The true majority
If we empower and include all voices, we will find the most inclusive path forward. By definition.
The last-minute deal to avoid a shutdown of the federal government is a relief, and also a window into the warped and isolated world of the House of Representatives.
The solution - cooperating with Democrats - was there for weeks. Speaker McCarthy could have avoided all the brinksmanship and stress by sticking to the deal made in the summer. The right-wing extremists who wanted to block the deal threatened to remove him from the speaker’s job. For far too long, this threat worked.
No recognition of some kind of heroic bipartisanship is warranted that McCarthy finally put forward a vote Democrats could support. This should be the norm. Every representative is elected to do the people’s business. The ease with which too many of them shrug this responsibility (and honor) off, replacing it with advancing their own careers, is deeply distressing. It is the wide open door to corruption.
Corruption is itself bipartisan, as the indictment of Senator Menendez demonstrates. Humans seem to be quite susceptible to addiction to power, and to wealth, and to the heady way in which they interact. Democracy must have robust checks and balances so that no individual, no small group of wealthy influencers, and no single party become stuck in dominance.
This morning, I heard the old phrase again, wielded as a threat: “the tyranny of the majority.” It’s meant to make us fearful of “them,” a phantom “majority” that will railroad “us” into subjugation. But if the real majority is empowered - not a small slice of wealthy, privileged, culturally dominant people but all of us - tyranny is impossible. The problem is never that the majority is “wrong.” It is always that a minority wants to cling to power.
The true majority is all of us: wealthy and poor and middle class; all ethnic groups, religious and non-religious folks; all genders and abilities, all perspectives and backgrounds. This true majority holds the deepest wisdom. If we empower and include all voices, we will find the most inclusive path forward. By definition.
So don’t be suckered into fearing that some ill-defined “they” will take “our” rights away. Keep your eye on the money and the power, and support the checks and balances that make a diverse government work for everyone.
Take good care and keep working for what you believe in.