Why
I'm Voting, While I Still Can
October 16, 2002
By TahitiNut
There has been much heat and a little light, within the Democratic
Underground forum, in our nation, and in our world. In my
opinion, today's "issues" (as defined by others
often for their own convenience) are less about war, peace,
left, right, crime, regulation, stock markets, jobs, or terrorism
than about democracy itself. We live at a time when our founding
first principles are under assault, and we are on the front
line whether we yet realize this or not. It is not terrorists
engaging in this assault; it is the force of our own fears,
ignorance, and mutual animosities that threaten us, and threaten
our democratic principles as a nation.
"As most of the evils which have taken place
in private life, and among individuals, have been occasioned
by the desire of private interest overcoming the public
affections, so most of the evils which have taken place
among bodies of men have been occasioned by the desire of
their own interest overcoming the principle of universal
benevolence and leading them to attack one another's territories,
to encroach on one another's rights, and to endeavour to
build their own advancement on the degradation of all within
the reach of their power." — Richard Price, A
Discourse on the Love of our Country (1789)
The inherent virtues and vices of a democratic system of
governance are neither more nor less than the virtues and
vices of the People themselves. (The same cannot be said of
any other principle of governance, in any respect.) This was
articulated far more completely and deeply than I could ever
repeat by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, and by Jefferson, Paine,
and others.
From their labors and the sacrifices of many, we inherited
a precariously balanced system of governance that sought to
inhibit both a tyranny of any majority and a tyranny of any
minority; that sought to protect the rights and liberties
of all, while placing that very protection under our own authority
where it rightfully belongs in justice and equity. Who can
more rightfully claim the fruits, whether sweet or sour, of
their political labors than the People themselves?
Within our system of governance, there is one and only one
mechanism that's democratic: an election, wherein the sovereign
authority of the People is voiced in our vote, which must
be heard, fully, completely, and accurately. When it comes
to democratic self-governance, this is the leash; all else
is the beast.
In this, we must not compromise or retreat. Yet I've seen
exactly that. Overtly and hypocritically, I have seen the
voice of the People stifled, distorted, muffled, and ignored
— like never before in our history. I have seen the informed
will of the People thrown into disarray by a plague of misdirection,
falsehoods, deception, secrecy, predatory exploitation of
public media, and extensive corruption at the apex of corporate,
religious, and governmental institutions. Yet I still see
many of us neurotically seeking "leaders" rather
than custodians, parents rather than partners, bosses rather
than coworkers, demagogues rather than teachers, and entertainers
rather than educators.
Rather than hearing the clear voice and informed will of
the People, we are told what we think, what we want, what
we know, and how ignorant and uneducated we are. After we
witness an atrocity in our neighborhood, we're told to go
shopping. Like repressed children, the self-proclaimed sovereign
adults of governance instruct us to be seen and not heard.
Then like disturbed children, we throw the tantrums of "Billy
did it first!" and "My daddy can beat up your daddy!"
We proclaim "In God We Trust" and deludedly accept
the exhortation of "Trust Me" from our public servants
while, in collusion with one another and corrupt corporate
carpetbaggers, they steal food from our neighbors' gardens,
sleep in our softest beds, deny medicines to our elderly,
mortgage our children's futures, engage in vigilantism, pass
over our weakest cousins, and pillage our savings. Is it any
wonder that our neighbors are losing their respect for us?
When an (arguably) elected President, ethically answerable
to the People, unilaterally chooses to throw off the agreed-to
restraints of International Law and Constitutional doctrine
and pursues the conquest of a foreign nation, under the presumptive
rationale that their political processes are undemocratic
and their head of state is illegitimate and a threat to others;
and when he then orchestrates a media parade of imagined horribles,
I'm reminded of the bogeymen misguided parents employ to cow
incompliant children, employing coercion not reason and honesty,
dominated by fear rather than mutual love and respect.
I'm also reminded of the psychology of projection and that
we were once asked "why behold thou the mote that is in thy
brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in thine
own eye?"
It is not Congress to whom a President must report in promotion
of a causus belli, it is the People. So also is it the People
to whom the Congress must answer in exercising their delegated
authority under the Constitution to engage our nation in a
war or not — not their political party and not the President.
Just as corrupt Executives have been facilitated in their
predation by compliant Boards of Directors ignoring their
fiduciary duties, the seductions of partisan allegiance in
lieu of democratic duty corrupts our body politic.
It is also not Congress, even in collusion with an (arguably)
elected President, that's legitimately empowered to trample
the Bill of Rights when, neither informed nor seeking consent,
they enact the cynically marketed "Patriot Act".
Such an odious act, in presuming to ignore the very human
rights and civil liberties under which any and all legitimacy
of the Congress is formed, is an atrocity against democracy
— an atrocity only the People can legitimately commit themselves.
I will vote for the People — and for democracy itself. I
can, in good conscience, vote for no other and none other.
In a Maslow-like hierarchy of political needs, all else has
become (sadly) secondary. I will raise my solo voice through
the vote, through interactions with others, through communication
with my elected representatives, through protests and dissents,
and through any other avenue not yet denied me. If my solo
voice becomes part of a chorus of democracy singing the lyrics
of liberty, I will be glad. But no matter what, I will not
be silenced and will not retreat as long as there's breath
in my lungs and blood in my heart. I cannot, with any self-respect,
do less.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive
to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or
to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness." — Declaration
of Independence (Adopted in Congress 4 July 1776)
The destruction of our democracy would not be the end — merely
another beginning. While, like the cycle of birth and death,
it may certainly be painful and agonizing, it would be inevitable.
It is inevitable since, as history has shown, tyrannies cannot
survive. Whatever it's lesser structural accoutrements may
be, democracy will prevail. We may not see it again in this
nation in our lifetimes, but the will of People who aspire
to justice, freedom, equity, and polity will prevail. Of this,
I am certain. And the last shall be first.
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