Our little scrap of democracy
The theme of our deepening understanding this year: overthrowing the constraints of binary thinking, and rejecting the false dichotomy fallacy wherever we recognize it.
Dear friends:
If we do nothing else in our public work in 2022, we must give full-throated voice to the fight to preserve our little scrap of democracy. This week we marked one year since the violent assault on a the session of Congress with the intent to stop its certification of the 2020 election results. We’ve learned much since then - and more is certainly coming - about how that attack was planned, organized, and coordinated with other attempts to subvert the election results.
If we ignore what we learn, we are at high risk of seeing the end of the grand experiment with government by consent of the governed within our lifetime.
Supporting the Freedom to Vote Act (or the original For the People Act) is essential, though not sufficient. Please do let your voice be heard on the need to get these voting protections and limits on dark money and gerrymandering passed, including overcoming the filibuster.
But we also must go deeper. How did our system turn out a party and its leaders so susceptible to demagoguery, so accepting of political violence, and so willing to cement minority rule?
Although greed plays a huge role in this dynamic (more power = more money = more power, ad nauseam), I suspect there is more at play. After all, the vast majority of those who are lured to support the minority rule are not benefitting from it in any material way. They lose material support for access to health care, unemployment insurance, child tax credits, etc. Their own individual economic positions slide downward.
The fertile ground for the push to minority rule has been around for centuries, and is nourished by the belief that some humans are more worthy than others. Somewhere in our minds and hearts, the story that “we” are the more worthy ones resonates. Somewhere in that resonance is the severe temptation to behave as if it is true. And somewhere in that behavior is the reinforcement that if “we” are more worthy, “they” are not.
We can recognize the cynical use of this narrative in the language of those who would terrify us with the possibility of slipping from “us” to “them;” of losing our place, of losing our status, of losing the protection of the powerful if we dare to disagree. (For a ridiculous yet sinister example of this, check out the attack on Senator Cruz by Tucker Carlson.)
The theme of our deepening understanding this year must continue to be overthrowing the constraints of binary thinking, of rejecting the false dichotomy fallacy wherever we recognize it.
Our little scrap of democracy arose from an era when hierarchies ruled, and the power of its essential idea has yet to be fully realized: that all humans are equal before the law, and that the only legitimate government exists only by consent of the governed - not an elite and powerful minority, but the full and complex community that grants its consent through the vote.
Resist the temptation to let go of that idea, to give up on it, or to constrain it. Give it your full-throated, full-hearted support this year.
Sent, as always, with deep gratitude for your company on this incredible journey.