Our government is divided into three independent branches: executive, legislative, and judiciary. Congress was given the greatest power because representatives were closest to the people who elected them. They would also act as a check and balance over the executive branch. That power was given to them because of our founders’ concern over giving too much power to one individual.
Democracies are extremely fragile. When elected officials are more aligned with their party than the desires of the people who elected them, we have a major problem. When elected officials work to make it difficult for all people to be able to vote or begin to pass or attempt to pass laws that can change an outcome of an election by essentially discarding votes or changing electors to obtain desired outcomes, that is the beginning of the destruction of a representative democracy.
People feel disenfranchised when they have no voice. They are not being adequately represented, so they become angry. Hatred builds, and violence is its byproduct.
We watched the greatest attack on our democracy since the Civil War on Jan. 6. We can argue about all the reasons it happened, but it was obvious people were very angry. That anger, building over several years, led to incredible violence and an attempt to overturn a legally certified presidential election.
Democracies are based on trust, transparency, and truth. You solve problems by working together in a bipartisan manner, finding solutions for the betterment of all. We cannot solve our many issues when the parties are so divided and everything they do seems to be based on maintaining power at all cost and not on building a better country.
We have angry people talking about taking our country back even if it means civil war. We hear people say they wish we were like Myanmar and a military coup could take over our government. How well did that work out? We need to be careful what we wish for.
We have witnessed several countries elect officials who, while in office, stacked the courts, diminished the free press, and put “yes men” in positions of power beholden to the officials and not to the government. They changed laws to give themselves more power so they could be elected for longer terms. We have seen this in China, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, and elsewhere.
When this happens, individual freedoms dissipate. The freedom of speech: gone. The freedom of political expression: gone. The freedom of religion: gone. The freedom of the press: gone. In addition, basic human rights that we enjoy in America and often take…
Read More: Local View: America’s democracy at greater risk than we may think