GOP supporters, which means disenfranchising minorities and younger voters, most of whom will live long enough to make the GOP a permanent minority party. I vow to work without pause to register voters and provide them with information. We pay with our tax dollars for information and databases that Trump's profiteers are privatizing and then forcing us to pay for. Take the weather; the National Weather Service is us, but the Department of Commerce Secretary, who's the CEO of ACCU WEATHER (which is anything but accurate) no longer allows Americans to see their forecasts without paying his company a subscription fee, and he no longer provides tornado warnings to the public, only to subscribers. All of that is a result of voter suppression; Trump wouldn't otherwise be in office. Register. Register others. Resist. Vote. Defeat.
3
The only surprise that democracy holds is that the name is still used to describe a system of bribing politicians in service to oligarchy. If you are rich, "democracy" works for you; if you are poor, not so much.
4
Again Roger offers brilliant and provocative insights. His thoughts on a more perfect failure are the strongest and most concise refutation of originalism and textualism I have ever seen. Equating democracy with the compulsion to try and fail should provide a basis for linking the infallibility of the past to fascism and the divinity of monarchies. In other words the undemocratic face fractiousness should be taken as treasonous anti-patriotism and be outlawed as sedition.
The problem with US democracy is that according to a majority, almost half of the population is supposed to be adherent of authoritarianism in a finger snap.
There representatives are thought to be zombified sycophants, just eager to please the Great Dark Ignorant Force. I don't buy that.
In my view, democracy includes wrong turns which can and shall be reversed and representatives only support eccentricity as long as it's convenient to them.
Wait until after the midterm elections, ousting mr. Trump for reliable mr. Pence right now just isn't the best timing.
No doubt about it, thanks to the undemocratic provisions in the Constitution that protected slave states by having an electoral college, democracy surprised many of us when it awarded the war criminal, George W. Bush the Presidency when most voted for the Democrat. Equally, we were surprised when democracy gave the White House to the incompetent Trump disaster.
Cutthroat capitalism is about keeping the majority in a constant state of fear and anxiety, so the 1% investor class can live as kings and queens. Ignoring the PR, that is really what ownership of people and land and wealth is about.
And fear dominates democracy, it just does. As long as Trump and the other owners of America can keep us terrified that we will lose everything if we are fired, or the business moves wherever, we are more indentured servants than fellow citizens of the same country.
If democracy really worked, the poor and the middle class would be able to work together to build a country that is devoted to their interests rather than those of Bezos or Trump or Gates or Jobs.
Democracy is on a downward spiral thanks to the fact that big corporations are not democratic, are only beholding to their large investors, and no citizen gets to vote directly on what matters most in America...
One person, one vote? Not in this America.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
4
Democracy is a lively argument, which aggravates everyone and never ends, but can adapt rather well to changing needs and demands. Totalitarianism is dead certainty, which is great except when it is dead wrong.
Whatever we currently have in the West right now is pretty awful. I wish I could say we have reached rock bottom, but you can always lose a bit more in reality. It is chutzpah from Mr. Cohen himself a sort of spokesperson for the business as usual corporate elite Democrats aka Republican lites waxing optimistic on democracy literally at ground zero of the EU meltdown. Greece is no longer Greece thanks to the elite cabal of bankers whose values Roger shares. It is owned by Germany. Democracy as Churchill said is only the best option because every other system failed. Looks like democracy is no different. Perhaps we will be surprised by surviving Trump. However the cost for survival is always much too high. We can at best mitigate the deep poisoning of the well. Maybe I am just overly pessimistic yet the NYT says Trumps policy towards China is here to stay regardless of future Dem or GOP. Is it wise to so severely damage China when the consensus is that our own economy will suffer as well? Democracy seems to be pouring gasoline on the fire.
Whether or not we are optimistic about democracy, when it is on hiatus – as it is under the presidency of Donald Trump – many ordinary families suffer and die until our optimism bears fruit.
The world currently has too many men in power doing terrible things simply because they can.
We cannot, even at the risk of being boring, sit back and wait for our optimism to be confirmed.
14
One great observation in an otherwise mediocre Op-Ed.
'The most ugly chapters of history are littered with bystanders.'
Vote. Vote like democracy depended on it. Even two more years of Democrats in the wilderness with literally no say on substance or procedure could very well lead down a path toward tyranny.
Authoritarian government, once established, does not respond to election cycles, it is generational.
9
One of the great problems in our history traces back to the John Winthrop "shining city on a hill" quote, which points to that extremely harmful concept of our country's "exceptionalism". A belief in this is, of course, unwarranted as can be readily seen by an objective comparison of quality of life measures in so many other countries of the world versus our own. But more importantly it has been the basis for so many disastrous foreign policy episodes.
8
Turnout in the 2014 midterm was the lowest since World War II. Just 37% of eligible voters cast ballots. The resilience of our democracy depends ultimately on the will of the people, as altruistic as that may sound. We the people can rise up against the 1%, the electoral college, gerrymandering, fake news, etc. It might sound rather simplistic but we the voters must not be so ill-informed nor lazy for that matter to get out to the polls. Resigning ourselves to the notion that our vote does not count is self-defeating and perpetuates the lack of faith in our system of government.
On a much needed positive note: hopefully this moment in time will will be viewed in the annals of history as just an aberrant period in our democracy. I might be naive but have faith that it is a resilient institution and will ultimately prevail, albeit with overdue necesssary changes to meet the rapid-fire changes of the 21st century on every possible level.
See you in November at the polls to express your right to a voice in determining and resisting the current direction of where our democracy seems to be headed today.
10
During WWII people probably worried that democracy was go to die. It came out better, at least for a while, but at a sickening cost. They didn't have climate change to contend with either. Frankly the idea of going through a WWII, or a depression type stress test does not appeal to me, but I'm not sure any deep structural lessons were learned during the Great Recession.
3
Democracies like Juries do not always make the right decision. We can live with that. The democratic bar is set very high for juries, one juror one equal vote with the requirement of unanimity. Majorities are usually required to win in popular democracies. Not in America.
The American democracy has been improved over its history but of late has avoided some very necessary corrections. Pluralities are not enough and run-offs are one way to force majority rule. Voter participation at 60% is not good enough, since it allows for rule by 30% plus 1 of the electorate. The Electoral College is allowed to distort the weight of voters which should be equal and permits a loser to win. And finally private money in endless campaigns greatly limit participation.
All four of these deficits can be fixed with further amendments to the Constitution. But first the people must recognize them as serious deficits which can result in the election of a despot.
12
Does Democracy have to go hand in hand with unfettered capitalism? Our "leaders" seem to see any infringement on completely "free" markets as an infringement on Democracy. In my humber opinion this is the reason for the concentration of wealth. The fault lies with our economic system much more than our political system.
11
Hold on there a second Roger Cohen. Nobody in Ancient Athens was elected to public office by Popular Vote. Do your research! Athenians used Sortition - election for public office by Lottery.
This system had and has many advantages - which is why we still use it to select Juries.
One big advantage is of course Representation. Rather than only being represented by Swamp Creatures, we would be represented by ordinary Citizens. And if we ensure the pool of candidates includes Everyone then our Government would have a 50/50 mix of men and women.
Remember Aristotle: Election by popular vote is natural to Aristocracy and leads to Oligarchy. Election by lottery leads to Democracy.
13
@Dylan Hunt, your comment led me down a rabbit hole in search of more information on Sortition, Aristotle's writings, ancient Athenian democracies and oligarchies. Very interesting, thank you.
Who would have guessed a popular vote to back up representative democracies are a form of oligarchy?
Aa an American in Athens, I attended this program. It was an enriching and thought provoking experience. During the program Roger Cohen also said that things are likely to get worse before that get better. I would add that it was pretty clear that the recovery may take awhile. Too much complacency has contributed to the crises in Western democracies. Broad educational efforts and significantly increased citizen involvement and activism are necessary. Voting is essential. This is a wonderful piece, I only wish he would have included thes thoughts, because hard work lies ahead for those of us who believe in Democracy.
26
@William Titelmanv I certainly hope there were better speakers than the ones Cohen mentions; Liberals stop being boring? Glasses of water to put out the fire? Give me a break.
We have to fight the forces that seek to enslave us regardless of what weapons they use. Money is a strong weapon. Lies are another. The public, if they don't fight for their liberty, as they had to do over and over for centuries, will not see liberty. They will not even see the chains they wear.
The unique experiment proposed through Madison's brilliant consolidation of democratic principles in 1787 was never expected to achieve perfection or stasis. Along with Hamilton in the Federalist Papers 9 and 10, he set out a compelling argument that we should not expect this new form of representative government, or any government for that matter, to change the basic nature of human beings for better or for worse, but to acknowledge human nature with a government that balanced interests toward protecting basic rights of the individual.
Our history is often sanitized or diluted into what will sell a movie, a tv series, or a textbook, but it is essentially a messy and stumbling affair punctuated not only by a Civil War and Great Depression, but by many, many challenges that at their time called the viability of our democracy's future into question.
We must keep faith with our democracy's underlying proposition, realizing that it is always going to be the responsibility of those living at the time to engage and struggle to fulfill its promise. It has never been easy; it was never meant to be.
25
Our Founders did a darn good job of establishing a government, but they couldn't look 200+ years into the future to foresee their failings. They did a pretty good job dividing government so that it is hard for any one group to take complete control--so we leave in a representative republic, not a true democracy (like the Athenian sense that Cohen refers to.) Even so, we still struggle with fair representation of all our citizens.
But the larger problem is that our Constitution doesn't say anything about our economic organization, and since the late 1800s we have struggled with the power of businesses and their tendency to accumulate great wealth to themselves and their owners and undermine the power of the workers. We are now going through a second incarnation of the Gilded Age--sure a lot of wealth is being created, but it is very uneven. Truly free enterprise (the libertarian ideal), a lot like a true democracy, has no check to prevent the concentration of power. We worked toward fixing some of the excesses in the Progressive years and during the Great Depression, but ever since the end of World War II we have been slowly rolling back the checks on business's power. The real kicker came under Bill Clinton with the repeal of Glass-Steagall and more so with Citizens United intermixing corporate power with political power.
A big part of fixing our democracy will have to include fixing our economic order so that businesses cannot overwhelm the voice of "we, the people."
60
Public funding of campaigns is the answer.
Citizens United is based on the idea that money equals speech. Everyone knows that 90% of the time the most well funded candidate wins elections. Citizens United still has a fig leaf of respectability to it, but Arizona Free Enterprise has no fig leaf: it disallowed a floating point public campaign contribution be allowed to publicly funded candidates who faced overwhelming contributions from corporate backers: heads BigMoney wins, Tails BigMoney wins.
What the SCOTUS assumed that BigMoney would always be rich Americans, what they may have forgotten is that money has no borders and that Putin is the richest person in the world. He bought the election. (Incidentally, where did Trump get his campaign money from? Has anyone looked into that).
Another answer might be criminalizing journalistic slander: disallow people from knowingly (or reasonably could have known) false statements to the public to be taken as fact. This would pretty much lead to jail time and hefty fines for right wing media. Triple the punishment for when journalistic slander attempts emotional incitement of the public (fear and anger).
1
I have faith in the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. Even with Trump and his associative populist "geniuses" in Europe there is, perhaps, a silver lining. That is: by revealing the depths of corruption, sycophancy and self-entitlement evident in our government and political system today, citizens will be able...are beginning to...engage more fully in the long overdue clean-up. The Augean Stables of American governance are full to overflowing and we will, each of us, have to assume the duties of a Hercules.
16
Good journalism is extremely important in these times. Thank-you for sharing.
All we can be, should be trying to do at this point is to keep trying, to keep trying to lesson the potential and real sufferings to the greatest extent that we can.
I am the child of holocaust survivors born in Canada who runs still after some thirty years one of the largest private human rights organizations in Eastern Europe that I started. My parents always stressed the positive through trying to be as honest as possible. To be honest gives the energy to see more for one also has to work twice as hard. The work becomes a life style knowing that whatever we do with honesty will continue to have positive ripple effects no matter how small it is.
My parents were from Poland and they always stressed all the good that happened there knowing that good attracts bad and I should go back to try to help the good for the bad had become worse and too few helped. It does not mean that Poland was perfect, it means it tried to be better than others and was attacked and too many gave in to negativity for they lost the view and sense of all the good that there was. In short, our democracies are presently what we made them. We focused on good and goods and forgot to look out for bad in not being informed enough as to what was more fully happening around us. Yes, we must, for instance, vote, BUT we must never, it humbly seems to me, forget we need to be also self active in our own broad education.
12
How does Democracy for the people survive, when our elected Representatives are beholding to the power of the dollar from their donors? Money in Government means power and power corrupts, totally.
45
A really lovely piece Roger, were it only true. How can we hope to have true Democracy in a nation so clearly under the control of the one percent. It looks like the best the rest of us can look forward to is Universal Basic Income accompanied by the legalization of marijauana(if that’s your thing, if not there’s delivery of booze in Amazons future Im sure)and free internet, all designed to keep the great unwashed masses at home eating their fast food, stoned, and protesting away on their computers in itself an efficient way to keep an eye on the rabble rousers and assure there are no changes to the status quo, which by the way is working extremely well for the wealthy donors of both parties.
8
We achieved "democracy" via revolution, violent revolution. We have never approached the ideal, and we are, undeniably, regressing.
If we were to really value the concept of "consent of the governed", we would make voting as easy and efficient as humanly -- and bureaucratically -- possible. But we don't.
The dark side of human nature doesn't play by rules and, like Trump, has no moral sensibility beyond self-aggrandizement, self-defense and the aggression those dynamics produce.
At this point the inconceivable wealth made possible by the leverage of extractive and financial technologies coupled with our worship of ownership and tribalism has allowed power to accumulate and rig our system to the extent that it threatens to kill the host that spawned it.
The tension between greed and compassion is at play writ large -- global, in fact -- and the outcome cannot be predicted. And there is no guarantee that our system can withstand the assault of the dark side of human nature.
22
The U.S. has never been a democracy. We have been "a republic, if you can keep it."
Democracy is all about participation of all citizens to fulfill different roles in government. We have reached the point where, for a large part, a few people are very active, buying the laws to help their financial interests and the rest are spectators, sometimes a manipulated crowd.
We might either change that, so that more citizens play active roles, or we might go over the edge into an autocratic government that pretends to serve "the people" while keeping the ultra-rich ultra-rich and everyone else locked out.
9
Democracy has surprised me. It gave us Trump. I don't want any more surprises. Our will is being corrupted by outside powers with interference in our election by the Russians, and inside powers that have allowed voter suppression and gerrymandering.
I saw Michael Moore's new film last night. It deepened my cynicism about politics. It disturbed me. Our democracy is hanging by a thread, and I am not certain it will hold. We are being manipulated by the right and left and outside forces, and social media. Frankly, I really don't know who to trust anymore, and maybe that has been the point of all the manipulation. At 73, all that I fought for and against are coming crashing down as this country has taken a sharp right turn. Our forward progress toward a more democratic democracy has been halted. If Kavanaugh is seated on SCOTUS, our democracy will become further eroded by a Supreme Court poised to turn the clock back even further.
I wish I shared your optimism Mr. Cohen, but I don't. I will vote to try to mitigate the damage Trump and a Republican Congress have done, but if the Judiciary is conservative from the lowest court to the very highest, the battle is very much tougher to undo that damage for generations to come.
37
Roger Cohen's column on "Democracy Will Still Surprise Us" is one we should read twice and three times. The fight for democracy goes back to the Greeks, and through history to the 21st century where we find ourselves now. And it IS a fight, a constant struggle. A brilliant article on the subject was printed in the NYT opinion pages in May 2017, by Mariana Alessandri and entitled "In Praise of Lost Causes." In it, she talks about the "quixotic pessimism" of the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno: "If we want to be legitimate actors in the world, Unamuno would say that we must be willing to lose the fight. If we abandon the common-sense belief that deems only winnable fights worth fighting, we can adopt Unamuno’s “moral courage” and become quixotic pessimists: pessimists because we recognize our odds of losing are quite high, and quixotic because we fight anyway. Quixotic pessimism is thus marked by a refusal to let the odds of my success determine the value of my fight." This is a call to all democrats (small "d") to never give up.
12
In retrospect, anti-democratic movements today are more old world thinking versus new world thinking - centuries of rule where people were expendable versus self-rule where all people have rights and freedoms.
The former required authoritarian dictates directing wealth and power based on loyalty to a king, queen, cause, or religion. The poor remained poor, the hungry remained hungry. Rulers did not accept responsibility for their subjects as human beings but as resources to be used to maintain or to acquire territory, dominance in trade, with war after war after war.
In modern democracies, self-rule - government of, by, and for people - elevates individuals with rights, freedoms, and liberties seeking to correct their individual condition, the human condition, for the better. With self-rule comes responsibilities to others. This is the self-evident truth American democracy has struggled to achieve. Self-government of, by, and for people and responsibility to people walk hand in hand.
Anti-democratic movements today are the consequence of decades of planning designed to direct wealth, rights, and freedoms to those deemed deserving. Responsibility to others is someone else’s responsibility. Religion, race, hatred, and fear disguises lust for power, greed, and chosen sociopathy. Political and societal divisions are purposeful for the betterment of a few, not the many.
11
There is a danger in being too optimistic. It lulls us right back out of vigilance and into complacency.
We need to face some facts:
- voter suppression was baked into the constitution
- gerrymandering isn't new
- our political parties are structured like corporations - they're not really "ours"
- our "news" aren't really our property even though we pay for them
- authoritarianism is baked into everything in our society
- our unequal system of education is not producing a society enlightened enough to make wise political choices
- the preferential treatment we give to money for power has whittled democracy away in historical cycles
These dangers are particular to the American political system and they are what makes us especially vulnerable to outside influence.
They are at the basis of what tripped us in 2016 and will continue to be present unless we make fundamental changes to the way we do things. Without them, what was possible will remain so until it is too late.
Surprise us? I don't think so. You have to work very hard to keep democracy safe and sound. We've not yet done that in earnest as a nation.
---
Things Trump (and Congress) Did While You Weren't Looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
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Case in point from this morning's news?
"GOP Pennsylvania state Rep. Will Tallman introduced a "Teacher Code of Ethics" that bars teachers from discussing any legislation, court cases or candidates while in the classroom."
22
I like Mr. Mounk's (lecturer at Harvard quoted here) metaphor of the glass of water to extinguish the anti-democratic fires.
Fire and water, the critical elements: "If everyone lights just one little candle what a bright world it would be" -or- the glass of water to extinguish anti-democratic fires. We are all in this together. It's fairly simple and very direct, but the individual voice can't be heard if the individual doesn't vote.
Mr. Cohen, I think we are all very worried, but of course, worrying isn't going to fix anything. If we want to fix our direction- vote.
We still have the right to do that.
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Seeing what the majority did in the last election and in 2000, I wonder if democracy is that good. Seeing what the majority does every day makes me wonder.
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@Slipping Glimpser The majority voted for Clinton. The Electoral College voted Trump in. I despise the Electoral College. This is twice that they have overrun the will of the people.
@Slipping Glimpser: so....democracy is only "good" if you get your way and if your side always wins?
Thank you Roger. As always, your observations are spot on.
My own personal take; political system lives, like our individual human lives, contain the seeds of resurrection within the disfunctions of their particular character defects, but we must vote to express any transformation.
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Is Western democracy dead? Well we are having an election on November 6, 2018. Those people who wish to can show up and cast a vote. If they wish, they can even study the positions and information about the candidates and be an informed voter.
Some people say that national elections in this country have been nothing but a gigantic con game for many years; that the Republican and Democrats promise whatever they need to promise to get 1) contributions from donors, and 2) their voters to turn out. According to this line of thought, the democrats make a pretense of being for the "working man" "pro-choice" "women's rights" etc. and the republicans talk about "law and order" "strong defense" "pro-life" etc.
What both actually want is political office/power. To get that they need money (campaign contributions) and voter turnout. Generally for both parties, campaign contributions come from the well-to-do.
To me a democracy works best if most of the voters participate and if most voters are well informed about issues and candidates. But when have we had that situation?
Is democracy still democracy even if many citizens don't participate and if many participants don't understand what they are voting for? Or, if heaven forbid, candidates that I oppose get elected?
Actually, I think that our democracy will bumble along in its usual fashion. It could be a democracy if we make it one.
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When I speak of the United States as a democracy, many Republican friends correct me that the United States is a republic. Do many Americans even understand the terminology we use for government in this country? Do they understand that yes, we are a republic, but that's only the form of government. We are a democracy, a democratic republic. Should it scare us that more and more of our youth, hooked to their devices, place increasingly less value on democracy? The 2.2 billion on FB scare me. Nothing can replace unplugging and going out to vote!
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@Kostas Sarantidis
Yes, I have found that scenario usually occurs when the speaker is a Republican and then the conversation continues in reference to the great Thomas Jefferson. Yes he was great, but you are right: we are not onlhy a republic, but a democratic republic. Yes, it does scare me that so many are simply human devices listening to or looking at FB or their other tech devices.
4
@Kostas Sarantidis
The US is a hybrid democratic-republic.
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Indeed! And, each failure will bring new protective measures to prevent another similar one. The institutions will eventually become stronger, more robust. Even the filibuster will return to the Senate, the pace will become more deliberative and the decorum will make the senate look like the Senate again!
I, too, am confident in the resiliency and self-corrective abilities of the American democracy. Happy days will be back again!
6
Democracy is key. If one side takes it away, we can assume the next side will when they are in power. That is why the imperial presidency has been such a bad concept in American politics.
4
To increase voter participation, without mandated voting, a law that instead mandates: 'Either show up at the polling station [you don't have to cast a vote if you don't want, but you have to present yourself and sign in] or else mail in your ballot'. Also move voting day to a weekend. Many people can't be bothered to stir themselves. If they either mail in a ballot - can be left blank if they don't like any of the choices - or are forced to stir themselves to show up and sign in, many more will actually cast a ballot.
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@Unconvinced - Or, just offer the ballot line 'None of the Above'. If that line wins, then there is a new election with new candidates.
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@Unconvinced
The idea that more voting will solve our problems leaves me unconvinced. In our two party system there's no one to vote for. The vast majority of potential voters are offered no candidate to represent our real interests in the legislatures.
I like the suggestion of Jonathan (from Oronoque), a "none of the above" option. I suspect it would win every time. The political elites would be forced to face up to the fact that they're doing a terrible job and nobody wants them around.
@Jonathan, that attitude is what gave us trump. Faults and all, we would not be at quite this precipice if enough-- just a handful-- of people like you and unconvinced had voted for Hillary instead of "Mr. Nobody."
Democracy is worth fighting for.
Americans need to fight for it, or it will be attacked, disemboweled, paralyzed and neutered....which is exactly what Russian-Republicans have done with the gerrymander, voter suppression laws, obfuscation, obstruction, campaign finance corruption, black-box machine vote counts, the hideous Electoral College, the undemocratic Senate and Grand Old Propaganda that divides and conquers.
Nevertheless, resistance and voting remain powerful weapons against Republican rot.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
--- Theodore Parker (and later, Martin Luther King)
Register.
Donate to a voter registration group.
https://www.voterparticipation.org/support-our-work/donate-to-vpc/
Vote.
Cure Republican political cancer.
Watch democracy soar like an eagle !
November 6 2018
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@Socrates: Democrats INVENTED the gerrymander.
I live in a DEMOCRATIC gerrymandered district that always always always sends a black Democrat to Congress.
@Concerned Citizen - It's true both sides do it, but at this point in time over 2/3 of the state governments are controlled by republicans so they have a big advantage in gerrymandering. The laws need to change so that districts are not political footballs to be changed every couple of years depending on who is in control of the state government.
Love your commentary, but demonizing your opponents just energizes them. They are people like us, appeal to their better instincts and your opinions will have more impact. Respectfully, dr b@Socrates
Surprises do keep coming. A courageous woman breaks a long guarded silence on a deeply personal trauma to protect the integrity and the sanctity of America's legal system and Supreme Court.
Dogged investigative journalists continue to uncover new facets of government abuse and corruption. Generous strangers contribute to Gofundit to support the legal expenses of FBI agents smeared personally by Trump after years of honorable service or give to charity and relief groups to help disaster or abuse victims.
Lawyers and judges protect immigrant children and families from separation and cages showing deep concern and care for the vulnerable and for their rights. Protesters march to protect the environment or in solidarity with victims of school shootings.
Candidates pop up regardless of whether in the past they wouldn't have a hope due to their gender, ethnicity, race or religion and prove themselves to be resilient and worthy.
I hope it is enough. Pledging allegiance to the flag is one thing. Voting against corrupt and/or complicit politicians in each and every election is another.
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Couldn’t agree more.
These may not be the best of times, but they’re far better than the worst. If Melania can make it through 13 years of marriage, surely democracy can weather 4 years of Donald Trump unscathed.
The only question is, do we take advantage of the opportunity Trump’s victory has provided? People are finally paying attention to their government and scrutinizing the media. That’s good for everyone.
We can do better than the two handpicked corporate flunkies we’re offered every 4 years, and we can demand fairness and objectivity from our media.
Will we? It seems as though defeating Trump has taken precedence over unbiased journalism, and if we elect anyone other than a moderate president in 2020 we leave half the country’s interests unrepresented, which will make the election of another candidate like Trump inevitable somewhere down the line.
Most Americans are moderates. We deserve moderate representation, and nonpartisan news.
10
It appears that Mr. Cohen is doing his best to give those of us who are in despair a pep talk and I applaud his efforts but I do not share his optimism. I think democracy will survive but what is truly at stake here is the very nature of capitalism, ten years after the Great Recession. Let us not forget that the banks were rescued by taxpayers but there was no rescue for the middle class and Trump is doing away with the regulations put in place after the crisis, so we will not be protected when the next crisis arrives.
Wages have been stagnant for many years. Unions are disappearing with added assistance from a right-wing Supreme Court. The richest among us have gotten much richer in the 10 years since the fall of Lehman Brothers and the sup-prime mortgage debacle, assisted by Trump's tax cuts, which will leave us with monstrous debt.
Capitalism in the 21st century only works for the wealthy, for those with huge stock portfolios, not for those who depend on a salary to survive. Corporate profits are at record highs. Good news for shareholders. Not so much for stakeholders. Mr. Schwartz, in an article in this paper, writes, " ten years after the financial crisis, getting ahead by going to work every day seems quaint, akin to using the phone book to find a number or renting a video at Blockbuster." Cohen is correct when he says, "The human urge to be free is not about to die in the 21st century," but too many are being left behind in 21st century capitalism.
23
@Patricia Caiozzo
Agreed. Capitalism is a predatory system. Always has been.
One wonders if the unions had demanded stock options instead of time and a half for overtime and double time on weekends, would capitalism have served the workers and owners alike. It certainly works for the high tech world, where even the lowest paid employee works like a dog in the hopes that their company's IPO will make them rich@Patricia Caiozzo
Democracy is a way for people to overthrow the government without taking to the streets and killing people.
Other than that, amid all the lies and deceit, voters don't really make choices because they have no idea what choices they are really voting for or against. But they can throw the bums out every once in awhile.
The bums generally don't realize that is what they have become, by their "impunity, arrogance, inequality and remoteness." They have isolated themselves from their own defects, until overthrown.
But then of course the new bums must be thrown out too.
We must not then bring back the old bums, just to be rid of the new.
Democracy ultimately will produce someone new, at least initially not too much a bum. So far, not yet, but Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
38
@Mark Thomason
Problem is, in real life, you don't get unlimited fails until you win. You just fail and never recover.
The GOP is killing our Constitution to allow the wealthy to take it all.
Well I'm glad someone's an optimist. First of all, it's hard to wax philosophic about the resiliency of democracy when you have a democratic system where the loser won by almost 3 million votes. What kind of democracy is that? Second, what kind of democracy tips the scales towards the rich whereby unlimited cash can be contributed towards a campaign? And then there's the organized attempts at disenfranchisement of the poor, always voting on a Tuesday, which makes it harder for working-class people to vote. You have something calling itself a democracy, but from where I sit, it's a strange version of one.
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@Henry's boy
I wish I was sitting there with you, but I fear Canada will build a wall to keep me out.
@Henry's boy The Tuesday thing might seem strange, but we can't do it on Saturday because Americans are too into their football games to get off the couch. And we can't do it on Sunday because of the religious people.
Hmm, on second thought, Sunday sounds great!
It is true. We may either be buried or cremated by the coming dark ages. Or perhaps we will drown, or freeze, or be smothered by mud depending on where we live; perhaps we will be poisoned or starved by failing agricultural infrastructure; perhaps we will die fighting each other over potable water, or insulin, or the handful of antibiotics that will still work, sometimes. The surprises of the coming century will make for exciting adventures in archaeology by whatever civilization emerges from our wreckage. "Here, then, was the rump left behind by the Baby Boomers, a generation of cicada-like vandals that took the greatest bounty granted a people in human civilization and gorged themselves upon it until naught was left but crumb and ash."
7
@Ryan apocalyptic thinking is a lot of fun, in a black humor sort of way, but what I have always wondered when we indulge in apocalyptia is, what if we live?
Thank you Mr.Cohen. Brilliant article. I strongly believe that as long as there are still people who are stubborn enough to be idealist, who do not give up and still believe on the good side of humankind, the impossible will become possible. Please don’t give up.
18
There is another, darker, conclusion one could reasonably draw from Mr. Cohen's cogent description of where we find ourselves. Let us hope Roger's is the correct one.
11
"Contemporary life is a restless experiment in global direct democracy. We are networked. Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users. So do we really need representative democracy? Is it not just a means for rich globalized insiders to control our lives?"
God I hope so! I'd hate to think of FB replace democracy in terms of our overall beliefs, not those which may or may not be generated by real human beings.
History is cyclical, as Cohen often says more as consolation than to create irreversible despair.
We like to say "this too will pass" as if the natural inference is the future will be better than the immediate past.
We got snookered good on that one alright!!
Nobody knows how this will turn out and may be that's a good thing.
After all unless we're motivated to work for change nothing will. in that I AM optimistic.
17
Democracy and equality are threatened by multinational corporations - nothing personal just business to increase shareholder value (raise stock price and CEO compensation).
Stock buybacks (which used to be prohibited) and corporate income tax avoidance, which is massive and getting worse, are the twin evils of capitalism today.
The UK is the epicenter of tax avoidance and is named and shamed in the 2017 documentary "The Spider's Wed - Britain's Second Empire" - available on Amazon Prime.
Sadly, the UK is not alone as the recent NYT article on the Netherlands and their tax avoidance schemes demonstrate.
9
@Nancy The state of North Dakota has something of a web as well; all large corporations in the US are incorporated in places like North Dakota or Delaware, where the laws have been made favorable to them. These sorts of schemes to succor the rich are multiplying around the globe. Concentration of wealth is one of our great problems and may lead to the collapse of the economy. Greed is only good up to a point, after which it may become quite destructive.
9
The following may be true:
‘Western democracy is in upheaval. Of late, it has concentrated, but not spread, wealth...”
But to conclude that
‘“...suggesting that it’s no more than a vehicle for injustice.”
Ignores the alternatives.
Russia with Oligarchs and low living standards in Putin’s corrupt crony state and his subsequently puny economy? China with rural poverty and stare repression? Western democracy for all its faults wins categorically.
8
@Bean Laissez Faire capitalism is ultimately dangerous to democracy and we will need to let democracy take precedence over capitalism in the US to legislate regulation of the banking system etc, and fix this mess. But there is a lot of money and power screaming for this predatory form of capitalism to take precedence. That way lies revolution. Aux Barricades, Citoyens.
Agreed Roger and even though we are in a democracy crisis it is far from our Civil War crisis.
Nevertheless, we don't have a Lincoln to save us or anybody close.
Now is the time to support democracy and in Nov. vote out any republican that does not repudiate Trump.
34
Thank you, Mr. Cohen. You're always thought provoking. I fear for all I believed.
11
When people realize just how important democracy is, they will vote. When they take it for granted ….
Imagine an election with a turnout of 86.9% (South Africa, 1994, post-apartheid). Or 77.8% (Germany after reunification). I would even take 68.5% (Canada, 2015).
And the United States? The best we did in a presidential election (after women were given the right to vote) was 62.8% in 1960; the most recent was 55.5%. And that only counts eligible voters (so, for example, many with felony convictions are not included).
Not voting is the reason democracies die.
126
@John Graubard And in your 2014 midterm elections, voter turnout was only 37%. The story of the 2016 election, which was won by just 80 thousand votes spread across three states, *should* be taken as a vital cautionary tale of the ramifications of voter apathy. The world will be watching this November, hoping the lesson of 2016 will be taken to heart by American voters.
18
@John Graubard, But what if our voting is an exercise in futility? Rigged voting machinery is a problem today.
Whenever one says get out and vote I wonder if they're aware of manipulated, electronic results.
1
@John Graubard In fact, even the 55.5% is an incorrect figure, since not all eligible voters are registered because of many factors. Counting correctly will show that the actual percentage of voters is well below 40%.
In UK and India, it is the responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure that voter rolls are updated before every election. Our Election Commision has no power to keep elections fair. Effectively our Govt is not really a representative of the population.
2
I sure hope that Roger is right in his analogy to Greece. I fear that we are much more of another parallel. Think Rome. Late Rome.
95
@Mark
"The United States - set in a wilderness, forever dreaming itself Athens reborn, even as it crudely, doggedly, re-created Rome."
- "The Golden Years", Gore Vidal
2
I wonder if Roger Cohen is not hopeful to the point of naivety. He grants “Western democracy is in upheaval. Of late, it has concentrated, but not spread, wealth, suggesting that it’s no more than a vehicle for injustice.” But this not just of late, it has been going on for half a century and not just here but throughout the advanced world. It is true things have improved greatly in the third world. But it is not just the vast increase in wealth of the world oligarchs but weakened access to protections of the law of everyone else also.
There are positive signs, it no longer appears population growth will overwhelm us but that might just be because the planets many toxins from big agribusiness, big pharma, and big chemicals (plastics, etc.) are reducing our ability to reproduce.
Nor if we survive global warming, are the other threats as big. But we as a people survived the age of Kings and Queens and in income distribution terms we are moving fast in that direction now. I don’t want my daughter to wake up a serf in America after I have gone. That would not be a good surprise for her.
16
Loved the joke about the man in the White House. I think Winston Churchill said it best, "Democracy is not the best system but it is better than any other."
14
"Democracy will still surprise us."
Perhaps. But not all surprises are good, even for the optimist.
Democracy is also very messy and mess has a tendency to get out of control.
12
Roger Cohen is one of the most brilliant and skilled writers of our time. He just wrote a very moving and important essay. But what was it? It was a eulogy.
Who died? Democracy died. Freedom died. The truth died. But Mr. Cohen has taken the role of the prophet. Fear not! For what has died shall rise again! If we try, if we believe in ourselves, democracy, freedom and the truth shall be restored.
This essay was a modern day sermon on the mount. It is a tale of a resurrection, a resurrection of that which created the free world.
Trump is doing such a great job of making America great that a powerful and ethical mind just sermonized a reawakening of the things that did make us great.
A reawakening. So has Trump and the rest of the world's authoritarians just put us to sleep? Or, have they killed something that must be brought back to life.
It's time for a resurrection. Vote in Nov. Keep voting. Never stop voting.
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@Bruce Rozenblit
Vote, yes, but that alone will not save democracy. Liberals must learn to treat their fellow Americans with respect—those who may have different cultural values, or different life experiences to draw from. Absent such reawakening by liberals, there can be no reawakening for democracy.
@Bruce Rozenblit
Your comment is one of the most poignant ones of all.
As to my "reawakening" this morning, I woke up from a nightmare that fascism pure has already taken over this country.
As the daughter of a well known German physicist who suffered terribly during the Third Reich, I am well aware how fascism infects a nation - often unrealized in the shadows -, yet always with the motto to make the respective nation "great" again by promising manna from heaven to the masses.
3
Is democracy a natural state or more a utopian mirage?
Economists worship at the alter of competition, yet most businesses work overtime to limit the effects of competition through legal and extralegal methods.
So too democracy. In this country, which places democracy on a pedestal with freedom and equality, too many participants have a vested interest in minimizing or destroying democratic institutions. Small states with outsized power in the U.S. Senate have no desire to allow democratic reforms to that institution. Same with gerrymandered districts and voter suppression initiatives that make a mockery of equal representation.
Tribalism trumps all democratic tendency. The fear that brown, yellow, black, islamic, and gay people, and--dare I say-women will have substantive influence motivates so many to embrace authoritarian practices
Now with the Supreme Court about to be locked down for a generation by a conservative, corporatist majority, any movement in a democratic direction is certain to be muted if not stymied in its entirety.
51
If history is any guide, yes, democracy will surprise us. And it won't be the democracy of Jefferson or Hamilton. There are forms of democracy that involve voting in sham elections--and we've already been there. Besides, roughly 40% of eligible voters have not voted in general elections since the 1960s. And jobs were plentiful then. There was no Fox, Limbaugh, Hannity, Twitter or Facebook to provide quick injections of despair and distrust. So what's wrong with America that so many have always been outside the system? Roger, surely you don't think that they'll put down their devices to vote this year or in 2020?
63