Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
It occurred to me recently that in five years, our country will be 250 years old.
Our successful experiment in representative democracy without rule by birthright seems to have weathered wars with other nations and even among ourselves and emerged victorious — with some scars to be sure.
At the root of our success is a 4,400-word document literally sweated out by a group of over-dressed gentlemen who in 1787 huddled in the heat for four summer months in Philadelphia to produce a masterpiece, the U.S, Constitution, which has demonstrated to the world since then what a representative democracy should look like.
The Constitution’s centerpiece is its system of checks and balances designed to prevent one individual or group from dominating us by fiat.
Throughout a tumultuous history marked by occasional fistfights, canings and trades of personal insults in the halls of Congress, the U.S. has kept faith with the basics of democracy and trusted those who are charged with making sure it works the way it’s supposed to.
Recently, I’ve had doubts about whether our brand of democracy will last through our 250th.
On Friday, the U.S. Senate blocked a broad-based investigation into an incident that threatened the core of our representative democracy, the Jan. 6 pro-Donald Trump riot that aimed to halt a legitimate exercise of Congress and personally threatened members of Congress.
While the majority of the Senate was in favor of this investigation, enough Senate Republicans, 35 to be exact, are still so deathly afraid of former President Trump, and his huge block of voters, that they blocked the whole idea.
They did not propose an alternative plan. They dropped it because of one man, Trump.
This is frightening if you believe in democracy. Trump already has a near-flawless propaganda machine humming in his favor, which incessantly reinforces positions, whether or not based in fact, that favor the former president, while lambasting his critics on all sides in every imaginable way.
If the Biden administration fails in something significant before next year, the Trump block could regain its lock on Congress.
Republicans and Democrats trade dominance for varying periods, as the other side proclaims threats to democracy from the winning side.
That is parties, though. If Trumpist Republicans win in Congress, they surrender their party’s power to Trump’s whims.
In the Lord of the Rings, the wizard Gandalf confronts his mentor Saruman, who has joined with Sauron, a being seeking absolute power.
Gandalf warns Saruman, “Sauron does not share power.”
Neither does Trump.
Wasn’t that the lesson of 2017 through 2021? Abusing the trust we previously could place in presidents, Trump managed to trample just about anything or anyone that took even minor exception to his chaotic whims with vicious invective.
But even after Jan. 6, Trump’s control of the party is unabated.
Our 250th birthday will be celebrated with pomp and ceremony and dedication to democracy, even though what is called “democracy” at that point may be anything but.
Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: