The Last Bastion to Protect Our Democracy--The Judgement and Common Sense of the American People

  

I have often remarked, somewhat naively in retrospect, that our democracy would be protected by a number of factors, including the balance of power.  I was referring here to the distribution of responsibility between the states and the national government and the distribution of power among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government. 

 

These are meaningful checks and balances, but I have come to realize that they are no guarantee of preserving democracy. 

 

For many years, I looked to the Supreme Court as a reliable final arbiter to preserve our democracy. In recent years, there has been the gnashing of teeth among a large part of the population including me about many of the decisions of the Supreme Court. 

 

Most recently, there is the Supreme Court’s apparent decision to kicking the question of former President Trump’s immunity from prosecution down to lower courts, meaning that any court case deciding that issue will not be decided until after the election Not long before that came the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had been in place since 1973, turning the decision on abortion over to the individual states.  The proposition offered by some Justices at the time that this would result in taking the issue out of the courts was preposterous from the start and has been proven absolutely wrong, as the court cases continue to unfurl. I see no intellectual basis for the court's failing to establish a national standard defining what constitutes a legally permitted abortion.  This is a national issue.

 

A few years before that came the decision on Citizens United v. FEC which now perversely allows unlimited corporate spending for elections

 

And the notion, which I once held i that the Supreme Court would reach decisions rising above contemporary political sentiment, is denied by history.  Supreme Court decisions have always been influenced by the temper of the times, including the impact that temper had on individuals chosen for the Court.

 

The Dred Scott decision of 1857, which ruled that African-Americans were not citizens and carried no rights, which Whites were required to respect, grew out of the pro-slavery sentiment that existed at the time. 

 

The decision, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, upholding racial segregation under the “separate but equal” mantra was also a product of the time. It led to institutionalized racism for decades until it was struck down by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. 

 

There were decisions early in the 20th century in which the Court said that restricting bakery hours to a 10-hour day violated their right to contract for their own work hours.  In 1918, the Court ruled that federal restrictions on child labor violated states’ rights to regulate production.  Five years after that (1923), the Court ruled that it was illegal to set a minimum wage for women, regardless of whether or not they were earning enough to live on. All an outgrowth of a "laissez-faire" philosophy of the times which influenced the decisions of the justices. Another mind-bending example: in 1927, the Court allowed forced sterilization of the “feeble-minded people,” embracing the now utterly discredited theory of eugenics.   

 

Perhaps the point I’m making is too obvious to even justify elaboration.  However, it is a fact that there is no guarantee that the separation of powers will guarantee a continuation of democracy.  No, and this is my point--that will ultimately depend on the choice the American people make as they elect their president and other key offices including at the state level. In these choices the American people will decide and express how they want to live. 

 

Circumstances will influence this, of course.  The Depression of the 1930s put a lie to the "laissez-faire" , free-for-all policies that had prevailed in the early part of the century.  It provided the conditions which made the election and policies of Roosevelt possible. 

 

We now face the most consequential presidential election in my lifetime. The choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It is now apparent that no court case or Supreme Court decision will bar Trump as the Republican nominee. If you believe as I do that the future of democracy is on the line, you will see that it will be the values, sentiment and common sense of the Amercan people who will decide our future. And so should it be.

  Looking back over history, I take heart from the fact that the American people eventually have “rejected” the hateful rhetoric and call of leaders like George Wallace and Joe McCarthy.  I have felt, incorrectly, that the American people would have long since reached the point of rejecting what Donald Trump stands for:  his lack of character, his meanness, his cruelty.  I have been wrong.  There have been underlying conditions leading large segments of our population to understandably feel that they were not being recognized and given respect they deserve. Similar sentiments have provided the fuel for other autocrats donning the mantle of victimhood, personally and on behalf of the people they say they represent. Trump follows in the footsteps of Hitler, Mussolini and other autocrats.  But eventually, the truth came out; the pretense folded.

 

Will that happen again in 2024 with our national election?  I personally think it will.  I hope and pray so. 

 

There have been many elections which we have asserted represent a  binary existential  choice  But never has there been an election where that binary choice is as striking as the one we will face six months from now.  My hope rests on the American people as the last bastion of our democracy.