On the day of Election Day what came to mind for me was that the words of Maya Angelou – “When someone shows you who they are, believe them” – do not only apply to individual people but they apply to political parties and, by way of our system of governance, America overall, as well. I mean, come on; how can we repeatedly say that this is not who we are as regards hate when the vote in this 2022 midterm election shows the world exactly who we are?! The argument remains the same whether this hate is directed at an individual, their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or anything else. Hate is hate! In light of what happened on January 6, 2022, how can we say this is not who we are as regards democracy after the voting results of this 2022 midterm election shows the world exactly who we are?! Insurrection is insurrection!
All Americans know that America is not perfect and that she never will be. But we can, and should, always strive toward perfection. That is the only way that a democracy can survive. All of us should know by now that things will be messy more often than not but we have to be able to work our way through those things…without violence. Messy is inherent in a democracy. If we truly believe in democracy and are serious about it, any one of us who was or is in anyway involved in supporting anyone who plotted to subvert the American democracy needs to ask ourselves this key question. Why? And when we ask ourselves this question we should not rationalize and make excuses when we answer it. There is no one else involved in questioning us and evaluating our answer. Then, once we answer that question truthfully, we can decide whether we want an autocracy or a democracy and determine where we will go from that point. If we opt for democracy then we must deal with the democratic process vis-à-vis, messy.
The “sea of cowards” that is the current Republican Party is just as guilty as the former The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America as regards the deterioration of our democracy. A great injustice has been carried out against the American democracy since Mr. Trump arrived on the political scene and the Republican Party has been a willing participant in the blatant savaging of Lady Liberty. Some of these elected officials have been active participants while others have participated tacitly. But in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “there comes a time when silence is betrayal”; and that time is long past for those tacit participants.
There are those, foreign and domestic, who say that the American democracy is designed to be undemocratic. Although I can accept their perspective as arguably correct, that perspective is what I view as the “messy” part of democracy, which is something that we have to continue to deal with as we strive toward perfection; as we strive to make America a more perfect union. Unfortunately, as disgusting and frustrating as it may be to deal with the messiness of democracy, that’s just the way that it is. As long as we live in a democracy, Americans will constantly have to deal with conspiracy theories, white supremacy, the QAnons of the world, the Donald Trumps of the world, the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the world and the list goes on.
Most Americans would be hard-pressed to come up with a worse time for the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to even appear to be unsure of itself and faltering in their role as the virtual glue that holds the legal system together that allows America to be an effective rule of law nation. Yet, here we are with a supermajority conservative SCOTUS that has cast aside stare decisis, something that every justice on the court said that they were committed to and would abide by, and overturned Roe v. Wade. Wow! Not only had Roe v. Wade been established law for almost 50 years but the great majority of Americans felt that, before it was overturned, it should remain law. The only thing that changed that brought about the reversal of this law was that three new conservative justices were added to the Court during Mr. Trump’s tenure as The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America.
And as if overturning the Roe decision wasn’t controversial enough, the SCOTUS, after having already gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 2013, suddenly saw fit to interject itself into a case that a lower district court had adjudicated and decided in favor of the plaintiffs who said that the Republican Party had drawn a gerrymandered map for the 2022 midterm election that involved extreme redistricting, which favored the Republican Party. The SCOTUS overturned the lower courts’ ruling based in great part on the “Purcell principle which cautions against federal courts’ changing voting rules on the eve of an election.” As a result of this SCOTUS ruling, the midterm election was likely affected in favor of the Republican Party. Even if it wasn’t, it certainly has the appearance of having done so. Are the SCOTUS justices simply politicians in long black robes? If they are, how long have they been hiding it until they could become a supermajority? And if they are not, their recent overall conduct, which includes more than merely the cases that they adjudicate, definitely gives the appearance that they are.
So, you see, this is our system of governance and this is how it works…for now. Because there is obviously those among us in this fledgling democracy who feel that something is not right about what is happening at the SCOTUS right now and that it needs to be closely scrutinized and corrected, things will likely have to eventually get messy. Then, there are those who think that no changes are required because the SCOTUS is fine just the way that it is. In order to resolve the differences between those who feel that something is not right and those who feel that everything is fine as it is… It’s messy time!
As Americans, if we want to keep our democracy, we must be willing to work for it in perpetuity. If we are not willing to do that, then we cannot keep it. Without question, that work includes voting; and not just in the presidential elections. Win or lose, like the results or not, we must continue to perform our civic duty at all times. So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!
Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line