LXXIV. Voices, Votes, or Violence: The Three Features of Democracy

Several years ago, I was at a holiday dinner when a state judge and I discussed bits and pieces of history. I raised the question of gains from the Gulf Wars, and the judge responded that history has always been written by violence. There’s some truth to that, and it could be that we simply haven’t mastered the ability to avoid violence during the short time we’ve had as “civilizations”. We’re still young and we’re still fighting over greed and trivia.

However, if one was to rank which country influences the world the most, which country has figured a few things out for the greater good, the United States does pretty well.

Two of the core rights we’ve shown the rest of the world is the power of having a voice and a vote.

As long as we feel we are heard, we make progress. When either is muzzled or manipulated, we tend to get cranky.

We turn to violence.

VOICE

Everyone has an opinion and ours is a country built upon freedom to express views (even odorous ones). It’s one of the few things that has remained constant. We know of certain historical characters because of the strength of their voice, whether Sam Adams demanding the British overlords be confronted or Thomas Paine writing for a bit of common sense. Benjamin Franklin, an eyewitness to the revolution, didn’t take up arms but used the power of his pen to give voice to freedom.

During the abolitionist movement, Frederick Douglass made a difference because he spoke the truth and exposed the horrors of slavery and made people human again. The entire world knows the works of Martin Luther King Jr. Whether from the pulpit or the jail, his voice became as strong as an army without the use of violence. It was powerful leadership and showcased how peaceful and organized voices could push for legislative change.

The current administration has worked productively to amplify specific voices, emboldening supporters through rallies, partisan news, and social media platforms. They have then actively abused the protection of free speech to promote false narratives and then dismissed anyone with a spark of honesty. Free speech has also taken a hit through the frequent attacks on journalists as "enemies of the people". We’ve also witnessed the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident who voiced the wrong opinion and was picked up for it.

Make no mistake.

This is purposeful chaos to silence dissent and turn a bedrock principle into an avenue of control.

If you think your right to vote is rock solid, take another look. Most voting rights for Americans didn’t come until the 20th century. The fight for suffrage. The Voting Rights Act. Efforts to restrict voting access, including voter ID laws and gerrymandering, have continued into the 21st century.

Pay close attention to the judicial race in North Carolina. Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud following his 2020 loss have fueled efforts by Republican-led states to pass restrictive voting laws under the guise of election security. In North Carolina, a Republican judge lost, he sued, and a Republican-majority appellate court ruled in the losing judge’s favor, requiring voters to verify their eligibility post-election, a move that sets a dangerous precedent for invalidating elections through partisan legal maneuvers. If successful, this type of effort could institutionalize Trumpist election denial tactics, injecting more chaos and undermining public trust in free and fair elections nationwide.

It is not inconceivable that such efforts are testing grounds for whether Americans will accept even more sinister efforts to cancel voting.

If we review the history of winning and losing the right to vote or the serious pushbacks on the right to free speech, the next outcome has typically been violence. Our country has had several well-known divisions that resulted in conflict: the fight for independence between the revolutionaries and the royalists; the civil war fought between the right to be free and the right to enslave other humans; and the Vietnam War fought between the old guard and the new.

The Civil Rights Movement provides stark examples of the escalation to violence. Peaceful protests like the Selma-to-Montgomery marches were met with brutal violence from law enforcement and segregationists. Events like "Bloody Sunday" highlighted how systemic resistance to the sharing of rights, the sharing of power, could provoke unrest.

While the Civil Rights movement was an effort to enforce or enact the true meaning of the Constitution, the January 6 Capitol attack was a direct response based on perceptions alone. False claims of election fraud during the 2020 presidential election inspired rioters to try and overturn the results through force, resulting in death and destruction.

We haven’t learned.

Whenever our voices or votes are hindered, trouble ensues. We have been a wounded democracy for several decades now, made worse through greed and hubristic decisionmaking. Instead of addressing core economic issues, the current administration has preyed upon the core of democratic institutions and prepped the country for more angst and violence.

Democracy is not a given and can be broken.

It has always been easier, maybe even more comfortable, to tear things down than to build them up.

We now face critical choices about whether we allow our voting and voices to be intruded upon. We are becoming less committed to liberty and justice for all, and too easily entertained by false statements and partisan smackdowns.

Make no mistake. If we don’t coalesce around protecting voting and voices, we will repeat the worst parts of our history.

We’ve rarely had an administration that wants that division that leads to violence.

We’ve got one now that actively seeks it.

Wendell Potter has been on top of the healthcare problem for many years. There is nothing to be surprised about here as excessive costs continue to be passed on to the end user. This is not a sustainable model and the quicker we get to universal healthcare, the better for both the industry and patients. The freedom for working Americans to move around, untied to positions ONLY because of the access to healthcare, that alone will drive entrepreneurship.

In many ways, the existing system has been a longtime tariff on America workers.

THE PIECE TO READ

David Brooks has been a conservative voice for a couple of decades now. When he was a writer with the NYTimes, I routinely either avoided his pieces or read them with a bit of disdain. I hardly ever agreed and could even get irked by some of his thoughts.

Things changed a few years ago when I read his book The Road to Character. I found much more common ground and realized he is a staunch conservative of the kind I grew up with interested in fiscal responsibility and social justice. This is another brilliant piece of his. Like me, he often reflects on where he’s been and where things are heading, but he’s given things much deeper thought. His voice is authentic, and that’s what we should heed in anyone with something to say. If they come from it with a soul and not an agenda. That’s where I find Brooks. Give it a read.

This Wired piece was one of the most-read pieces of writing in 2017. It is long but intriguing (and a bit weird). It’s worth a read simply to see how far we’ve come from the discussion of robots then to the AI we are hearing about and using today. These are unsettling times. What is sure to come will be the use of robots in all manners of labor and even relationships. Once they have generative AI, they will be able to talk and converse like a normal human being, even someone we know. Where manpower is considered too expensive or unreliable, robots will replace them, including in nursing homes, hospitals.

Some of this will be positive. Some of it won’t. We are already having a problem with too much time spent distracted with smartphones. Just wait until we have companion robots. Right now, there is very limited public policy because there’s a belief that we will lose ground to bad actors such as China. However, with no regulatory constraints at all, I have some worry.

We haven’t even figured out how to live together with real humans yet.

Now enjoy this great piece on the history of the Green Book in the South. This is within our lifetimes and reminds us why Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) efforts are damned important.

Though Jesus said that words alone are not enough, too many Americans are putting their faith in prayer and leaving the genuine work on an unknown God. Our democracy requires more than prayer, and just as we wouldn’t limit ourselves to requests to remove the wolf from the sheep’s pen, neither will we survive the current attacks on democracy without action.

Use your voice and your vote. Protect them. Do anything you can to avoid slipping into violence.

Be a good human and make good trouble.

Every day, 3.5 million readers turn to 1440 for their factual news. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you a complete summary of politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a brief 5-minute email. Enjoy an impartial news experience.

Join for free today!