Sunday, June 14, 2020:   Can We Really Claim To Be A Democracy?
We are living in the most turbulent times of my lifetime and the question I keep asking is whether our democracy has gone off the rails? Is this is the normal course for a democracy or have we experienced a permanent and irreversible shift in our governance – one that will result in a difficult and costly reckoning? Winston Churchill is claimed to have said that "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." Maintaining a true democracy is certainly challenging, but will it self destruct over time.

Maybe the real question is do we really still have a democracy? In the broadest definition, a democracy is control of an organization or group by the majority of its members. Can we honestly say that Americans are now in control of their own governance? I think the answer to that question is a simple "no." The trappings of a democracy are there. We still have a constitution, three branches of government, and elections, but they are just that – trappings. I would argue that we have gone over the fascist cliff. Leading this county now is a group of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalists who are trying to use dictatorial power to forcibly suppress opposition.

We were warned repeatedly about this potential outcome. Franklin Roosevelt said "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."

Thomas L Friedmen outlined the current state of our governance in a 2018 NYT opinion. "It takes $1 billion to run for the White House, Congress has become a forum for legalized bribery, the president has uttered over 2,000 (18,000 now) lies and misleading statements since taking office — and his own party doesn't care — a gun cult holds Congress hostage, and computer-designed gerrymandering enables candidates to pick their voters, not have voters pick them.

We also now have our own major state-run network, Fox News, that treats our president as "Dear Leader" — much the same way that China's People's Daily does Xi.

So is this a democracy? I think not.